INDIANAPOLIS — The Indiana Fever were officially swept in the season series by the Los Angeles Sparks on Tuesday. Indiana dropped its third game of the season to Los Angeles, 87-80, at Gainbridge Fieldhouse.
The Fever (7-22) are in last place in the WNBA standings, behind the Seattle Storm (7-21) and the Phoenix Mercury (7-20).
Here are three observations from the Fever’s loss:
Fever drop another clutch game
Despite the bottom-of-the-league record, Indiana is making some progress. In the 2022 season, the Fever were blown out of many games. This season, the Fever have been in 20 clutch game situations, which is defined by a five-point game in the final 5 minutes.
The problem with clutch games? Indiana can’t win them.
“There just comes a time when adversity sets in for us, when things get hard, we revert back to old habits, bad habits,” head coach Christie Sides said. “I don’t know why or how when we do things that are working we go away from them, but we get closed and don’t communicate on defense, and you give up 30 points in a quarter.”
After one quarter, Aliyah Boston of St. Thomas had 12 PTS, 2 REB & 5-5 FG
The Fever led the Sparks by four points with 5 minutes left. At the 1-minute mark, they were down by three. The deficit only ballooned from there, as the Fever allowed 17 points in the final 5 minutes.
“They hit shots, and they made plays,” Berger said. “We didn’t execute. We turned the ball over, missed some shots, and they just executed better than us.”
With the loss to the Sparks, the Fever are 5-20 in clutch games this season.
Frequent turnovers plague Fever
Indiana struggled protecting the ball, committing 20 turnovers.
“I feel like it’s just us,” forward NaLyssa Smith said. “We just gotta come together and help each other out, figure out how to play with each other. A lot of it is just us, we’re forcing ourselves to have these bad turnover nights.”
The Fever struggled early, turning it over five times in a 2-minute span, leading to a 10-2 Sparks lead and an early personnel change for the Fever. Starting guards Erica Wheeler and Kelsey Mitchell especially struggled on the turnover front, committing six each.
The Fever’s miscues allowed Los Angeles 24 points off turnovers, and the Sparks took eight more shots than Indiana.
“That is our Achilles heel,” Sides said. “When we’re not getting stops and the shots aren’t falling, we just clam up. We’re not strong enough, tough enough, we don’t have anyone to grab us together and just say, ‘Hey, it’s going to be alright.’ … We couldn’t stop the bleeding.”
NaLyssa Smith returns after nine games
The Indiana Fever really missed Smith’s presence in the post — the forward commands attention on the floor (in turn taking away attention from Aliyah Boston and Kelsey Mitchell) and is a ferocious rebounder.
Without her, the Fever have been struggling to spread the floor enough to be effective. Smith has missed the last nine games over a month, nursing a stress fracture in her left foot.
“I thought she came in, first game back, and did a great job,” Sides said.
On Tuesday, her 23rd birthday, she returned. Still recovering from the fracture and ramping back up to game speed, Smith came off the bench for the first time in her two-year WNBA career.
“I’ve been pestering them for the last week just to let me play, so I guess they chose my birthday,” Smith said.
While Smith scored eight points and grabbed six rebounds in limited timer, her presence helped create space for Boston and Mitchell. Boston racked up 12 points in the first quarter, and Mitchell went 3-of-5 from the 3-point line in the game.
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: WNBA: Indiana Fever drop another close game in loss to Los Angeles Sparks