July 14, 2025 • 40 mins
Caitlin is back! Chris and Keisha talk Indiana Fever Basketball and recap the games versus The Dallas Wings, Atlanta Dream and Golden State Valkyries. We also preview the upcoming All-Star Weekend.
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Episode Transcript
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Friends, Fever fans, welcome back to another Fever Replay
podcast, Your Home for a weekly breakdown of Fever games and
news. This week's podcast, just like
every single other podcast, is brought to you by the love of
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the game. You know what folks?
If you work hard, if you keep your nose to that grindstone,
you just believe enough, you might find yourself over 500 for
the love of the game. I'm Chris Ord, your host as
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always and I'm joined by my lovely Co host, Rookie of the
Year, Keisha Gallagher. How you doing Keisha?
I'm doing fantastic. Chris, how are you doing?
I'm doing, I'm exhausted. I took my kids to dad camp, at
least two of my kids to dad campbecause it was boys only this
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time. I don't know why they haven't.
They don't know it's 2025 yet. But I'm exhausted.
Every part of my body hurts because we did all of the games,
but it was fun. It was a great weekend and also
a great weekend of basketball that I got to catch up on
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because I didn't get to watch itlive.
But I've been cramming and boy, those were some games.
Those were fun. Those were some games.
They were certainly games. They were certainly games.
So as I alluded earlier, we're over 500.
Oh yeah. Pretty exciting.
It's happening. But you ask me, and do you know
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what I was thinking this. I was watching the Atlanta game.
It may too or be too early to say this and maybe I'm jumping
the gun and maybe I'm just a little excited and sleep
deprived, but I feel like this looks like a champion team.
Yep. Uh huh.
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That's where I'm at. Were you?
Thinking you know what I was not.
But I I'm well rested so maybe it's a level of sleep
deprivation that requires. I really do.
I feel like we're beginning to see the sort of team that.
We're trying to no, I will say that there have been some nice
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strung together series and really well played quarters that
has exhibited the talent, the true talent that exists on this
roster. I agree, and we're gonna get
into all of that. But first, Keisha, we gotta pay
the bills. And by that I mean let's talk
about this hyped up matchup for the first time in the West of
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Caitlin Clark and Paige Buckets.Oh boy, we finally got it and we
destroyed them. But it was a good game and Paige
honestly looked really good. What were your thoughts of that
game? I yeah, I agree.
I thought that Paige looked fantastic, however, Dallas did
not. Enrique really struggled the
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whole game, and that was, I think, a true testament to
defense really tearing apart herlanes.
She wasn't able to even receive the ball, really.
But yeah, it was brutal, brutal effort from the wings, and the
fever flourished while they struggled really badly.
I felt like Lee Giroux looked really good to me, at least
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during the first half. Yeah, when the game was like a
real game. I was very surprised at how well
Lee was able to play against Boston.
Who right now like this week, Boston looks like one of the
very best currently playing basketball.
She looks so good right now and for Lita very to play her just
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very well. I felt like she played her
really well down there. I I was pretty impressed with
that late in the game. Obviously things got away from
the whole team. I would say that I, we URU has
definitely found her footing with Dallas, so figuring out the
best way to approach her, especially when Dallas is 100%
healthy, is going to be a challenge next time around.
But she has really moved from one really specific player focus
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offense to another. So she was with the Sparks and
that kind of centered around Dereka Hamby being the center of
how that offense was run. And she didn't quite fit in to
their approach to that fast pacepushing, driving offense.
And with Seattle, they're just alot of bigs there that she was
competing against for for minutes.
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And I think she has felt that she wasn't getting the minute
she deserved. And I I think she has proven
that she deserves a lot of time.So we do need to continue to
have Boston and Howard shut her down 'cause she'll shoot inside
and outside. Absolutely.
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When it comes to Clark coming back, this was her big week
back. I was really happy with what I
saw. I didn't see somebody who was
starting from square one or anything.
It wasn't the most impressive week of basketball you're going
to see. But I also honestly appreciated
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the amount of minutes we were giving her and the way we were
very disciplined with the minutes we were giving her.
They were always going to be solid chunks of basketball, but
just chunks, like she wasn't playing even near the whole
quarter of things. We would kind of sometimes split
it up Even so that there would be the break between quarters.
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She didn't look like we were gassing her.
We saw some success kind of all over.
It wasn't like she's out of her shooting slump.
Her threes weren't the greatest,but they also weren't abysmal.
You know, she's zipping that ball around, man.
There were, I think, was it versus the Wings.
She had 13. She has 13 assists in 24
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minutes, which is pretty darn good.
Oh, yes. So sitting on the bench you, I
think you see a lot more of those lanes and the issues that
she had been facing before with some of those lead passes.
I think she's really polished up.
She was putting the ball exactlywhere her player needed it and
only that person could could getto it.
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And those those full court passes, those are have only
gotten better. Her assist, I think, are gonna
increase because of that time onthe bench.
Yeah, and I was noticing, I mean, so the Dallas game was a
pretty easy game for us. We just kind of started seam
rolling and didn't stop. But in that kind of free flowing
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time where you could tell our girls were just having a great
time, Kelsey Mitchell, Aaliyah, Boston were just dishing the
ball around. They were like doing their best
Caitlyn Clark impression, honestly.
Like there was a Kelsey where she did a no luck and just like
kept running into the stands, which was kind of fun.
Aaliyah was like zipping little bounce passes in the lane.
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It was super fun. It feels like with her back.
I think they all knew, OK, as a team we need to prepare for
Caitlin coming back and get ready to accept these passes
that are going to be coming our way.
And it felt like more than earlier in the year, they were
ready for it and they were readyfor the lead pass and they're
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ready for that. Very tiny.
Like to be fair to all of these ladies that sometimes miss these
beautiful, the shots after thesebeautiful passes, there is such
a tiny window for them to catch that ball and throw it up.
Like that's why it's wide open. Did they're not playing against
chumps. There's someone right behind
them sprinting. They have like a foot before
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they hit the rim and they're like, I need to take this ball
from wherever it got to me and shove it in the air.
It's difficult, but they're starting to hit them more often
than before. I feel like the whole team is
geared up to be accepting passesand they're have their head on a
swivel and they're doing stuff. And that didn't just open it up
for her. I felt like it opened it up for
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our other distributors as well. And Aaliyah Boston might be the
best post distributor currently playing.
Her assists are kind of nuts these days.
Her passing is kind of ridiculous.
And then Kelsey, I saw her looking for the assist, which if
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we're going to like, you know, Itook Kelsey's horn a lot.
But if we were going to knock her on one thing, it's that she
kind of just has a nose for the hoop and that's it.
But she had some really great assists this game.
So I feel like with us kind of hitting our stride with Caitlin
Clark coming back, there's this opportunity for our assists as a
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team to just kind of blow wide open.
Yeah, I think yeah, Boston is one of the best true post
players in the league. There are some stand out
anomalies that are just playing differently and I think we
talked about that before with with like a Brianna Stewart,
Asia Wilson because they can play one through 5.
But yeah, and her ability to herhalf court game, her ability to
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find those, those little bounce passes, she's she leads an
assistant a lot. A lot of the games where she's
having the offense run through her.
And I think that's when they're the most successful is when
she's touching the ball, gettingthe getting the chance to either
facilitate those type of passes or having the defense collapse
on her and getting someone wide open.
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So we obviously look great. Just to touch on it, Paige, like
I said, had a fantastic game. She looks really good.
She kind of hit the ground running in this year.
Just in general. It's kind of nuts how she just
kind of slid right into the women's game in the WI.
Thought it was really interesting.
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During the game, the commentators were kind of
talking about some of Paige's comments on that transition and
they said like, to be fair, we asked her about these things.
So it wasn't like she was like, oh, any get this off my chest or
anything. But Paige mentioned that it's
such a big transition for her tostart playing in this league
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when it comes to fouling, 'causethey said, she said, you know,
at UConn we were taught to defend without fouling, like,
and their program historically doesn't foul a lot.
You know, they have one of the lower fouling rates.
But she was like, I had to actually learn to defend while
fouling here because there's so much fouling allowed.
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It was adjustment for me to be like, oh, I'm supposed to be
reaching in. I'm supposed to be not allowing
them freedom of movement. I'm supposed to be doing all
these things that I've never done before, which is kind of
like a telling thing to kind of keep up the narrative that we've
already been talking about this year about roughing.
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And I found that kind of interesting to see someone who,
like I said, transitioned so smoothly.
But her herself was like taken aback, like, oh, shoot,
apparently I need to be fouling more.
Didn't know that was going to bea thing that I was going to be
asked to do, but. I did hear that during the game,
and I think it was when JJ was guarding Caitlin and they were
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showing these replays and slow motions of just like hands on
her waist, hands on her back, pushing, pulling.
And I, I mean, I don't think that specific to Caitlin.
I think that's the league. I think that's what we're
lovingly referring to as grown women's basketball.
But yeah, they're, they're letting them play physical and
as, as though the officials are a part of the game.
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If you're allowing that contact,they're gonna take that contact
and they're gonna keep pushing and pushing and pushing until
you see the fights and the technicals and the the fans
rioting and booing. It it, it's all part of the game
and they they need to clean it up for sure.
That part struck me as really frustrating too, because it was
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like like, you know, Lobo was like, Yep, that one's a foul,
that one's a foul, that one's a foul.
And then they showed the the next drive and like, and that's
a foul, that's foul, that's a foul.
And it's just freshening, 'causethat's true.
It's not like the refs are running off some different roll
book. Like those instances are all
fouls and for some reason they just choose to not call them,
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which is an odd choice. Like take them out of the rules,
I guess. Like, I don't know, it's bad
officiating if you're just ignoring rules.
I don't understand that, but I digress.
We're going to move on now to the Atlanta game, which to me,
like I said, that was the game where I was like, wow, I think
we're a championship team, which, you know, you might say
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is a little bit of a reach, but guess what?
Refs aren't calling those, so I'm free to reach.
Woo boy. I mean, that is that is saying
something. And you know, I'm this the most
exciting thing about the West isthat anyone could be this year's
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champion. You're absolutely right.
It could be the Fever. Those feelings though, they're
valid. And I'm sure the Links and the
Liberty and The Dream all have similar fans.
I've never heard of. Them with that same energy.
But yeah, I mean, there's a lot of, there's a lot of basketball
left. I agree.
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Lot of. Basketball, that is what is
exciting cause so to me, what stood out with the Atlanta game
is I do feel like we saw our team maturing into what we've
been really trying to mature into.
The cool part about Atlanta is we've played them.
This is our fifth time playing it, if you include the
preseason. So we've played Atlanta plenty,
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you know, and what I love about basketball is when you look at
series, whether it's a playoff series or a series throughout a
year, as the series goes on, thegame really gets stripped down
to what these two teams are madeof.
Like, it might be like, oh, theycaught us off guard with that.
Oh, wow, they adjusted here. But by the end, it's the two
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teams doing what they do best against each other.
And I felt like that's what we were watching.
I wouldn't say that, oh, we're now 100% of the better team than
Atlanta. It was a challenge throughout
the whole thing, even though we kind of broke it open at the
end. But what I saw was the Fever
really have to struggle and fight and push against a team
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that is hard for them. Like when a team has two bigs,
we're not a big team. Like we know that's one of our
weaknesses as a roster 'cause we're just not the biggest team
out there. So for us to go out there and
really systematically and do it in a way that we could keep up
the whole four quarters was really cool.
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One of the main things I saw, like across the board as a
roster was I felt like we were very focused on defending up.
Like if we were the smaller person, we were like, OK, there
are ways for a smaller person toguard a taller person.
Yeah. And we're going to do those
things consistently and like every time.
And that means like poking the ball out before they make that
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big move or have like getting into the passing lane, like
having your hands up. We were doing all those little
things because we knew for a fact when they get to the post,
that person is going to out muscle us.
So we have to do something in order to stop that.
And I thought that was really cool to see us like, focus on
that weakness and really like push against it in a way that
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wasn't like pushing us out of our identity was like, no, we're
a tough, scrappy defense. And we're going to do that in
the way that can fight off one of their good strengths against
us. Yeah, I think that there has
been with all of these appearances, there has been the
opportunity to look at a lot of film and there you're gonna
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Start learning each other's habits and I think that makes
the games little more interesting as well.
When you are seeing someone for the 3rd, 4th, 5th, 17th time is
you should know a little bit better how they like to run the
ball and what's which direction they're most likely to go when
they're driving. So it's good to see that that's
paying off and they're forcing each other to get better in real
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time. Yeah, a couple of those things
that I saw improving. First off are non Clark minutes
just look much more purposeful. I feel like where we would
really earlier in the season just completely grind to a halt
and be like what are we doing? How do we run the half court?
Never see that happen. It's not like we're that much
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better than we are with with Clark out there.
But it's like this time where we've had to create offense
without her or we didn't have her on the court or on the
active roster at all. I feel like has really helped us
grow in a way that we were hoping for.
Also, I feel like the Clark minutes are fast and like
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sophisticated basketball, which is just so, Oh my gosh, it's so
much fun. There's a lot of people that are
still better at basketball than Caitlin Clark.
I think I will always enjoy her style of basketball.
Like it's fast, it's exciting, and you're seeing your other
teammates like really shine. It's just it's very entertaining
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and that stadium was so loud. It was nuts.
At one point I saw Stephanie trying to get a time out and
like no one could hear her. She like had to run out on the
court because no one was here. She's like time out, time out
time because the whole place wasjust so crazy.
It was really exciting. And then the other piece that is
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new, I feel like when it comes to Caitlin is, yes, we've been
trying to get Caitlin off ball and it's been mostly like
talking about her off ball to kind of take the weight off of
her. But I feel like an interesting
side like development of that isCaitlin as a connecting piece,
'cause as good as she is, as theinitiating pass, if you have the
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hockey assist to her and then she can deliver that ball now
from an off angle, right where it needs to be, it makes that
window so much bigger. It pulled the defender off to
guard her. It's just like now the game's
broken wide open. So I felt like even though
Caitlin isn't like at full stride right now, she's not
playing her full minutes. She's we're slowly getting her
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in there. We're starting to see what
Caitlin installed into this teamthat just won the Commissioners
Cup might look like and I and I like it.
I like it a lot. Yeah, No, I think one of the one
of the the key indicators that stood out to me that we are
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figuring out how to play againstAtlanta's.
I think we outscored them in thepaint points in the paint.
I think we had that had them by a few points and with those two
bigs who are. In their own dominating boards
and nuisances down low, I think that's a great, great indicator
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of how hungry the fever are to improve.
Another piece of it, like to move off of Caitlin for a
moment. So when we run our horns action
with Howard and AB up at the topof the key and you know, you'd
like when it's our starters, youhave a hole and you have Kelsey
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in the corners. That's starting to look really
good 'cause there was a time where those five, it was like,
oh, OK, we have the AB Clark thing going great, you know, but
Howard and Clark have really started to gel.
And then you've got and then like, OK, so you got those three
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that are powerhouse type people that can force their way in and
make baskets. And then who do you leave in the
corners? Hull and Mitchell are just
hanging out. That was the moment.
I think we ran horns a couple times and I was like, goodness
gracious, this is a really good team.
Like our starting five feel not just like, oh, those are our
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best 5, but like, oh, this is a solid team that might be able to
kind of force their will in mostsituations, which was kind of
fun because it's the same starting lineup we've kind of
had the whole time. But I think that we've only have
four games with our entire roster available, so.
Well, I mean, I think that's a testament to 2025 is the
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everyone's. I mean, I'd say for the most
part, a large percentage of the league has had to deal with
major in like factors impact their their roster negatively.
And it's it's a big call to action on how those those
benches and how your teammates respond.
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And I don't think anyone had doubts that having Natasha
Howard on your team was at all going to be detrimental to your
performance. What?
Though what's crazy is if you read comments, some people have
a lot of doubts. I don't understand them.
I don't understand their doubts.I think maybe they need to be
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medicated which is not. I mean.
Saying anything 'cause I'm medicated.
Natasha Howard is one of the best active player, like just if
looking on paper, if you look ather, her career, her
professional career, she has three championships with three
different teams. I don't really think anyone else
has done that before. That was in like 4 years or.
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Something yeah she's 3 championships.
She's phenomenal, like she is a phenomenal player and the, the
way that she impacts this offense is because exactly what
you're talking about, seeing herrole her with AB, there are all
these different 2 main groups that now become these three main
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groups and the, the options havereally opened up and the assists
are increasing of course, but now all these different threats
are popping up. It's harder and harder to guard
when everyone is an option when your offense is running that
smoothly. Yeah, yeah, it is.
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Wow, So beautiful. OK, before we move on to the
game that we lost this week, oneother really exciting thing for
me that I just kind of saw was it's cool to watch the
development of our two biggest stars, like Aaliyah becoming an
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initiator on offense, like sometimes taking the ball across
half court, looking great while doing it.
She's got fine handles to be able to do that.
And then her passing is getting better and better has been
really fun. And then the other part that's
fun is this new version of Clark, who apparently was just
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in the gym all offseason. I've seen her a couple of times
backing people down. It's worked some of the times.
I'm not going to say it's like the new part of her game.
But you know, that's a differentCaitlin Clark.
I don't think I've ever seen her.
Last year, I don't think she didthat even once.
But this time you'll see it. She's there in the key and she's
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like, oh, I'm going to take thisgirl and you're like, OK,
Caitlin. So to see those two kind of like
doing the opposite role, this iskind of fun and it shows me
like, we don't even know where this team is going, which is
part of why I feel like we're looking pretty good right now.
Well. You, but you think they're going
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to the ship. You know exactly where they're
going. Oh, is that what's at the end of
this road? Oh, I hadn't considered that.
The ship, you say? That's your idea.
That that was you, not me. OK, so 2 steps forward this
week, one step back. We lost to the Valkyrie again.
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Frustrating, but this was a little earlier in the week.
Caitlin was still a little newer.
It looked exactly like the game that we lost to them though, at
their home it kind of like. To me it read like the same game
and honestly it just seemed likewe were real.
We came out really flat both times and the other team was
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well coached, well prepared and ready to go at our throats.
That's like what it felt like both times.
Like we're like, OK, maybe we can get this game going and
they're like, I'm going to mess you up today.
That's why I came here. That's why I got on the plane
was to mess you up today. That's kind of my feel.
What was what was your feel fromthat Valkyrie game?
I mean, we've talked about this before and usually it's 1/4, we
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we lose 1/4 and it's not by one point, it's not a couple points.
It's like a big, big loss and wehad two quarters in this game
where we just completely, I mean, the fourth quarter in
general was pretty low scoring across the across the four.
But who that second quarter was brutal.
It was brutal to watch and it was a brutal looking back at all
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four quarters against. It was kind of a knockout punch.
Yeah, it just. Honestly, the second quarter was
the knock. I felt like our second-half were
just weren't there at. All no, it didn't get it didn't
get much better in the second-half.
It just continued to be a lackluster performance.
And that's, that's the that's the areas that I think keep
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Indiana from being a clear contender for championship.
For me is these type of games are gonna happen where people
struggle, but to struggle so, sopoorly in 1/4 you only yeah
score 9 points and then another quarter ten that is.
Yeah, our floor is really low. Like I don't know where our
ceiling is, but our floor reallydarn low.
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Well, we don't have it. We don't have it.
And that is terrifying cause 1/4like that 20 to 9, that's
literally that'll lose you the game.
Yeah, you shouldn't have 20 to 9quarters.
No, it's not good. It was not good that, but that
was frustrating. I I mean, I get, but that's this
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league is talented. I I don't think enough people
understand how crazy challengingit is to try to figure out how
to play against Golden State. I mean, they're decent.
I mean, they're beyond decent. They're a good team and they
have a lot of different threats.They've also had to deal with
injuries. The all of the activity going on
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with the the games in Europe impacted their team a lot too
that you've probably have seen them play a different starting
five each time and they're seeing completely different
style of minutes because they'restill working out their flow.
This is a brand new team who still.
They're trying to work it out. Unprecedented.
It makes no sense. Like across any professional
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sports league, men or women, anysport, for the brand new team to
be looking as good as they're looking is makes no sense.
Yeah. It doesn't make any sense at
all. It shouldn't happen because
we're talking about like, oh, we're trying to install stuff on
our team, but we have a solid core of people that we really
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like and we had good success with last year, you know what I
mean? And we're just starting straight
from scratch. Anything else you want to talk
about before we move on to the next?
I think that's it for me in the in the Valkyries, I would, I
wish that those quarters there was a little bit more of a
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fight, but it just hopefully that those types of games are
behind us. Yeah, I agree.
Hopefully never again. Let's say it today.
Never again. Never again.
Alright, good. I'm glad we had.
Great. One thing I want to touch on
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before we move on to looking ahead at this All Star week,
clapping during free throws. It's kind of fun.
Did you notice that? I did notice that.
It's like, think the last two games, like I don't know who
started, I don't know if they'vebeen discussing it, but they do
the clapping and that's super fun.
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And then like the bench is doingit and then after a while the
crowd figured it out and it's like that's fun.
I never seen anything like that before in basketball, slapping
during free throws. It's new to me.
It's. New to me too.
It would probably bug me as a player, but it's also kind of
fun. I would probably be one party
pooper. That'd be like, hey guys, no
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claps for me. Yeah, I don't like the claps.
But no, I do like the claps as afan.
It's kind of fun and I like it. So you heard it here first,
folks. Chris likes the claps.
Breaking news. Breaking news.
So we got a big week here in Indy.
I don't know if you've seen downtown Indianapolis.
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I know you haven't seen it in person this week because you
don't live there, but it looks gorgeous.
There are all these huge postersput up across like every
skyscraper. We got all of the big names of
the WNBA on their faces all over.
It's pretty exciting time here and we got an All Star game.
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How you feel about that All Stargame Keisha?
Very excited. I mean, this is what I I mean,
this is what we always, this is what we dream of is putting the
best players in the league on these dream teams and seeing
what would happen and now we getto see that happen.
I am jazzed. So last year was one of the best
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All Star Games I've ever seen inthat it was newcomers versus the
Olympic team. And that was very exciting
because it was like, oh, everyone who may or may not be
feeling snubbed, playing in front of the coaches that
snubbed them and all of the people in their way.
(31:25):
And then you got all those people that are like, whoa,
whoa, we're just trying to get ready for the Olympics here with
all this heat is about. And that was super fun, dynamic.
Do you think that does is gonna be anything like that this year?
Oh, I mean, this is this is gonna be, if not as exciting,
(31:45):
maybe more so with the the lineups available to us.
This is this is good stuff. This is what this is what the
people live for when it comes totalk that talk.
You said that these were the best.
So what happens when you put your best against my best?
It's it's the dream. OK, So break it down for us,
(32:07):
Keisha, what do you think of theroster?
What do you think of the draft picks?
So I mean, what do you? Think of the coach switch.
Start with the coach switch. Coach switch is weird,
definitely weird and I really don't know what what that's
about. But you know, sure create create
a little drama ahead of time, keep the people guessing.
Love to see it, but rosters makesense to me.
(32:29):
I think that based on who these players are and how they like to
play, things that they've said about certain players, this
makes a lot of sense. I know how much how much Collier
enjoyed playing with Diggins andUnrivaled.
I know what she thinks about certain players who've played at
certain colleges. So yeah, this, this checks out
(32:50):
big time. No, no, you gotta, you gotta
highlight what? What does she say that sounds
like drama? That you're not spilling tea
that remains in the pot. I think that Collier, very
similar to Reeves, has a mindsetthat UConn players have, which
is there is a goal, the goal is to win and we will follow this
(33:13):
plan to the T to achieve that goal.
So looking at these rosters, I mean you have Paige from UConn
on the team as well, Brianna Stewart from UConn, and then you
have some of your favorite players to play with.
Courtney Williams and her have insane connection.
Kelsey Plums, one of the best point guards in the league right
(33:34):
now, having a phenomenal performance in the Sparks.
Who was? Yeah, Kelsey Poems, one of the
best in the league right now. Yeah, she's having, she's having
a standout year. I was actually looking at some
of the footage of her performance this year.
Also getting a lot of fouls, getting foul a lot, not getting
a lot of foul calls and quite upset about it, quite vocal.
(33:55):
Who is Ryan Howard gonna play, do you know?
That is, the question is if I don't know if Ryan Howard is
going to be healthy enough to play, so who would take that
spot? Is she hurt from the the game in
the Fever when she hyperextendedher knee or is it a different
thing? She that's definitely part of
it, but she also had some prettybig falls recently and she
(34:17):
didn't come back from her most recent fall.
So we're hopeful she's doing alldoing it well and can finish out
the season cause man, Ryan's been shooting it out well with
Clark. I think the major advantage that
you're seeing is that Clark has Asia Wilson and I put a lot of
money on Asia Wilson bringing the heat because she's ready to
(34:39):
flex. She always is.
But this is the type of platformwhere she really does shine.
So Jackie Young and Asia Wilson have insane chemistry.
Kelsey Mitchell can be a plug inanywhere.
Sabrina's range, Caitlin's range, Boston's chemistry with
another member of South Carolina's style of basketball.
(35:00):
It's gonna be very competitive. And don't forget you have the
Unicorn Satu Sabali, one of the best players on Phoenix right
now. So right now looking at the
team, would you be fair to say that it's kind of experience and
strength versus speed and youth?I think the there's strength for
(35:24):
sure, and speed on one team, which looks a little bit more
like Caitlin and I'd say the other team is maybe that a bit
more about structure, precision,Yeah, experience, I'd say.
Alright, well, OK. So looking at the overall picks,
(35:45):
the All Stars, what are you thinking about that in general?
I heard you think there's maybe some snubs that.
Happened this year. Well, pretty shocking to have
Kiki Irifin, Sonia, Citron and Paige 3 rookies to make the All
Star. That's pretty.
Yeah, pretty interesting. And there were some pretty big
(36:07):
notable names that were not listed.
I'd say the biggest shock being John Paul Jones who has been
injured for a lot of the season.But I mean it's John Paul Jones
not being named an All Stars. Pretty nuts.
Some other names would be Britney Sykes from the Mystics,
Kayla McBride from the Lynx. Also, Brianna Jones from the
(36:28):
Dream, who is that amazing Twin Tower with Grinder.
But yeah, those were the big, those were the big shocks for
the. Folks, that is kind of crazy.
Like, you know, there's a coupleways to look at it.
Like you know that the All Stars, a lot of it is a
popularity contest. That's kind of the not the whole
(36:50):
point of the All Stars, but it'sa piece of it certainly and a
large piece of it. But then when you consider like
the legacy of these great players that to see that, oh,
there's going to be a gap in John Paul Jones's All Stars
picks, like that's what we decided to do as a league.
That's very that's very interesting and possibly hurtful
(37:15):
to some people. I don't know who, probably John,
John Paul Jones maybe, but. Probably.
What are you looking forward to besides the actually the All
Star game itself? I'm, I'm excited that people
will get some time to heal. I think rest is going to be
really beneficial for everyone. But yeah, I'm, I am excited for
(37:39):
the All Star game. I'm excited to see, you know,
there are some players who you've always going to wonder
what it would look like if Caitlin Clark also had Adrian
Wilson wide open down the court.That would be pretty cool to
see. I wonder.
That would be pretty. Cool.
Yeah. I wonder what it would look like
to see Gabby and Olia Boston running down the court together.
(38:01):
So I think there's some combinations.
That's gonna be exciting. And then as far as the break,
pretty bummed about the break, to be honest.
I'm not gonna have a lot of basketball to talk about.
That's gonna be brutal. But we'll get through it.
The rest is critical. Alright, well there's one last
big piece of news. I don't know if you heard.
I don't know. I'm hoping that they're going to
(38:22):
post it online somewhere becauseunfortunately I worked this
weekend, which I'm very frustrated about.
I had an opportunity to volunteer at the WNBA All Star
game, but I'm working and my coach said sorry, you can't.
Not my coach, my boss. My boss said sorry, you can't,
Chris, we need you to work this weekend.
Very frustrating, but we have our very own Sid Coulson is
(38:48):
doing her first stand up ever. I don't know if you heard about
this. Did you hear about this?
No. Yeah, Sid is doing a stand up
routine. She hasn't let a single one of
her fellow teammates hear her doany of it.
So they're all as curious as therest of us what this is going to
be like. But that's kind of exciting.
(39:09):
That's, I'm, I mean, that's awesome.
I'm excited to hear how that goes for her.
I'm excited. Just after watching Sid's live
party after the Commissioners Cup, I was like, whoa, this
girl's crazy. This girl.
Crazy. She's going to do some stand up
is very exciting. Well, Keisha, it's been another
(39:30):
week. We're over 500 and on our way.
Where are we on our way to? To the ship.
To the ship, baby, to the ship. Thank you Fever fans for joining
us for another week of the FeverReplay podcast.
We hope you have a good week. If you have a good All Star
(39:53):
weekend, if you're in Indy, calmdown, join in the festivities.
It should be a pretty good time and we'll see you next week.
Bye, guys. Bye.
Friends, Fever fans, welcome back to another Fever Replay
podcast, Your Home for a weekly breakdown of Fever games and
news. This week's podcast, just like
every single other podcast, is brought to you by the love of
(00:31):
the game. You know what folks?
If you work hard, if you keep your nose to that grindstone,
you just believe enough, you might find yourself over 500 for
the love of the game. I'm Chris Ord, your host as
(00:52):
always and I'm joined by my lovely Co host, Rookie of the
Year, Keisha Gallagher. How you doing Keisha?
I'm doing fantastic. Chris, how are you doing?
I'm doing, I'm exhausted. I took my kids to dad camp, at
least two of my kids to dad campbecause it was boys only this
(01:15):
time. I don't know why they haven't.
They don't know it's 2025 yet. But I'm exhausted.
Every part of my body hurts because we did all of the games,
but it was fun. It was a great weekend and also
a great weekend of basketball that I got to catch up on
(01:35):
because I didn't get to watch itlive.
But I've been cramming and boy, those were some games.
Those were fun. Those were some games.
They were certainly games. They were certainly games.
So as I alluded earlier, we're over 500.
Oh yeah. Pretty exciting.
It's happening. But you ask me, and do you know
(01:58):
what I was thinking this. I was watching the Atlanta game.
It may too or be too early to say this and maybe I'm jumping
the gun and maybe I'm just a little excited and sleep
deprived, but I feel like this looks like a champion team.
Yep. Uh huh.
(02:20):
That's where I'm at. Were you?
Thinking you know what I was not.
But I I'm well rested so maybe it's a level of sleep
deprivation that requires. I really do.
I feel like we're beginning to see the sort of team that.
We're trying to no, I will say that there have been some nice
(02:41):
strung together series and really well played quarters that
has exhibited the talent, the true talent that exists on this
roster. I agree, and we're gonna get
into all of that. But first, Keisha, we gotta pay
the bills. And by that I mean let's talk
about this hyped up matchup for the first time in the West of
(03:04):
Caitlin Clark and Paige Buckets.Oh boy, we finally got it and we
destroyed them. But it was a good game and Paige
honestly looked really good. What were your thoughts of that
game? I yeah, I agree.
I thought that Paige looked fantastic, however, Dallas did
not. Enrique really struggled the
(03:26):
whole game, and that was, I think, a true testament to
defense really tearing apart herlanes.
She wasn't able to even receive the ball, really.
But yeah, it was brutal, brutal effort from the wings, and the
fever flourished while they struggled really badly.
I felt like Lee Giroux looked really good to me, at least
(03:50):
during the first half. Yeah, when the game was like a
real game. I was very surprised at how well
Lee was able to play against Boston.
Who right now like this week, Boston looks like one of the
very best currently playing basketball.
She looks so good right now and for Lita very to play her just
(04:12):
very well. I felt like she played her
really well down there. I I was pretty impressed with
that late in the game. Obviously things got away from
the whole team. I would say that I, we URU has
definitely found her footing with Dallas, so figuring out the
best way to approach her, especially when Dallas is 100%
healthy, is going to be a challenge next time around.
But she has really moved from one really specific player focus
(04:42):
offense to another. So she was with the Sparks and
that kind of centered around Dereka Hamby being the center of
how that offense was run. And she didn't quite fit in to
their approach to that fast pacepushing, driving offense.
And with Seattle, they're just alot of bigs there that she was
competing against for for minutes.
(05:02):
And I think she has felt that she wasn't getting the minute
she deserved. And I I think she has proven
that she deserves a lot of time.So we do need to continue to
have Boston and Howard shut her down 'cause she'll shoot inside
and outside. Absolutely.
(05:22):
When it comes to Clark coming back, this was her big week
back. I was really happy with what I
saw. I didn't see somebody who was
starting from square one or anything.
It wasn't the most impressive week of basketball you're going
to see. But I also honestly appreciated
(05:44):
the amount of minutes we were giving her and the way we were
very disciplined with the minutes we were giving her.
They were always going to be solid chunks of basketball, but
just chunks, like she wasn't playing even near the whole
quarter of things. We would kind of sometimes split
it up Even so that there would be the break between quarters.
(06:07):
She didn't look like we were gassing her.
We saw some success kind of all over.
It wasn't like she's out of her shooting slump.
Her threes weren't the greatest,but they also weren't abysmal.
You know, she's zipping that ball around, man.
There were, I think, was it versus the Wings.
She had 13. She has 13 assists in 24
(06:31):
minutes, which is pretty darn good.
Oh, yes. So sitting on the bench you, I
think you see a lot more of those lanes and the issues that
she had been facing before with some of those lead passes.
I think she's really polished up.
She was putting the ball exactlywhere her player needed it and
only that person could could getto it.
(06:52):
And those those full court passes, those are have only
gotten better. Her assist, I think, are gonna
increase because of that time onthe bench.
Yeah, and I was noticing, I mean, so the Dallas game was a
pretty easy game for us. We just kind of started seam
rolling and didn't stop. But in that kind of free flowing
(07:16):
time where you could tell our girls were just having a great
time, Kelsey Mitchell, Aaliyah, Boston were just dishing the
ball around. They were like doing their best
Caitlyn Clark impression, honestly.
Like there was a Kelsey where she did a no luck and just like
kept running into the stands, which was kind of fun.
Aaliyah was like zipping little bounce passes in the lane.
(07:38):
It was super fun. It feels like with her back.
I think they all knew, OK, as a team we need to prepare for
Caitlin coming back and get ready to accept these passes
that are going to be coming our way.
And it felt like more than earlier in the year, they were
ready for it and they were readyfor the lead pass and they're
(07:59):
ready for that. Very tiny.
Like to be fair to all of these ladies that sometimes miss these
beautiful, the shots after thesebeautiful passes, there is such
a tiny window for them to catch that ball and throw it up.
Like that's why it's wide open. Did they're not playing against
chumps. There's someone right behind
them sprinting. They have like a foot before
(08:22):
they hit the rim and they're like, I need to take this ball
from wherever it got to me and shove it in the air.
It's difficult, but they're starting to hit them more often
than before. I feel like the whole team is
geared up to be accepting passesand they're have their head on a
swivel and they're doing stuff. And that didn't just open it up
for her. I felt like it opened it up for
(08:44):
our other distributors as well. And Aaliyah Boston might be the
best post distributor currently playing.
Her assists are kind of nuts these days.
Her passing is kind of ridiculous.
And then Kelsey, I saw her looking for the assist, which if
(09:04):
we're going to like, you know, Itook Kelsey's horn a lot.
But if we were going to knock her on one thing, it's that she
kind of just has a nose for the hoop and that's it.
But she had some really great assists this game.
So I feel like with us kind of hitting our stride with Caitlin
Clark coming back, there's this opportunity for our assists as a
(09:26):
team to just kind of blow wide open.
Yeah, I think yeah, Boston is one of the best true post
players in the league. There are some stand out
anomalies that are just playing differently and I think we
talked about that before with with like a Brianna Stewart,
Asia Wilson because they can play one through 5.
But yeah, and her ability to herhalf court game, her ability to
(09:51):
find those, those little bounce passes, she's she leads an
assistant a lot. A lot of the games where she's
having the offense run through her.
And I think that's when they're the most successful is when
she's touching the ball, gettingthe getting the chance to either
facilitate those type of passes or having the defense collapse
on her and getting someone wide open.
(10:12):
So we obviously look great. Just to touch on it, Paige, like
I said, had a fantastic game. She looks really good.
She kind of hit the ground running in this year.
Just in general. It's kind of nuts how she just
kind of slid right into the women's game in the WI.
Thought it was really interesting.
(10:32):
During the game, the commentators were kind of
talking about some of Paige's comments on that transition and
they said like, to be fair, we asked her about these things.
So it wasn't like she was like, oh, any get this off my chest or
anything. But Paige mentioned that it's
such a big transition for her tostart playing in this league
(10:57):
when it comes to fouling, 'causethey said, she said, you know,
at UConn we were taught to defend without fouling, like,
and their program historically doesn't foul a lot.
You know, they have one of the lower fouling rates.
But she was like, I had to actually learn to defend while
fouling here because there's so much fouling allowed.
(11:21):
It was adjustment for me to be like, oh, I'm supposed to be
reaching in. I'm supposed to be not allowing
them freedom of movement. I'm supposed to be doing all
these things that I've never done before, which is kind of
like a telling thing to kind of keep up the narrative that we've
already been talking about this year about roughing.
(11:41):
And I found that kind of interesting to see someone who,
like I said, transitioned so smoothly.
But her herself was like taken aback, like, oh, shoot,
apparently I need to be fouling more.
Didn't know that was going to bea thing that I was going to be
asked to do, but. I did hear that during the game,
and I think it was when JJ was guarding Caitlin and they were
(12:02):
showing these replays and slow motions of just like hands on
her waist, hands on her back, pushing, pulling.
And I, I mean, I don't think that specific to Caitlin.
I think that's the league. I think that's what we're
lovingly referring to as grown women's basketball.
But yeah, they're, they're letting them play physical and
as, as though the officials are a part of the game.
(12:24):
If you're allowing that contact,they're gonna take that contact
and they're gonna keep pushing and pushing and pushing until
you see the fights and the technicals and the the fans
rioting and booing. It it, it's all part of the game
and they they need to clean it up for sure.
That part struck me as really frustrating too, because it was
(12:45):
like like, you know, Lobo was like, Yep, that one's a foul,
that one's a foul, that one's a foul.
And then they showed the the next drive and like, and that's
a foul, that's foul, that's a foul.
And it's just freshening, 'causethat's true.
It's not like the refs are running off some different roll
book. Like those instances are all
fouls and for some reason they just choose to not call them,
(13:07):
which is an odd choice. Like take them out of the rules,
I guess. Like, I don't know, it's bad
officiating if you're just ignoring rules.
I don't understand that, but I digress.
We're going to move on now to the Atlanta game, which to me,
like I said, that was the game where I was like, wow, I think
we're a championship team, which, you know, you might say
(13:29):
is a little bit of a reach, but guess what?
Refs aren't calling those, so I'm free to reach.
Woo boy. I mean, that is that is saying
something. And you know, I'm this the most
exciting thing about the West isthat anyone could be this year's
(13:50):
champion. You're absolutely right.
It could be the Fever. Those feelings though, they're
valid. And I'm sure the Links and the
Liberty and The Dream all have similar fans.
I've never heard of. Them with that same energy.
But yeah, I mean, there's a lot of, there's a lot of basketball
left. I agree.
(14:12):
Lot of. Basketball, that is what is
exciting cause so to me, what stood out with the Atlanta game
is I do feel like we saw our team maturing into what we've
been really trying to mature into.
The cool part about Atlanta is we've played them.
This is our fifth time playing it, if you include the
preseason. So we've played Atlanta plenty,
(14:34):
you know, and what I love about basketball is when you look at
series, whether it's a playoff series or a series throughout a
year, as the series goes on, thegame really gets stripped down
to what these two teams are madeof.
Like, it might be like, oh, theycaught us off guard with that.
Oh, wow, they adjusted here. But by the end, it's the two
(14:54):
teams doing what they do best against each other.
And I felt like that's what we were watching.
I wouldn't say that, oh, we're now 100% of the better team than
Atlanta. It was a challenge throughout
the whole thing, even though we kind of broke it open at the
end. But what I saw was the Fever
really have to struggle and fight and push against a team
(15:16):
that is hard for them. Like when a team has two bigs,
we're not a big team. Like we know that's one of our
weaknesses as a roster 'cause we're just not the biggest team
out there. So for us to go out there and
really systematically and do it in a way that we could keep up
the whole four quarters was really cool.
(15:41):
One of the main things I saw, like across the board as a
roster was I felt like we were very focused on defending up.
Like if we were the smaller person, we were like, OK, there
are ways for a smaller person toguard a taller person.
Yeah. And we're going to do those
things consistently and like every time.
And that means like poking the ball out before they make that
(16:03):
big move or have like getting into the passing lane, like
having your hands up. We were doing all those little
things because we knew for a fact when they get to the post,
that person is going to out muscle us.
So we have to do something in order to stop that.
And I thought that was really cool to see us like, focus on
that weakness and really like push against it in a way that
(16:26):
wasn't like pushing us out of our identity was like, no, we're
a tough, scrappy defense. And we're going to do that in
the way that can fight off one of their good strengths against
us. Yeah, I think that there has
been with all of these appearances, there has been the
opportunity to look at a lot of film and there you're gonna
(16:46):
Start learning each other's habits and I think that makes
the games little more interesting as well.
When you are seeing someone for the 3rd, 4th, 5th, 17th time is
you should know a little bit better how they like to run the
ball and what's which direction they're most likely to go when
they're driving. So it's good to see that that's
paying off and they're forcing each other to get better in real
(17:10):
time. Yeah, a couple of those things
that I saw improving. First off are non Clark minutes
just look much more purposeful. I feel like where we would
really earlier in the season just completely grind to a halt
and be like what are we doing? How do we run the half court?
Never see that happen. It's not like we're that much
(17:33):
better than we are with with Clark out there.
But it's like this time where we've had to create offense
without her or we didn't have her on the court or on the
active roster at all. I feel like has really helped us
grow in a way that we were hoping for.
Also, I feel like the Clark minutes are fast and like
(17:54):
sophisticated basketball, which is just so, Oh my gosh, it's so
much fun. There's a lot of people that are
still better at basketball than Caitlin Clark.
I think I will always enjoy her style of basketball.
Like it's fast, it's exciting, and you're seeing your other
teammates like really shine. It's just it's very entertaining
(18:17):
and that stadium was so loud. It was nuts.
At one point I saw Stephanie trying to get a time out and
like no one could hear her. She like had to run out on the
court because no one was here. She's like time out, time out
time because the whole place wasjust so crazy.
It was really exciting. And then the other piece that is
(18:39):
new, I feel like when it comes to Caitlin is, yes, we've been
trying to get Caitlin off ball and it's been mostly like
talking about her off ball to kind of take the weight off of
her. But I feel like an interesting
side like development of that isCaitlin as a connecting piece,
'cause as good as she is, as theinitiating pass, if you have the
(19:03):
hockey assist to her and then she can deliver that ball now
from an off angle, right where it needs to be, it makes that
window so much bigger. It pulled the defender off to
guard her. It's just like now the game's
broken wide open. So I felt like even though
Caitlin isn't like at full stride right now, she's not
playing her full minutes. She's we're slowly getting her
(19:25):
in there. We're starting to see what
Caitlin installed into this teamthat just won the Commissioners
Cup might look like and I and I like it.
I like it a lot. Yeah, No, I think one of the one
of the the key indicators that stood out to me that we are
(19:48):
figuring out how to play againstAtlanta's.
I think we outscored them in thepaint points in the paint.
I think we had that had them by a few points and with those two
bigs who are. In their own dominating boards
and nuisances down low, I think that's a great, great indicator
(20:09):
of how hungry the fever are to improve.
Another piece of it, like to move off of Caitlin for a
moment. So when we run our horns action
with Howard and AB up at the topof the key and you know, you'd
like when it's our starters, youhave a hole and you have Kelsey
(20:30):
in the corners. That's starting to look really
good 'cause there was a time where those five, it was like,
oh, OK, we have the AB Clark thing going great, you know, but
Howard and Clark have really started to gel.
And then you've got and then like, OK, so you got those three
(20:50):
that are powerhouse type people that can force their way in and
make baskets. And then who do you leave in the
corners? Hull and Mitchell are just
hanging out. That was the moment.
I think we ran horns a couple times and I was like, goodness
gracious, this is a really good team.
Like our starting five feel not just like, oh, those are our
(21:13):
best 5, but like, oh, this is a solid team that might be able to
kind of force their will in mostsituations, which was kind of
fun because it's the same starting lineup we've kind of
had the whole time. But I think that we've only have
four games with our entire roster available, so.
Well, I mean, I think that's a testament to 2025 is the
(21:35):
everyone's. I mean, I'd say for the most
part, a large percentage of the league has had to deal with
major in like factors impact their their roster negatively.
And it's it's a big call to action on how those those
benches and how your teammates respond.
(21:55):
And I don't think anyone had doubts that having Natasha
Howard on your team was at all going to be detrimental to your
performance. What?
Though what's crazy is if you read comments, some people have
a lot of doubts. I don't understand them.
I don't understand their doubts.I think maybe they need to be
(22:18):
medicated which is not. I mean.
Saying anything 'cause I'm medicated.
Natasha Howard is one of the best active player, like just if
looking on paper, if you look ather, her career, her
professional career, she has three championships with three
different teams. I don't really think anyone else
has done that before. That was in like 4 years or.
(22:39):
Something yeah she's 3 championships.
She's phenomenal, like she is a phenomenal player and the, the
way that she impacts this offense is because exactly what
you're talking about, seeing herrole her with AB, there are all
these different 2 main groups that now become these three main
(23:00):
groups and the, the options havereally opened up and the assists
are increasing of course, but now all these different threats
are popping up. It's harder and harder to guard
when everyone is an option when your offense is running that
smoothly. Yeah, yeah, it is.
(23:20):
Wow, So beautiful. OK, before we move on to the
game that we lost this week, oneother really exciting thing for
me that I just kind of saw was it's cool to watch the
development of our two biggest stars, like Aaliyah becoming an
(23:42):
initiator on offense, like sometimes taking the ball across
half court, looking great while doing it.
She's got fine handles to be able to do that.
And then her passing is getting better and better has been
really fun. And then the other part that's
fun is this new version of Clark, who apparently was just
(24:02):
in the gym all offseason. I've seen her a couple of times
backing people down. It's worked some of the times.
I'm not going to say it's like the new part of her game.
But you know, that's a differentCaitlin Clark.
I don't think I've ever seen her.
Last year, I don't think she didthat even once.
But this time you'll see it. She's there in the key and she's
(24:25):
like, oh, I'm going to take thisgirl and you're like, OK,
Caitlin. So to see those two kind of like
doing the opposite role, this iskind of fun and it shows me
like, we don't even know where this team is going, which is
part of why I feel like we're looking pretty good right now.
Well. You, but you think they're going
(24:46):
to the ship. You know exactly where they're
going. Oh, is that what's at the end of
this road? Oh, I hadn't considered that.
The ship, you say? That's your idea.
That that was you, not me. OK, so 2 steps forward this
week, one step back. We lost to the Valkyrie again.
(25:07):
Frustrating, but this was a little earlier in the week.
Caitlin was still a little newer.
It looked exactly like the game that we lost to them though, at
their home it kind of like. To me it read like the same game
and honestly it just seemed likewe were real.
We came out really flat both times and the other team was
(25:30):
well coached, well prepared and ready to go at our throats.
That's like what it felt like both times.
Like we're like, OK, maybe we can get this game going and
they're like, I'm going to mess you up today.
That's why I came here. That's why I got on the plane
was to mess you up today. That's kind of my feel.
What was what was your feel fromthat Valkyrie game?
I mean, we've talked about this before and usually it's 1/4, we
(25:55):
we lose 1/4 and it's not by one point, it's not a couple points.
It's like a big, big loss and wehad two quarters in this game
where we just completely, I mean, the fourth quarter in
general was pretty low scoring across the across the four.
But who that second quarter was brutal.
It was brutal to watch and it was a brutal looking back at all
(26:18):
four quarters against. It was kind of a knockout punch.
Yeah, it just. Honestly, the second quarter was
the knock. I felt like our second-half were
just weren't there at. All no, it didn't get it didn't
get much better in the second-half.
It just continued to be a lackluster performance.
And that's, that's the that's the areas that I think keep
(26:38):
Indiana from being a clear contender for championship.
For me is these type of games are gonna happen where people
struggle, but to struggle so, sopoorly in 1/4 you only yeah
score 9 points and then another quarter ten that is.
Yeah, our floor is really low. Like I don't know where our
ceiling is, but our floor reallydarn low.
(27:03):
Well, we don't have it. We don't have it.
And that is terrifying cause 1/4like that 20 to 9, that's
literally that'll lose you the game.
Yeah, you shouldn't have 20 to 9quarters.
No, it's not good. It was not good that, but that
was frustrating. I I mean, I get, but that's this
(27:25):
league is talented. I I don't think enough people
understand how crazy challengingit is to try to figure out how
to play against Golden State. I mean, they're decent.
I mean, they're beyond decent. They're a good team and they
have a lot of different threats.They've also had to deal with
injuries. The all of the activity going on
(27:46):
with the the games in Europe impacted their team a lot too
that you've probably have seen them play a different starting
five each time and they're seeing completely different
style of minutes because they'restill working out their flow.
This is a brand new team who still.
They're trying to work it out. Unprecedented.
It makes no sense. Like across any professional
(28:09):
sports league, men or women, anysport, for the brand new team to
be looking as good as they're looking is makes no sense.
Yeah. It doesn't make any sense at
all. It shouldn't happen because
we're talking about like, oh, we're trying to install stuff on
our team, but we have a solid core of people that we really
(28:30):
like and we had good success with last year, you know what I
mean? And we're just starting straight
from scratch. Anything else you want to talk
about before we move on to the next?
I think that's it for me in the in the Valkyries, I would, I
wish that those quarters there was a little bit more of a
(28:51):
fight, but it just hopefully that those types of games are
behind us. Yeah, I agree.
Hopefully never again. Let's say it today.
Never again. Never again.
Alright, good. I'm glad we had.
Great. One thing I want to touch on
(29:12):
before we move on to looking ahead at this All Star week,
clapping during free throws. It's kind of fun.
Did you notice that? I did notice that.
It's like, think the last two games, like I don't know who
started, I don't know if they'vebeen discussing it, but they do
the clapping and that's super fun.
(29:33):
And then like the bench is doingit and then after a while the
crowd figured it out and it's like that's fun.
I never seen anything like that before in basketball, slapping
during free throws. It's new to me.
It's. New to me too.
It would probably bug me as a player, but it's also kind of
fun. I would probably be one party
pooper. That'd be like, hey guys, no
(29:53):
claps for me. Yeah, I don't like the claps.
But no, I do like the claps as afan.
It's kind of fun and I like it. So you heard it here first,
folks. Chris likes the claps.
Breaking news. Breaking news.
So we got a big week here in Indy.
I don't know if you've seen downtown Indianapolis.
(30:15):
I know you haven't seen it in person this week because you
don't live there, but it looks gorgeous.
There are all these huge postersput up across like every
skyscraper. We got all of the big names of
the WNBA on their faces all over.
It's pretty exciting time here and we got an All Star game.
(30:39):
How you feel about that All Stargame Keisha?
Very excited. I mean, this is what I I mean,
this is what we always, this is what we dream of is putting the
best players in the league on these dream teams and seeing
what would happen and now we getto see that happen.
I am jazzed. So last year was one of the best
(31:02):
All Star Games I've ever seen inthat it was newcomers versus the
Olympic team. And that was very exciting
because it was like, oh, everyone who may or may not be
feeling snubbed, playing in front of the coaches that
snubbed them and all of the people in their way.
(31:25):
And then you got all those people that are like, whoa,
whoa, we're just trying to get ready for the Olympics here with
all this heat is about. And that was super fun, dynamic.
Do you think that does is gonna be anything like that this year?
Oh, I mean, this is this is gonna be, if not as exciting,
(31:45):
maybe more so with the the lineups available to us.
This is this is good stuff. This is what this is what the
people live for when it comes totalk that talk.
You said that these were the best.
So what happens when you put your best against my best?
It's it's the dream. OK, So break it down for us,
(32:07):
Keisha, what do you think of theroster?
What do you think of the draft picks?
So I mean, what do you? Think of the coach switch.
Start with the coach switch. Coach switch is weird,
definitely weird and I really don't know what what that's
about. But you know, sure create create
a little drama ahead of time, keep the people guessing.
Love to see it, but rosters makesense to me.
(32:29):
I think that based on who these players are and how they like to
play, things that they've said about certain players, this
makes a lot of sense. I know how much how much Collier
enjoyed playing with Diggins andUnrivaled.
I know what she thinks about certain players who've played at
certain colleges. So yeah, this, this checks out
(32:50):
big time. No, no, you gotta, you gotta
highlight what? What does she say that sounds
like drama? That you're not spilling tea
that remains in the pot. I think that Collier, very
similar to Reeves, has a mindsetthat UConn players have, which
is there is a goal, the goal is to win and we will follow this
(33:13):
plan to the T to achieve that goal.
So looking at these rosters, I mean you have Paige from UConn
on the team as well, Brianna Stewart from UConn, and then you
have some of your favorite players to play with.
Courtney Williams and her have insane connection.
Kelsey Plums, one of the best point guards in the league right
(33:34):
now, having a phenomenal performance in the Sparks.
Who was? Yeah, Kelsey Poems, one of the
best in the league right now. Yeah, she's having, she's having
a standout year. I was actually looking at some
of the footage of her performance this year.
Also getting a lot of fouls, getting foul a lot, not getting
a lot of foul calls and quite upset about it, quite vocal.
(33:55):
Who is Ryan Howard gonna play, do you know?
That is, the question is if I don't know if Ryan Howard is
going to be healthy enough to play, so who would take that
spot? Is she hurt from the the game in
the Fever when she hyperextendedher knee or is it a different
thing? She that's definitely part of
it, but she also had some prettybig falls recently and she
(34:17):
didn't come back from her most recent fall.
So we're hopeful she's doing alldoing it well and can finish out
the season cause man, Ryan's been shooting it out well with
Clark. I think the major advantage that
you're seeing is that Clark has Asia Wilson and I put a lot of
money on Asia Wilson bringing the heat because she's ready to
(34:39):
flex. She always is.
But this is the type of platformwhere she really does shine.
So Jackie Young and Asia Wilson have insane chemistry.
Kelsey Mitchell can be a plug inanywhere.
Sabrina's range, Caitlin's range, Boston's chemistry with
another member of South Carolina's style of basketball.
(35:00):
It's gonna be very competitive. And don't forget you have the
Unicorn Satu Sabali, one of the best players on Phoenix right
now. So right now looking at the
team, would you be fair to say that it's kind of experience and
strength versus speed and youth?I think the there's strength for
(35:24):
sure, and speed on one team, which looks a little bit more
like Caitlin and I'd say the other team is maybe that a bit
more about structure, precision,Yeah, experience, I'd say.
Alright, well, OK. So looking at the overall picks,
(35:45):
the All Stars, what are you thinking about that in general?
I heard you think there's maybe some snubs that.
Happened this year. Well, pretty shocking to have
Kiki Irifin, Sonia, Citron and Paige 3 rookies to make the All
Star. That's pretty.
Yeah, pretty interesting. And there were some pretty big
(36:07):
notable names that were not listed.
I'd say the biggest shock being John Paul Jones who has been
injured for a lot of the season.But I mean it's John Paul Jones
not being named an All Stars. Pretty nuts.
Some other names would be Britney Sykes from the Mystics,
Kayla McBride from the Lynx. Also, Brianna Jones from the
(36:28):
Dream, who is that amazing Twin Tower with Grinder.
But yeah, those were the big, those were the big shocks for
the. Folks, that is kind of crazy.
Like, you know, there's a coupleways to look at it.
Like you know that the All Stars, a lot of it is a
popularity contest. That's kind of the not the whole
(36:50):
point of the All Stars, but it'sa piece of it certainly and a
large piece of it. But then when you consider like
the legacy of these great players that to see that, oh,
there's going to be a gap in John Paul Jones's All Stars
picks, like that's what we decided to do as a league.
That's very that's very interesting and possibly hurtful
(37:15):
to some people. I don't know who, probably John,
John Paul Jones maybe, but. Probably.
What are you looking forward to besides the actually the All
Star game itself? I'm, I'm excited that people
will get some time to heal. I think rest is going to be
really beneficial for everyone. But yeah, I'm, I am excited for
(37:39):
the All Star game. I'm excited to see, you know,
there are some players who you've always going to wonder
what it would look like if Caitlin Clark also had Adrian
Wilson wide open down the court.That would be pretty cool to
see. I wonder.
That would be pretty. Cool.
Yeah. I wonder what it would look like
to see Gabby and Olia Boston running down the court together.
(38:01):
So I think there's some combinations.
That's gonna be exciting. And then as far as the break,
pretty bummed about the break, to be honest.
I'm not gonna have a lot of basketball to talk about.
That's gonna be brutal. But we'll get through it.
The rest is critical. Alright, well there's one last
big piece of news. I don't know if you heard.
I don't know. I'm hoping that they're going to
(38:22):
post it online somewhere becauseunfortunately I worked this
weekend, which I'm very frustrated about.
I had an opportunity to volunteer at the WNBA All Star
game, but I'm working and my coach said sorry, you can't.
Not my coach, my boss. My boss said sorry, you can't,
Chris, we need you to work this weekend.
Very frustrating, but we have our very own Sid Coulson is
(38:48):
doing her first stand up ever. I don't know if you heard about
this. Did you hear about this?
No. Yeah, Sid is doing a stand up
routine. She hasn't let a single one of
her fellow teammates hear her doany of it.
So they're all as curious as therest of us what this is going to
be like. But that's kind of exciting.
(39:09):
That's, I'm, I mean, that's awesome.
I'm excited to hear how that goes for her.
I'm excited. Just after watching Sid's live
party after the Commissioners Cup, I was like, whoa, this
girl's crazy. This girl.
Crazy. She's going to do some stand up
is very exciting. Well, Keisha, it's been another
(39:30):
week. We're over 500 and on our way.
Where are we on our way to? To the ship.
To the ship, baby, to the ship. Thank you Fever fans for joining
us for another week of the FeverReplay podcast.
We hope you have a good week. If you have a good All Star
(39:53):
weekend, if you're in Indy, calmdown, join in the festivities.
It should be a pretty good time and we'll see you next week.
Bye, guys. Bye.
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