Indiana Fever finally doing some "team-play". Will it work for them?

I think at a certain point you have to admit that no matter how good one of your players is, the other 4 on the court need to be actively involved in the process as well if you are going to win.

Caitlin Clark was doing just fine scoring half the points herself and then Aliya Boston getting most of the other half, but if you are playing defense against a team that has an offensive approach like this, it gets to be a bit easier to defend against them because you kind of already know what they are going to do.

src

While Caitlin was away with an injury with 5 weeks, the Indiana Fever had no choice but to explore other options as far as scoring is concerned and while it is kind of taking them a little while - as one would expect - to "find their legs" with this more rounded team approach to offense, it seems to be working for the most part. This doesn't mean that it is perfect because Indiana still barely has a winning record and honestly doesn't look very likely to make it very far into the post-season, but still, it is a bit of a less predictable offensive approach than "give ball to Clark, have her do a screen with Boston, then either take the shot herself of dish to Boston who makes a run for the paint." Seriously, that was a great many of all of their offense for a while there and while it resulted int great stats for both Boston and Clark, it wasn't winning games.

Now when you look at the stats, Clark is still an assist machine, but she seems to using herself as bait as often as she is actually taking the shots.

src

While Clark is a very good shooter and has made a new term for herself entitled "Clark-range" which is well beyond the 3-point mark, she has those days where the shots just aren't sinking and this can really stink up a scoreline. Caitlin's abilities are across the board and one that people really should pay attention to is her ability and vision as far as assists are concerned.

While most people look to the amount of points scored, one other method of determining what impact a player has on the game is their assist-to-turnover ratio. Caitlin in the past has been plagued with turnovers and this was kind of a blemish on her assists. If you are turning over the ball 8 times in a game your 10 assists are easy to overlook.

in her most recent game she had 13 assists and just 2 T/O's. This is very good.

But the really good news for Fever fans right now is that the offense doesn't seem to necessarily hinge on Caitlin's presence anymore and we are seeing others be playmakers as well including and especially Kelsey Mitchell, who has really been coming to the forefront for Indiana as of late.

src

While they are often on the court at the same time, Kelsey is more than capable of taking up the point guard role when Caitlin needs a breather or vice-versa.

Also, the utilization of the bench is starting to become more noticeable and effective with the Fever as well. I think that perhaps Lexie Hull should be a little worried about her starting lineup position because lately, Sophie Cunningham has been very much shining in the forward position. She's got a great 3-point percentage and while she doesn't take a lot of shots, she seems to nail most of the ones she does take. While Sophie wouldn't be your go-to for ball handling, she can hold her own and when she lays out on the wing for a play, she can be deadly from 3-point range.

In her past game she played a full 5 minutes more than Hull and it wouldn't surprise me if we start to see her in the starting lineup soon.

src
_{rarely seen on the bench all at once, this was when they were nearly 70 points ahead of the Brazil national team}

The point I am trying to make here is that I believe things are starting to come together for the Fever. No longer is it predictable what is going to happen when they come down the court, it really is wonderful to see because as it should be, everyone on the court is a potential scoring threat and running a zone defense and trying to close in on Caitlin or Boston with a double team leaves another weapon wide open. We see how well this worked in the clips from their recent game against struggling Dallas

The next game is vs a team that Indiana might be looking for a bit of vengeance against in the Connecticut Sun. If you recall this is where the egregious fouls against Clark resulted in a brawl on several ejections and fines against both teams.