Commissioner’s Cup Champions

The Indiana Fever become the 2025 Commissioner’s Cup Champions over the Minnesota Lynx in impressive style. Keisha and Chris take a victory lap, reliving the game and giving the girls their flowers- then finish the episode by scouting the two remaining games of the week. Intro/Outro Music: White Lie by Stream Beats

Episode Transcript

(00:10):
Friends, Fever fans, welcome back to a special edition of
Fever. Replay, your home for a weekly,
normally weekly breakdown of Fever games and news.
This episode as always is brought to you by the love of
the game. Sometimes you win lots of money

(00:33):
for the love of the game. I am Chris Ord and once again I
am joined by who I like to call the Commish, my Co host Keisha
Gallagher. How you doing Keisha?
I'm doing very well. I'm even better after this game.
How are you doing? I'm doing fantastic.

(00:55):
That was a hell of a game. I want to jump right into it,
but I have a quick correction. People were just flooding the
comments because of the last episode because I said several
times that Timpson was 6/1 when she's in fact listed as 6/2.
So sorry. You know, we take accuracy so

(01:17):
important here at Fever Replay, so I want to get that out of the
way. Anyway, let's talk about the
Commissioners Cup. Spoiler alert, we won.
We won, we took down the lakes, we gave them their third loss of
the season, and we're recording this moments after the game.
It's hot and fresh and ready to eat.

(01:39):
So the fever came out this game pretty rough.
And for those of you who are holding your breath, like I was
hoping that Caitlin Clark would be in the game, she was not.
She appears to be actually injured.
It was not a faint. It was not a trick.
It was not a trap. She's still hurt.

(02:00):
But what did you think about howthe Fever started out that game?
Oof. I was concerned at the end of
the first quarter the Fever wereshooting below 30% from the
field. It was looking like it was going
to be a tough start, but that's a lot of basketball left ahead.

(02:21):
I was curious to see what the response would be, especially
because on the opposite side of that, Minnesota was shooting 60%
in that first quarter. So it looked like at the start
of the game at the top there, Minnesota was firing on on all
cylinders and we were kind of struggling a bit to find our
footing. What I saw I think in the
beginning, and I felt like this in the beginning and it was

(02:43):
really reinforced later as as hindsight kind of set in, but I
felt like we were pretty much doing everything right, at least
on defense for sure. But on offense, a lot of things
were going right. The only thing we were missing
was the finishing. The ball wasn't going in.

(03:05):
And I remember thinking to myself as we were down, I was
like, if you could pick one thing for us to not be doing,
that's the one. Because all the other stuff will
lead to shots going in, you knowwhat I mean?
Like, we were hustling. We were physical.
We were very we're, it felt likewe're making good reads and

(03:26):
everything. The ball just wasn't going in.
And that seemed the same, at least on the second-half for the
Lynx. There was just a lot of misses.
And I think that's because it was such a physical game.
You know, these are two teams that pride themselves on their
defense. It was beyond physical and I
will hold off on what was going on with Boston and Collier

(03:46):
towards the end there because that was getting real juicy.
But the physicality was up and again, kind of picking up what
we were talking about and just yesterday.
But they're tired. There's been a lot of basketball
and this is a huge game, $500,000 on the line and you
know, the charity impact, it's alot and it means a lot to a lot

(04:10):
of people and I think both teamsare super well aware of that.
But sometimes you rise to the occasion and sometimes you're
really fumble. I think the pressure that was
put on Collier was the game continued really through the
links and no one was able to step up.
There were little hotspots for them here and there, but the
overwhelming presence of NatashaHoward on Collier, then Boston

(04:34):
and then they the mid range was off for them.
They couldn't get the ball inside and we just kept rising
to the occasion. This is 1 opportunity where the
door was open and we walked right.
Oh, we didn't walk right throughit.
We kicked the door open and thenwalked right through it over and
over and over again. No, when Minnesota was up by 14,
I kept thinking, they're not. They're leaving the door open on

(04:57):
this game. This is not a game where it felt
like Minnesota was running away with it.
It was like, gosh, they should be up by a lot more right now,
but they're not like capitalizing on it.
I felt like the tale of the whole game, but especially the
first half, was that we were crushing them on rebounds.

(05:20):
It was insane. Well, I have.
I have some of the stats from the rebounds.
I know at one point in the 4th we were out rebounding them by
almost 10 and our offensive rebounds, we had 10 to their six
with four minutes left in the fourth.
We were definitely eating the boards and they could not come

(05:43):
up with any second chance opportunity.
It was, it was just, it was a struggle to see the links like
this honestly. Yeah, but then on on the other
side of it, this was a huge teamwin for the fever.
Like obviously our Ted Pole welldeserved MVP, even with the game

(06:04):
that Boston had, which was incredible.
Natasha Howard, like we talked about it, I think last podcast,
her ability to just like muscle herself into a game, not force
things, but just like do The Dirty work, get herself into the
game. And she did that and it wasn't
hitting at first, but she kept pushing and pushing and pushing

(06:27):
until it was like, OK, we can't stop Natasha Howard anymore.
Like we can't do anything. But I, I want to say this was a
huge team big game because like,First off, Ari MacDonald leading
us, we don't have Caitlin Clark.That's a huge hole.

(06:49):
Arie MacDonald is not Caitlin Clark, but she can do the things
that Caitlin does. She is a shot creator.
That's what Caitlin is, first and foremost.
She creates shots for herself and her team, and Arie's able to
do that and she's able to do it at a high clip.
She's able to do it consistentlyin different ways and to for
Arie to step into that position in a game as big as this was

(07:11):
something else. You know, 'cause like we've
been, I've been singing Aries praises ever every time she
steps on the court for the Fever.
But in the back of my head, I was always like, well, it's hard
to know when push comes to shovelate in the season in the
playoffs, like, is this going towork?
Or is this just because, you know, this is 'cause she's brand
new. This was one of those push comes

(07:32):
to shove, easy, things aren't happening.
But Arie was still productive, which I think is just a sign of
how good a fit she is. We had Timpson played big girl
minutes, You know, she's not jumping out on the stat sheet or
anything. But what I saw from her was

(07:54):
like, she was out there setting screens, you know, cutting with
speed, doing all the little pieces that we need her to do.
If we don't have that, we have ahuge hole in our team.
You know, she's like the one on our boat.
We have a huge hole in the side and she's got her big
pterodactyl hand holding the water out.

(08:17):
And it's like, do do we need this boat completely perfect,
fixed, smooth, running great. No, we need to not sink.
And I feel like that's what Timpson like 100% did in this
game. Like you just saw every role
player stepping up and doing what we needed, especially from
the bench when our starters weregetting smacked around in the

(08:39):
first half. Yeah, I, I mean, I say this with
peace and love, and I mean it asthe greatest compliment, but she
was just annoying. She was annoying on the court.
She was causing chaos. She was disturbing plays in the
best way possible. Constantly, constantly hands up.
And there she was. Looking a foul, but like the
point was you had to work your way around Timpson.

(09:01):
So with somebody who's like juststarting to get real minutes, I
mean, what more could you ask for from that position?
She's like, this is what I can do and I'm going to do it this
game. Yeah, Well, on top of the
stellar performances, I know we kind of are, we're fluffing the
feathers of Natasha Howard. But one thing I really think we
need to highlight for that performance other than her, the

(09:22):
aggressive play she was putting up.
She was perfect from the free throw line.
She scored 816 points in this game.
Eight of those points were from the free throw.
So that's the kind of impact that we're having when you get
fouled 4 times and can put up those kind of points, have that
kind of presence on the boards with with this team pushing her
forward. Kelsey Mitchell support Boston

(09:45):
taking. I just felt like it was a huge
team effort in the face of adversary.
When everyone doubted the fever or the odds.
At the start of this game, 27%, it was less than 28%.
I'm pretty sure that people thought that they had a chance
of winning. And I think in this league, you
can never underestimate any team.
The talent is just too deep, they're too good at basketball

(10:07):
for you to think that there's any easy W's.
And this game, I think, clearly outlined that.
Yeah, what I saw from the team amidst adversity down 14 was
they didn't hang their heads at all.
Their drive never dipped. They kept pushing all.
A lot of these rebounds were notlike someone leaping into the

(10:30):
air to grab it away from somebody.
They were almost all box out rebounds.
They were almost all a ball falling into a Fever hand that
was wide open. Why were they wide open?
Because people were doing The Dirty work under the basket.
Like it was kind of crazy. And especially because it was so

(10:51):
clear that the links were deficient in this category.
Like watching it was like, OK, if they need to, if they're
going to stand a chance, they really need to start working on
these boards. But the Fever just had put in
the work early. They were boxing out.
They were clearing out space andthey were grabbing the rebounds
again and again and again and again.

(11:12):
It was really cool. I think maybe just speculating
here, but maybe because they were missing their superstar,
they were like, the only way we win this is by hustling and
doing The Dirty work and gettingin their face and being
annoying. That's the only way we win.
And they were so focused on it. Yeah, I think the playbook

(11:33):
against the links for any team is that because the link,
they're such a structured team. They run a very similar offense
and they have for as long as Reeves has been the coach there.
But they like to take their shotselection off the place they run
the way they run them when they want them.
And they were the whole game were being forced.
Well, let's accept the exceptionof the first quarter, the

(11:54):
remaining of the game, they wereforced to take shots that were
not clear, that were not wide open for bulk of those looks.
I think the only real player whois seeing the ball the way they
wanted to was Smith and she justcouldn't do it on her own.
I mean, I have never seen, I have never seen Collier struggle
like that. I've never seen Courtney
Williams struggle like that. And no one else could pick up

(12:16):
the slack. And I think the the links have
been lucky this year so far where they've been behind and
someone steps up and has an incredible last minute shot or
defensive play and they just, there was nothing left in the
barrel for them. Yeah, You can tell they were
kind of looking around and they're like, we're like the
points are coming from where they're supposed to come from.

(12:37):
We don't have another answer. Like there isn't another.
Well, we can dip into. It's just not happening.
And it kind of felt like that part, they were definitely
putting up a fight in the 4th. But about halfway through the
4th, you can kind of feel their intensity begin to dip for sure.
And that that stadium was silentfor most of that K Absolute

(13:04):
silence. There was a point in the second
quarter where I just kept sayingI'm not a mathematician, but am
I looking at the score? They've only scored seven points
this entire quarter. The Lynx, yeah, I mean that that
quarter in particular and I think the fourth quarter there
was some, well the third as well, There just were some key
moments where I'm like, this is an impact play, this is an

(13:25):
impact play. This is gonna come back and be
a, a, a key moment in the game. And I think the one that really
stands out to me is Boston taking it to Collier like she
just was not, she was not going to be scared off the block and
the Fiji did not like that. She did not like that and she

(13:47):
had no answer for it. I think Boston's post work
today, I, I, if you haven't, if you didn't get the chance to
really look at the move. She was pulling the footwork,
the up and unders and. The she was behind.
Them, the strength, the physicality to have that touch.
I was really impressed with her tonight.
'Cause that was really telling to me.
She was doing a lot of The Dirtywork below the basket.

(14:09):
And you can tell that it paid dividends.
Like a boxer, you know, going tothe body.
In the beginning, she was like running into this wall, but she
was doing what she's supposed todo and she just didn't stop.
And then by the end of the game,they're getting out of her way
basically because they're like, this isn't working.

(14:30):
I don't want to get hit this many times by this big strong
girl, right, who's also finishing at a high clip.
You know, moves are just completely on point.
Footwork is incredible. I don't know.
It was, it was a good game. It's a very good game.
It's very exciting, yeah. And what I saw a lot of was just

(14:53):
like active hands from the wholeteam.
It's clear by now, like the coach in the beginning really
wanted us to be a defensive team.
Like last year we were clearly an offensive team.
You know, we have the ability toscore and it almost to the
detriment of our offense. We were very focused on becoming

(15:14):
a defensive team and I feel likewe are a defensive team now.
Like especially the last two games, we've found that gear
early on in the game where we'relike, we're going to just kind
of keep working at it until we find how to stop you.
And then we're going to lock that in and it's going to

(15:36):
frustrate the crap out of you. And as a team, we're all bought
into that. Like as a team, you see hand
swiping, you see like, you know,when there's switches and when
there's cuts, nobody's just running by players.
They bump them, you know, they slap them.
They put a little hand here, a little hand there.
They're not making it easy for you on the other side to go

(15:59):
across the key. You know, they're not making it
easy for you to set a pic. All of the things that you're
doing, we're going to bug you while you do them.
And you can tell it wears on people.
I didn't know this. They shared during the game,
They said we're the number. They said we're the number one
team as far as holding 3 point percentage down.

(16:23):
So we're the hardest team to make a three-point against.
And I think part of that, I mean, closing out is hard and
annoying and it feels like you're losing when you have to
close out on somebody. But it takes discipline and it
takes you running with your hands in the air in order to
make it hard for shots to come through, and you just see it

(16:44):
starting to pay dividends at this point in the season in
Philly. Yeah, I think that was a really
incredible team effort. I'm I'm impressed with the
energy that folks were coming off the bench with.
At no point in that first quarter did I feel like anyone

(17:04):
had given up. And clearly by the time we were
coasting into the final four of the 4th, it seemed like everyone
was was still firing all on all cylinders and understood what
needed to be done to to completethat game on a high.
And I just, I'm super excited for Natasha Howard to have a
game like that at at this level on this day.
That was incredible. No, absolutely she couldn't.

(17:27):
Oh man, she was so good. And the best part to me is it
wasn't one of those games. Everyone knows that you can get
hot. You know, you can have a game
where you're just never missing.It happens to everybody, whether
even if you're just like a deep bench player, sometimes you come
in and you hit and you hit and you hit and you're like, Oh my
God, this is incredible. That was not what this game was.

(17:49):
She came in not looking great, working really hard, nothing to
show for it, but through just like persistence and grit and
like a bunch of other buzzwords,she ended up just putting on a
masterful performance. So one person I don't want to
miss out on is Coulson. So obviously I'm a huge fan of

(18:16):
Aaron MacDonald and I love that we started her.
I think she's like Caitlin ClarkLite.
She does everything the team is built to do.
So I love that spot for her. But without Coulson, we would
have had a lot of trouble winning this game.
She several times was able to come in when the Lynx were just

(18:39):
starting to maybe get some momentum going and put some ice
on that. Like as a floor manager, having
her out there was extremely valuable.
Like, this is a game, even though we won handily, it was a
hard 1. And I don't think if we had
absolutely everybody who was on the floor contribute the way

(19:00):
they did, we would have won it. In spite of it being like a
clear victory. It was like, this was a tough
one. It was, no, it was a battle, it
was a team effort. And I think, I mean, I know a
lot of people are going to be talking about very different
aspects of how, how the how, howcould this be possible?
Did they really win it? Did they really lose it?

(19:22):
And it's going to get into semantics and whatnot, but there
were a lot of beautiful moments of teamwork that I had not
really seen from the Fever collectively throughout an
entire performance that I saw today.
There were some really great backdoor cuts and the momentum
that that was being pushed hustling back onto defense after
a fast break. Like it just, it really was true

(19:44):
chemistry that I hadn't seen from all 5 at the same time.
There have been pairings, one offs where there seems to be
two. People have really worked out
the momentum and the flow, but this was a five person ordeal
which was just really cool to see.
I feel like the difference that we saw in the game from the
first few minutes where we fell behind by 14 to where we turned

(20:09):
it around was really that kind of chemistry aspect.
It was we're doing the right things, but we need to be
cutting off the ball. Like, I felt like, I don't
remember who they interviewed, but they interviewed one of the
players right at that point and they said we need to be cutting.
We need to be, you know, moving without the ball so that we can

(20:33):
start opening up those lanes. And that's like literally what
happened. And then it didn't stop.
And I think that it was so clearin the game, like we were doing
so many things right, but we needed those cuts.
And once those cuts started happening, open shots started
happening, and then Aaliyah started getting to go one-on-one
instead of having to go one on three.

(20:53):
And I think it was just such a clear message to the team, like
this is what we need as a unit to do.
Like we're doing all the other stuff.
If we can just focus on that, then we're all Sky's the limit,
which it was. Anything else you want to say

(21:14):
about this glorious night of basketball where girls got paid?
Once again, ladies and gentlemen, these are This is not
a case of rich people getting richer.
Sometimes it's a little dirty tojust talk about the girls going
out there and playing for money.We're in a place where the they
don't make a lot, OK? They don't make a ton of money.

(21:36):
If you don't see them on billboards and commercials, then
they're making a decent amount. This is a life changing amount
of money for a lot of people on this team.
It's really exciting. It's exciting for me to see
that. I, I kind of want to just a
small circle back moment cause we've been talking about in the
last, the last few times we've gotten together about the

(21:58):
differences between the WNBA andthe NBA.
And something like this definitely is a key moment of
how valuable it is to have this much attention on women's
basketball at this time. I was looking at something
earlier today about viewership and attendance and the
percentage of, of viewers have increased so dramatically.

(22:21):
Like when I'm reading these figures, they're the numbers are
astronomical and they seem kind of ridiculous.
Like viewership across ESPN. ESPN has increased 1.19 million
per game, 170% increase over 2023.
We're we're talking about a 48% increase of attendance across

(22:45):
the league since 2023. Almost 50% more people are going
to watch women's basketball, so this is really exciting going
into this year with the attention that Caitlin has
brought, that Paige has brought,going into these next lines of
negotiations, going into expansion teams.
This is really exciting for women's basketball.

(23:06):
It's all good stuff it. It really is.
And like, you know, we're Caitlin fans here and the
Caitlin Clark Effect is not something we're ever going to
deny, but it's important. Just like it should go without
saying. But to remember that the Caitlin
Clark Effect hit into a league that was already ready to shine.

(23:26):
Like there was already a fantastic product.
There was already so much talent, really exciting stuff
happening. So when somebody like a meteor,
like Caitlin comes, boom, hits, and all of a sudden people
notice. It could have easily been like,
oh, look, that's the league where that one great person
plays. But it was like, whoa, there's a

(23:46):
lot of cool stuff happening here.
In fact, Oh, like, Caitlin's necessarily close to the best in
that league, which I don't thinkshe is.
She's got a long way to go to become the best in the WNBA,
which I think is what the world saw.
And it's like, this is exciting.If we love Caitlin and she isn't
the best here, what is going on in that place?

(24:08):
And I think that's what's so exciting about the WNBA right
now and hopefully where things are going to go if things
continue to grow and change in the right direction.
Of course that's going to happenfor sure.
Yeah, because that's how the world works in 2020. 5 Fairness
large and good only. Just do good things anyway.

(24:31):
Especially for what guy? Yeah, OK, this is getting way
too. Dark.
That's all cut. That's all cut.
OK, Keisha, so we do have, is ittwo other games this week?
Yes. OK, give us the Keesha scouting
report for these games coming up.

(24:52):
After this incredible WA, littlebit of a break, but Thursday we
are seeing just like this littleteam.
You may have heard of them, the Aces and the Aces are in an
interesting position in their season.
They have been struggling. We have a similar record right
now. I mean, the Commissioners Cup
doesn't go in your total record.So I think they're actually 8:00

(25:13):
and 8:00 as well. They have a lot of talent.
That talent has not been coming together on the court as it did
last year. Similar to playing against the
Lynx, Very winnable game if you control momentum, make it
difficult for the ball to get into Asia Wilson and force them

(25:34):
to take shots that they don't like.
And I know that sounds like thatwould be the way to win for
anybody. But some people are good under
pressure and like those awkward sock shots and will find the
angle they want, the shots that they want based off of the same
high and low plays that they always run.
If you keep the ball out of of Asia's hand, it's really hard
for them to get that momentum. Huge names across the board,
very, very talented. But with this momentum going

(25:55):
into it and the struggles Aces have, this is this is the big
win that we need to keep going for the rest of the next half of
the season. And if I remember correctly, the
last game, something that reallyhurt us was Asia's ability to
defend Caitlin. And good news, Caitlin's out.
Good news. There you go.

(26:17):
And then kind of going into a totally different A type of
basketball against the Sparks. The Sparks are kind of an
anomaly team. They have a lot of talent.
They have a lot of really big players.
They too have been struggling this year.
So at any time, the Sparks can put it together.
It's gonna be challenging. There's still the possibility

(26:40):
that Cam and Brink could be making a return by this time.
We don't know. She still listed us out.
That's a big problem. I know she's going to be on
limited minutes if she does play, but Cam and Brink LED in
blocks in the small amount of time that she had last season, a
whole time. She played, she was incredible.
So she's great. So if she comes back in her
paired with Dereka Hamby, Enrikia Jackson and Azra

(27:03):
Stevens, those are a lot of tallgirls who have crazy range,
difficult to find matchups with,and if Kelsey Plum is in the
right mood, she can be very difficult to guard.
She has really good vision on the court.
So not an easy game by any means, especially coming off of
many games back-to-back to back,but both very winnable.

(27:24):
We just have to follow the same kind of game plan, making them
take hard shots. The Sparks, however, they like
to push, they like layups and they will take those weird
shots. So rebounding is going to be
super key against these bigs. They may have big girls, but do
they have a pterodactyl? Pro pro pterodactyl, it's just

(27:46):
what you got to be. Big time allies.
All right, well, congratulations, Fever fans.
Big day for us. Hopefully bigger days are coming
this season, but this was certainly a good one.
Thank you for joining us on thisspecial edition of Fever Replay.

(28:10):
We hope you have a great week and that your groins continue to
heal. Bye.

(28:52):
The.