INDIANA FEVER HEAD COACH UNHAPPY AFTER LATEST DEFEAT – ‘NOT A RECIPE TO WIN MANY GAMES’
Indiana Fever slipped to 3-10 for the WNBA season after being beaten 89-72 by Connecticut Sun on Monday at the Mohegan Sun Arena. Dijonai Carrington led the Connecticut charge with 22 points, while Caitlin Clark scored just 10 for Indiana. Clark and the Fever’s coach Christie Sides were critical of the team’s effort levels in the aftermath of the heavy defeat.
Caitlin Clark managed just 10 points and was critical of her side’s effort levels as Indiana Fever were beaten 89-72 by Connecticut Sun in the WNBA.
Victory on Monday improved Connecticut’s record to 10-1 at the top of the Eastern Conference standings, while Indiana slumped to 3-10, leaving them with the second-worst record in the entire league.
This is a team you can’t come out and be lackadaisical against; they’re just that good,” said Clark. “They’re going to punch you in the mouth. And I don’t think we had it from the jump, and obviously, that’s a little disappointing.
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“I thought we could have played with a lot better energy. I thought we let little things on the offensive end frustrate us, and we didn’t play good defence. It’s not a recipe to win many games.”
The hosts vaulted into a 26-15 lead after the first quarter and increased that to 55-35 at half-time as Fever’s defence offered little resistance.
Dijonai Carrington led the charge with 22 points, with DeWanna Bonner adding a further 17 as Connecticut saw out a comfortable victory.
Aliyah Boston top-scored for Indiana with 14 points and also recorded 12 rebounds for a double-double, but head coach Christie Sides was critical of her side’s performance as a whole.
“I’m going to start with how you can’t, at this level, coach effort,” Sides said in her post-game press conference. “I felt like we were just trying to ask them to keep playing hard, play hard.
“You can’t start there. You can’t play in this league if you have to coach effort. It’s just too hard.”
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Sides made sweeping changes in the third quarter, removing a raft of regular starters and not reinstating them. Instead, she put her faith in the reserves to restore some respectability.
Indiana only lost the third quarter by a narrow margin and then won the fourth 16-9 to reduce the final deficit to 17 points.
“We were down 28 and I wanted to put a group in there that would get out and play some defence.” Sides said. “I’m really, really proud of that group that went out there and cut the lead.
“They played hard. We’ve got Atlanta coming up. We’ve got Chicago coming up. Just thinking ahead.”
Indiana welcome Atlanta Dream to Gainbridge Fieldhouse on Thursday, while Connecticut travel to take on Chicago Sky on Wednesday.
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