Storm Lose to Fever 94-86 Part 2

Additional thoughts and interviews from Seattle's loss to the Indiana Fever.

The Indiana Fever bullied the Seattle Storm on Tuesday night. They just looked like a younger, hungrier, scrappier team. When Seattle’s defense struggles to get stops, it affects the entire game. The Storm were unable to slow down Aliyah Boston or Kelsey Mitchell, and it cost them the game as they fell to the Indiana Fever 94-86. You can read my full game recap here.

In Part 2, I asked, “What’s Wrong with Caitlin Clark?” I discussed how Indiana was able to disrupt Seattle’s offense, how the WNBA remains a parity league, and the latest news on DeWanna Bonner. Plus, I’ve included the post-game press conference video and audio interviews.

What’s Wrong with Caitlin Clark?

What in the world is going on with Caitlin Clark? Her performance on Tuesday was another example of a recent trend, where Clark is stinking up the joint. She’s badly off on her three-pointers. And she’s really struggling to drive against her opponents. Clark is flopping a lot, and the refs aren’t buying what she’s selling. Because of that, she’s getting whistled for travels and coughing up turnovers.

Clark scored a season-low six points against Seattle. She made just 3-13 FG and went 0-6 FG from the three-point line. Get this, Clark has played four road games and five home games this season. She has missed five games due to her quad strain injury. In her home games, Clark has made 22 out of 50 three-point field goal attempts (44%). But in her four games away from Indiana, Caitlin has made just one out of 28 three-point attempts. That’s 3.5%. Not 35%. 3.5%. WHAT?

The obvious answer to the question of what’s wrong with her is that she isn’t healthy. She had that quad strain issue in the preseason. After playing the first four games of the season, Clark missed the next five games for the Fever over a three-week period. But when she returned, she had her best game of the season in a critical Commissioner’s Cup win against the New York Liberty. Clark finished with 32 points, nine assists, and eight rebounds. She made 7-14 FG from beyond the arc. Clark certainly looked healthy in that game.

The next answer is maybe the league has a better scout against her this season after getting to see and evaluate a full season of Clark in the WNBA last year. The Valkyries’ Head Coach Natalie Nakase spoke about their defensive strategy after Golden State limited her to 11 points on 3-14 FG shooting and 0-7 FG from long distance.

Nakase said, “You guys saw what we’re doing. We’re being disruptive. We know she doesn’t like physicality, right? We know that she wants to get to that left stepback. I watched her in Iowa. She loves that left stepback. It’s almost like a layup for her. Again, we’re just making sure that she wasn’t getting into rhythm, and that she was just seeing multiple bodies.”

I found a shot heat map for Clark this season, and she certainly wants to go left on her three-point attempts.

And then there is her shot chart from Tuesday’s game against the Storm. Clark’s only success was when she was able to drive strongly to the rim down the right lane.

Clark’s recent struggles certainly could be a combination of both her quad injury and that the book is out on her. It’ll be interesting if she can find the magic she had against the New York Liberty within the next couple of weeks.

If Caitlin continues to struggle like this for the next several weeks, how will that impact viewership numbers for Fever games? As long as she is playing, will people tune in no matter what? Or if she continues to have games where she shoots 0-6 or 1-8 from the three-point line, will the wider audience start tuning out?

How Indiana Disrupted Seattle’s Offense

Seattle’s offensive numbers in this game look a lot better than what I saw with my own two eyes while watching the game in real time. Shooting 47% overall and nearly 30% from three-point range isn’t too bad. There have certainly been games where they’ve shot significantly worse. Those numbers are skewed a bit as the Storm were hot in the 4th quarter. They scored 28 points on 56% field goal shooting and 46% from deep.

I spoke with Skylar Diggins after the game and talked to her about the early offensive struggles (the team started 1-10 FG from beyond the arc), if she liked the quality of the shots they were getting, and if it was just one of those games where the shots aren’t falling.

Diggins answered, “Great shots. Great shots. I thought the quality, I mean, we really like the quality of looks. I mean, I guess what hurt us was. fast break points too whereas we're number one usually or top two in the league and I think so excuse me if I'm wrong on that but one of the top teams in fast break points too and we were getting our stops and we just weren't converting on offense once we were getting them so I thought we were inefficient in transition and obviously hindsight is 20-20 we'll go back and look at the film and see but that just goes back to the statement I said I thought they did everything better than us tonight, so I don't want to take away anything what they did well, but yeah, I thought we were at a point we were getting our stops, we were making them take the shots that we wanted to. And then I feel like we weren't converting. And so between points and the paint, not converting. And I thought we had some great looks that just didn't fall. I thought we shared the basketball like we normally do. You know, we just couldn't get them to fall.”

I talked with Coach Quinn after the game as well. It felt to me that the Fever were able to disrupt Seattle’s pick-and-roll or the Storm’s actions off of those ball screens that generally lead to pick-and-roll or pick-and-pop. Despite a strong game from Skylar, I felt like she didn’t get a lot of midrange shots from screens in this game, and instead scored a lot in the lane from her isolation work.

I’d have to thoroughly watch the game film, but it felt like the Fever were able to limit Nneka Ogwumike’s rolls or open looks that are set up in the two-man game. It also seemed like the Indiana Fever were able to get a lot of deflections and steals when Seattle tried to get into their pick-and-roll offense. It felt like they turned Seattle over more than normal in that area. Because of that, I wanted to ask Coach Quinn about it.

Noelle said, “I don't feel like we were in a lot of ball screens, honestly. I don't think we were in a great flow. What they do is ice. What they do is a heavy nail. And they also show some blitzes and step-up situations. So we weren't really in a lot of step-ups, but when we were in our logos and our deep corners, they would trap those. But all in all, I mean, I thought we had some good to the rim execution with certain plays. I also didn't have Nneka in a lot of ball screens because the scout was to put Boston in those ball screens. And so when Nneka's in the pocket, a little bit different outcome. And yeah, I just don't think we're in an offensive field to even attack our ball screens. When the game got out of hand a little bit, trying to kind of just run some drags and double drags to speed the game, to get us some offensive flow. But it was just a tighter coverage, heavy nail, nothing that we haven't seen, you know.”

It Happens…

Unfortunately for the Storm, they blew an opportunity to make some progress in the standings by losing this game. The good news for Seattle is that all the other games that happened on Tuesday benefited the Storm. The Dallas Wings upset the Atlanta Dream 68-55. Li Yueru finished with 10 points and 15 rebounds. The Washington Mystics upset the “Phee-less” Minnesota Lynx 68-64. That outcome was double good news for Seattle as it gave Minnesota their 2nd loss on the season, but more importantly, it moved the Mystics ahead of the Las Vegas Aces in the standings. Lastly, and most importantly, the LA Sparks blew a 14-point lead against the Chicago Sky and were outscored by 13 points in the 4th quarter to lose 97-86 against the Sky.

If the season ended today, the Storm would hold two lottery picks from Las Vegas (9th) and Los Angeles (11th). With Dallas and Chicago winning and LA losing, the Sky move ahead of the Sparks in the standings, and the Wings are now just 1/2 game behind Los Angeles. If Dallas can string some wins together, that could push LA even further down the ladder.

Seattle had an opportunity to move into a tie with the Atlanta Dream for 4th place in the WNBA standings, but they remain as the 5th seed. And while it’s unfortunate, it’s also not unexpected. These types of games happen. I didn’t check the Vegas odds, but I’d wager to say that all the favorites on Tuesday lost their games.

This just goes to show that the parity of the WNBA remains. It’s one of the reasons why this league has been so entertaining to watch over the years. Similar to the NFL’s “Any Given Sunday” mantra, any team in the W can beat another team on any day of the week.

I expected the Fever to finish in the Top 4 this season. They’ve had their struggles and still need to become more consistent, but when they’re on like they were on Tuesday against Seattle, they are one of the best teams in the WNBA.

Bonner’s Breakup

Annie Costabile of Front Office Sports reported that DeWanna Bonner and the Indiana Fever are on the verge of a breakup. You can read her full report here.

Costabile wrote

“According to multiple league sources, the two-time WNBA champion has no interest in returning to play for the Fever. Those same sources indicated Bonner’s preferred landing spots are with the Phoenix Mercury or the Atlanta Dream.”

Bonner played nine games with the Indiana Fever this year. She started just three of those games. Bonner is averaging a career-low 7.1 PPG. She hasn’t played with Indiana since June 10th, which was a 77-58 loss for the Fever to the Atlanta Dream.

DB struggled mightily this season when she was playing for the Fever. It’s unclear if it’s just a bad chemistry fit with the Fever roster or if her age is becoming a factor. Father Time is undefeated, and Bonner is essentially the oldest active player in the WNBA, alongside the Storm’s Alysha Clark. They are both 37 years old, and Clark was born about 6 weeks before Bonner.

I can’t imagine any WNBA team would trade for DeWanna Bonner because they would have to take on her $200,000 salary. Instead, teams will wait for the Fever to release her. She’ll be put on waivers if she is waived. However, I believe any team that would claim her off waivers would have to pay her full salary, so I don’t see that happening either.

Once Bonner goes unclaimed, she will be an Unrestricted Free Agent and allowed to sign with any team. The Phoenix Mercury make the most sense for several reasons. Her fiancé, Alyssa Thomas, plays for the Mercury now. Phoenix has nearly $90,000 in available cap space and wouldn’t even have to cut a player on their roster. Lastly, even though the Mercury’s bench and role players have been incredible this season, if Phoenix gets matched up in the playoffs against Minnesota or New York, they’re probably going to want another veteran and former All-Star in DeWanna Bonner on the roster. That could make the difference in an important playoff series.

Post-Game Press Conference

If you prefer the audio-only versions, I’ve added them below.

Player Interviews

Coach’s Quotes

Notes:
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Thanks to Her Hoop Stats and Across the Timeline for being great resources.
Photo Credits: Seattle Storm/WNBA Photography

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