Key stat shows how Fever are generating offense without Caitlin Clark
Indiana Fever guard Caitlin Clark hasn't been in charge of the offense in two weeks since injuring her quad against the New York Liberty at the end of May.
Despite that, guards Sydney Colson, Aari McDonald, and Kelsey Mitchell have all helped to try and keep the Fever afloat using their one strength this season - their ability to make teams pay for their turnovers and, as a result, score efficiently in transition.
While Clark hasn't been able to make her typically outstanding outlet passes after these turnovers are forced, Indiana has still stayed almost atop the league in points off turnovers. They're scoring 17.8 points off turnovers this year each game, which is just second to the 9-0 New York Liberty.
Making opposing teams pay the price for not taking care of the basketball - one of the fundamentals of the game - is going to always help a team like the Fever stay afloat despite the numerous key injuries they've been dealing with for the last few games.
Fever still keeping pace on offense by forcing turnovers
Indiana's defense has some question marks this season, something that even head coach Stephanie White is happy to point out to media. But, they're still third in the league in defensive rating at 95.2, behind the two undefeated teams in the WNBA. If they can keep up that momentum defensively while waiting for Clark to return, they'll be in a good spot to rise in the standings.
The race is tight for the 3 seed right now. While the Atlanta Dream clearly proved they're a force to be reckoned with in their rout of the Fever this week, teams like the Seattle Storm, Phoenix Mercury, and Las Vegas Aces are on their tail record-wise and are beginning to seemingly begin to piece things together.
Defense will always win out in the end, though. If Indiana manages to keep forcing these errors and scoring off of them at a consistent clip, they'll be hard to contend with if you're a smaller team like the Liberty without Jonquel Jones.
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Clark isn't known as a pesky defender to the same degree that someone like McDonald or even Colson are, but she's quick enough to add some deflections alongside Lexie Hull while on defense. The Fever are completely equipped to survive this lull without Clark - they've just got to lean into their strengths on defense, and forcing turnovers is their biggest.
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