Indiana Fever veteran Kelsey Mitchell spoke directly on the adjustments the team needs to make going into the second half, particularly on the defensive side of the ball.
These critiques shouldn't come as a surprise given that the Fever have struggled on defense for much of the entire season. The Fever allow an average of 80 points per game leaving them 8th out of 13 teams in the rankings for defensive rating.
Mitchell, 29, pinpointed the main issue for the Fever in terms of their defensive struggles. During practice on Monday, her first one back since competing in this year's All-Star game, she was direct on the adjustments she feels the team needs to make to have success throughout the second half of the season.
The Fever have been know to have confusion with their own defensive schemes and knowing who is on the floor at times.
"I think to set defensive energy for the course of a whole shot clock. I think that just being mindful of personnel and know who we're guarding. I think our coaches do a good job of telling us about personnel. So I think for us to continuously be great, we just got to know who we guard," Mitchell said.
Tough upcoming schedule leaves small margin for error
This certainly holds a lot of truth. At times it's been obvious that players look lost on the defensive side of the ball. Leaving opponents wide open for easy shots or leaving open lanes to the basket because of missed assignments - and this all falls on scouting reports as well.
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Knowing who the strong shooters are on each team, who is good at dominating the glass and driving in the paint and being aware of each team's facilitator. The Fever are going to have their hands full facing New York on Tuesday - a team that absolutely dominated them in every phase the last time these two teams faced each other.
The Liberty have several power players on their roster. They're effective at controlling the pace of the game and have two dominate players inside the paint, Breanna Stewart and Jonquel Jones - who returns from injury Tuesday. The Fever struggle heavily on the glass which doesn't go well with two strong players in Stewart and Jones.
It puts a lot of pressure on Aliyah Boston having to isolate both of them. New York also has some of the best shooters in the league in Sabrina Ionescu and Natasha Cloud. The Liberty are third in the league in field goal percentage and currently sit at first in three-point shooting, thanks to Ionescu and Cloud. Mitchell wants the Fever to "muck it up" against the Liberty and apply constant pressure on both ends.
"They're gonna make some tough shots. Sometimes it's just going in so we got to make it difficult as much as possible," she added.
Mitchell speaks truth to Fever's defensive woes
Playing a clean game and fixing problems defensively all stems from being strong mentally. Mitchell expressed that basketball isn't really physical anymore. Being a physical player isn't what wins games, it's being mentally tough. The Fever have struggled on multiple occasions to close out games.
In a four game span, they've managed to blow three second half leads this season - all of which were double-digit leads. The lack of energy in the second half has been astonishing. The Fever have allowed their opponents to run the table in the second half giving up 64 percent from the field and 48 percent from three in the span of those four games.
The Fever need to make several mental adjustments and bring more urgency to become more consistent at maintaining the lead and closing out games. They play flat from the third quarter on and this is the point in the game when their opponents have figured them out and have effectively made second half adjustments.
"It's like the second half is about mentally taking the reps for what they are and being able to adjust. And I think that mentally we have to feel like we deserve to be here," Mitchell said.
Mitchell will look to lead the Fever into the Big Apple and start the second half strong against a top seeded New York Liberty team. Tip-off is scheduled for 8 PM EST on ESPN.