UNCASVILLE, Conn. — It has been some four months since the Indiana Fever rolled in here for their first game of the season and found themselves stonewalled by the Connecticut Sun. The months in between have seen Indiana fix its rotations, figure out its offensive identity and navigate unprecedented media attention—evolving into a bona fide playoff team along the way. But this matchup on Sunday felt somewhat like rolling back the clock.
Even after that considerable growth, all of that change, the result was the same for the playoff opener in September as it had been for the season opener back in May. The Fever lost to the Sun by more than 20 points. Connecticut did not fully turn off the Caitlin Clark Show on Sunday. But it turned the volume down more than any opponent had in weeks.
The game was a show of force by the Sun. This is among the best defenses in the WNBA: No team in the regular season held its opponents to fewer points (73.6) or allowed them fewer rebounds (31.7). It was easy to see why on Sunday. They both locked down the perimeter and battled inside to own the glass. It was enough to quiet an Indiana offense that had been electric through August and September. The final score was Sun 93, Fever 69, with the game largely secure before the fourth quarter even began. Connecticut has made a habit in recent years of cruising past the first round of the playoffs. It looked ready to keep that going on Sunday afternoon.
“I’ve been waiting all season for the playoffs,” said Sun forward Alyssa Thomas, who finished with 12 points, 13 assists and 10 rebounds, her fourth career postseason triple-double. “This is what we’re playing for. This is just the beginning for us, Game 1, and we were ready to go… We’re all hungry.”
There was plenty that Connecticut did right in Game 1. But its most effective move of all was one that happened two months ago. The Sun pulled off a big midseason trade—rare for the WNBA—to acquire guard Marina Mabrey in July. A starter in Chicago and Dallas over the last two years, Connecticut asked her to shift to the bench here in hopes that she could be an offensive spark plug for a team whose identity is built on defense. She’s done that as needed over the last few weeks. And she was ready to step into a bigger role when starting point guard Tyasha Harris went down with a turned ankle in the first quarter on Sunday.
Mabrey played the rest of the game and finished with 27 points. Her performance broke the league record for playoff bench scoring.
“Whether I come off the bench or I start, I’m still the same player,” Mabrey said. “Whatever the team needs for us to get a championship is what I’m going to do.”
The Fever looked unusually disjointed and struggled to control the pace. It had been easy to forget over the last few weeks just how young this group is and how relatively little experience they have playing together, especially in what functions best as a dynamic, uptempo offense. It was impossible not to remember on Sunday. That was somewhat expected, of course, against a team as experienced and defensively principled as the Sun. Yet the regression still felt striking.
It made for a slog of a first career playoff game for Clark. She finished with 11 points and shot 4-of-17 from the floor. That was her worst shooting performance since early June. Some of that felt like a matter of simple luck: There were plenty of open looks that did not fall. “Honestly, I felt like I got some good shots,” Clark said. “They just didn’t go down.” But it was also a matter of coverage.
Connecticut switched up its defensive plan from past games against Indiana. Rather than letting DiJonai Carrington take the primary assignment on Clark, they began the game with that role going to Dewanna Bonner, who offers more length and finesse than Carrington. She did the job capably—not just contesting shots but more importantly preventing her from driving and getting downhill. Yet what sealed the deal was how much Connecticut kept switching on Clark. The coverage on her started with Bonner, but there was work for Carrington, too, and for almost every other player on the floor. Clark never had a chance to get comfortable with one defender or find a rhythm.
“It was about having length,” coach Stephanie White said. “It was about giving us versatility in pick-and-roll situations and giving a different look. So much of this game is about comfort, it’s about rhythm, it’s about timing, it’s about all those things. How can you make an adjustment that disrupts some of that?”
They disrupted all of the above for Clark and the Fever. There are now three days for them to figure out a response before a do-or-die Game 2 on Wednesday. And the Sun will be working on a new way to stop Clark. They know they cannot rely on the same plan working twice.
“She’s a great player,” Bonner said of Clark. “I know the next game, she’s going to come out on fire. We’ve got to go back and watch some video and see what we can do.”
This article was originally published on www.si.com as Sun Stifle Fever, Caitlin Clark in Her Playoff Debut.
