Lexie Hull has elite defensive performance after this one tweak by Fever

Indiana Fever guard Lexie Hull has been increasingly becoming one of the biggest defensive threats in the WNBA. In the teams' game against the Dallas Wings, she was given the assignment of trying to force both Arike Ogunbowale and Paige Bueckers in their backcourt.

Typically, this would be a nearly impossible task to take up. However, Indiana was in a unique position during their Friday night matchup at American Airlines Arena - they were without Caitlin Clark for their second game in a row. As a result, they had to start Aari McDonald alongside Hull and Kelsey Mitchell.

The result? A defensive masterclass that gave the Fever a huge 20+ point lead in the first half, and helped them to close out a too-close-for-comfort game against the Wings in the second half. With McDonald paired up with Hull, it became easy for her to act as an off ball chaos-causer. She was blowing up screens, putting on major ball pressure, and stacking up her typically helpful deflections.

Hull's ability to loosen up on defense with Clark out allowed her to really shine as she finished up the evening with a steal and a block. While she didn't wrack up major points, it was the little, hustle-stat things she did on the court that helped to land the Fever a win ahead of their Commissioner's Cup bout against the Minnesota Lynx.

Hull was able to relax on defense with Clark out

While it's unfortunate to consider your star guard being out as a weird bright spot, Clark being out did help the Fever to play with a lot more physicality and aggressiveness on defense. They weren't giving the Wings any easy looks, whereas with Clark on the floor, it's tough to try and hide her on defense since she's often assigned fairly good scoring guards to defend.

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Hull and McDonald can't always be starting, though. This is going to be the challenge for head coach Stephanie White once Clark is healthy again - staggering the lineup so that Hull and McDonald can still play alongside one another as clamps in the Fever's defensive lineups.

White, who just won her 100th career game, is likely up for the task. With the departure of DeWanna Bonner this past week, McDonald is about to become a pretty key part to the teams' rotation considering she was the Fever's immediate signee in the fallout of losing Bonner.