INDIANAPOLIS — The Indiana Fever are officially halfway through the WNBA’s expanded, 40-game 2023 season.
Through 20 games, the Fever are 5-15, already matching their 2022 win total. Indiana has not won a game since matching that total on June 22, however, and is currently on an eight-game losing streak. Despite the lackluster record, Indiana does have some highlights in the 2023 season.
Here are some takeaways from the Fever’s first half:
Aliyah Boston is a franchise player
As a No. 1 pick should be, Fever rookie Aliyah Boston is well on her way to changing the fortunes of the Fever franchise.
She nearly had a double-double in her first professional outing May 19, scoring 15 points and grabbing nine rebounds. She does have four double-doubles so far this season, including a 20-point, 14-rebound outing against the Aces.
“AB, she’s not a rookie,” six-year WNBA veteran Kelsey Mitchell said. “She’s a player. She’ll compete, and I wouldn’t want anybody else on my side — actually, I’ll have any of my teammates around me any time of day. But AB, I can go to any war with her because she’s going to compete.”
Her path to WNBA Rookie of the Year was augmented by a starting spot in the All-Star Game. She is just the eighth rookie to start the All-Star Game and the first since 2014. No Fever rookie had been an All-Star starter since Tamika Catchings in 2002.
Part of her success can be attributed to the fact that, even as a rookie, Boston knows how to regulate herself on the court. She saves herself from frustration, even when the Fever are struggling, and doesn’t get overwhelmed in big moments.
Her calmness in big moments was evidenced by a last-second 3-point make — in just her third 3-point attempt in her professional career — to tie a game against the New York Liberty and send it into overtime.
As a rookie, Boston is averaging 15.4 points and 8.4 rebounds, and she’ll only continue to improve throughout her career.
The WNBA is relentless
Even with teams outside in the playoff race, the Fever can barely catch a break.
Indiana is currently 10th in the overall WNBA standings with a 5-15 record, three games out of a playoff spot. The two teams behind the Fever are the Phoenix Mercury and Seattle Storm, who hold 4-15 and 4-16 records, respectively.
The Fever are 1-0 against the Storm this season. But the Mercury seem to have a hold over the Fever, as two of Phoenix’s four wins have come against Indiana.
One of Phoenix’s wins came after Indiana battled the league-leading and reigning champion Las Vegas Aces down to the wire in two straight games. At that point, despite the losses, the Fever had momentum. Phoenix quickly dissipated any momentum the Fever had left in that game.
Indiana does have some good victories, including one over the 11-8 Washington Mystics and another over the 11-8 Atlanta Dream. The Fever’s other three victories have come against teams with sub-.500 records.
Close, but not consistent
The Fever have been glaringly inconsistent throughout the first 20 games of the season. First, they couldn’t close out games — even in the opening game of the season, they were three points from the lead with two minutes left.
After they learned to close out games, the Fever switched their struggles to the first half, racking up so much of a deficit in the first quarter to be able to make their way back into the game.
“Early, defensively, we were doing great in the first half, and fourth quarter we couldn’t figure out how to finish and get those stops,” coach Christie Sides said. “The defensive end of the floor, that’s where it’s just hard work. It’s hustle, it’s discipline, and we’ve let go on some of those things we’ve been preaching since Day 1.”
Sure, the Fever have 15 losses, but 12 have been in single digits. Those numbers show both an improvement on the Fever’s part and a lack of discipline in a young team — something Sides is still trying to instill.
“You’ve got to do your work, and watch clips that coaches are sending you to see what the tendencies are and which direction you need to be sending certain folks,” Sides said. “We’re trying to create this culture and this environment of being a pro, and all of that goes into it. You’ve got to be able to correct your own mistakes.”
Should the Fever tank for the No. 1 pick?
With the way the Fever’s season is trending, they will be in high contention for the No.1 pick for the second straight year.
Now, the question is, should the Fever tank for the highest chance the No. 1 pick comes their way again?
First and foremost, the Fever need someone who is going to fit into the culture that Sides and her staff are trying to build.
“We’re going to get there,” Sides said of Indiana finding a victory. “But we can’t lose focus on what this year is as far as all these young players and us building a new culture, all these things we can’t skip steps on.”
In the WNBA, the four-team lottery is based on the last two years of overall results. The team with the worst winning percentage over those last two seasons has the highest chance, 42%, of the No. 1 pick, which is determined by a four-digit lottery combination. The team with the second-worst winning percentage in the last two years has a 26% chance of the No. 1 pick.
There is a lot of possible big-name talent in the 2024 WNBA Draft, including reigning National Player of the Year and Iowa product Caitlin Clark, 2020 National Player of the Year Paige Bueckers from UConn, Angel Reese or Hailey Van Lith from LSU, and Cameron Brink from Stanford. But because of the extra season the NCAA gave all 2020-21 student athletes because of COVID-19, all of those players have the option to return to college for another year in 2024-25.
Not all of them will return to college in 2024-25, but players that fill the Fever’s crucial needs, like Clark or Bueckers, could, leaving them with frontcourt players that won’t fit as well in Indiana’s on-court scheme.
This article originally appeared in the Indianapolis Star: Indiana Fever: Takeaways from first half of WNBA season