Journalist Erica Ayala had used all but five words last week to predict the Indiana Fever’s fate against the Atlanta Dream: “I have Atlanta taking this.” Unfortunately, going by their Game 1, Round 1 clash, it seems like Ayala might have been on to something. The Fever, despite Kelsey Mitchell’s game-high 27 points, faltered spectacularly. Plagued by a second-half slump, the team fell 80-68, powered by Allisha Gray and Rhyne Howard’s 20 points each. Unfortunately, that’s not all, as a familiar referee controversy also ran amok.

In the third quarter, with 3:38 remaining, Mitchell was handed a personal foul on Rhyne Howard as the latter was going in for a drive, which seemingly didn’t go down with the Fever bench. Caitlin Clark seemed especially irate, bringing both her hands to her head. Even though CC wanted to contest the call, ABC commentator Ryan Ruocco quickly stepped in to correct her outrage on-air. “Caitlin Clark is beside herself with the latest call. That’s a foul on Kelsey Mitchell. She grabs her with the right hand on the jersey; that’s the right call,” he said before adding, “The Fever bench might not have seen the right hand of Mitchell.” If only we could say this was the entirety of the Fever’s struggles.

Frustrations also boiled over in the fourth quarter after Howard had a no-call despite grabbing Shey Puddy and spinning her underneath the basket. Immediately ticked off, the Fever bench responded with loud protests, with Stephanie White following the official while expressing her dissatisfaction. Moments later, the head coach was handed a technical foul as she was being escorted back by Aliyah Boston and Caitlin Clark. Earlier in the game, too, White was visibly irritated on third-year ref Marcy Williams.

In fact, by the 1:45 mark of the second quarter, the HC had used both her challenges to overturn calls against Aliyah Boston and Lexie Hull. Reacting to the mediocre ref calls, she said post-game, “Very frustrating. Very frustrating. Nobody likes to use their challenges in the first half, especially when they’re successful. Look, it is what it is. This is not anything that’s new. I think how we adjust, how we use it to our advantage on one end, and try to be disciplined enough to not on the other end, it’s an equal chess match as it is for playing an opponent. So I think that’s just an area that we’re gonna have to dive into.”

As for the game, it was clear that the injury-plagued Indiana Fever was bound to lose with its struggling offense. The team was unable to maintain their early lead, shooting just 34.9% from the field, and making just two 3-pointers (2-for-15). Besides Mitchell, only Odyssey Sims was able to hit the double-digit scoring mark with 10 points. Additionally, Boston also grabbed 12 rebounds concluding the game with five assists and eight rebounds.

On the Dream’s side, AP Sixth Person of the Year, Naz Hillmon, scored 16 points and nine rebounds, while Brionna Jones made the important tiebreking layup, Gray hit a pull up-jumper and Howard hit a 3-pointer to give their team a 47-40 lead around four minutes into the second half. The Fever couldn’t recover ever since. It’s not a good sign, and both Mitchell and White know that.

“We gotta be the one to punch first. When they punched us, they punched us hard, and so we got to do the same thing vice versa in order to get our momentum and get our rhythm,” the Fever star noted after the game. “It’s gonna be a gutcheck win if we wanna win. “Who’s gonna dig deeper, who’s gonna take the extra punch, the extra step, the extra 50-50, the extra everything is important going into Tuesday.”

White didn’t mince her words either.

Stephanie White is aware of what’s going wrong

“I thought we got a little stagnant, we held the ball a little bit too much. We got a little tunnel-visioned on trying to get it on the first or second look, and they’re a really good defensive team. That’s not gonna happen — and if it does, it’s because of a breakdown,” White said. “We just didn’t do a good enough job of countering with making some,” White acknowledged. “We’ve gotta take our open shots — whether we’re making shots or missing shots — we gotta take them. We can’t get hesitant, and I thought we did a little bit at times.”

It will be interesting to see just how Indiana responds to these issues ahead of the second, win-or-go-home game. From what we know about Stephanie White and the Indiana Fever team, we can safely assume that they’ll be better than they were today. Stay tuned to watch this playoff series unfold, and for more updates around the WNBA.