Last season, as the Indiana Fever added first overall pick Caitlin Clark to their young roster, it was like a firework. They were one of the topmost offensive teams (3rd rank), one of the firsts in pace (2nd), and broke records left and right with their scoring prowess. Growing chemistry between Clark and Aliyah Boston and Kelsey Mitchell only became a worse threat to their opponents, becoming what the Aces HC Becky Hammon called “a three-headed monster.” Wherever they went, even the road games turned into home games with a sea of red to support them. But amidst it all, there were some gaping holes in the squad that kept following them as a ghost.

They were young, inexperienced, every opponent put all their physicality against them. However, the worst one? Their defense. It was almost negligible to the point that it was 11th amongst the 12 teams last season at a 109.5 rating. It was so bad that when Caitlin Clark got to meet her childhood icon Maya Moore once again in a game against the Minnesota Lynx, she confessed she wants “defensive skills like her.”

Fast forward to this season, and Indiana is looking much better on the other side of the ball, thanks to their new HC Stephanie White, who led the Connecticut Sun last season as the top defensive team in the WNBA. But what went down in the American Airlines Center as the Caitlin Clark-less Fever took a 94-86 win over the Wings was something no one had ever seen this young core do before. Even the broadcasters for Dallas couldn’t help but give the credit where it was indeed due.

That blazing start caught everyone’s attention, including the broadcast booth. As the Fever dominated the first quarter, broadcaster of the night Ron Thulin commended, “Indiana, what a first quarter! They have only missed two field goal attempts out of 15 tried!”

The admiration only grew as WNBA Hall of Famer Nancy Liberman, also announcing the game added: “Coach put them through a great practice. They were flawless in their execution. They talked out how they gonna play. I thought they were going to come out with more energy, more effort.”

At the same time, the third broadcaster Fran Harris added, “Other thing they thought that the Fever will be pitching at the Fever in the first quarter. I’ve never seen the Fever play defense like this in the first of the 15-16 games this season and they came out much faster, and Dallas hasn’t recovered yet. This might just be a preview of what playoff Fever defense is gonna look like for this basketball team whether they have Caitlin or they don’t have Caitlin on the floor.”

Indiana came out blazing, hitting their first seven shots and building a 33–13 lead by the end of the first quarter. Kelsey Mitchell set the tone early with 10 points, while Aliyah Boston and Natasha Howard added key contributions. Dallas made a late push and briefly took the lead, but Indiana’s defense held firm down the stretch to close it out. The best part for this win though, was that despite the Wings trying their best to take over the game in the second half, the Fever did not let it slide, something they had been doing in the last few games. And so, the milestones poured in, too.

The win was head coach Stephanie White’s 100th career victory. Aari McDonald earned her first start with Indiana and delivered 13 points and 6 assists. The team’s 33-point first quarter was their highest of the season, and their 56 first-half points tied for the fifth-most in franchise history. Mitchell dropped 32, extended her double-digit scoring streak to 16 games, became the third Fever player this season with a 30-point game, and surpassed 500 career rebounds, making her the fourth-fastest player in WNBA history to reach 4,000 points, 500 rebounds, 500 assists, and 500 threes. Natasha Howard posted her 51st career double-double with 15 points and 13 rebounds in her return to Dallas.

Early in the season, the Indiana Fever looked like a team ready to set the tone on defense. Through their first five games, they held a top-3 defensive rating in the league at 93.9—yes, top three. Even with Caitlin Clark sidelined due to a quad injury, the offense was still humming along in the top six. But that defensive wall cracked against the then-winless Sun, who erupted for 85 points at Gainbridge Fieldhouse—just their second-highest scoring game of the season. To make things worse, Indiana finished that night with only eight active players after both Sydney Colson and Sophie Cunningham exited with injuries, eventually falling 85–83. Still, head coach Stephanie White remained clear-eyed: “On the defensive end of the floor in particular, we’re going to be a work in progress,” she said before facing her former team.

Despite the bumps, the potential is right there, and it starts with Aliyah Boston and Lexie Hull. Boston, second only to A’ja Wilson in blocked shots (trailing her by just 0.1 per game), anchors the paint with elite timing and basketball IQ. Add in Hull’s ability to put pressure on the ball and force TOs, and the Fever have the foundation of a defense that can cause serious problems.

As White put it, “Offensively, we’ve had pieces of our rotation out of the lineup… so we know we’re going to be a work in progress offensively.” But with this kind of defensive backbone, especially during injury stretches, Indiana knows exactly where to lean.

Skip Bayless weighs in as Caitlin Clark battles with slump, injury, and sky-high expectations

Caitlin Clark is officially in the toughest shooting stretch of her young WNBA career. After torching the Liberty for a career-high 32 points on June 1—including a scorching 7-of-14 from three—she looked every bit the superstar she is. She followed that up by going 4-for-6 from deep against the Connecticut Sun. But then, the slump hit. Over her past three games, Clark has gone just 1-for-23 from beyond the arc. That’s no exaggeration. The noise has grown louder, and even one of her biggest longtime supporters couldn’t stay silent.

Skip Bayless, who’s been singing Clark’s praises since her Iowa days, addressed her cold streak on Friday. “I’ve raved and raved and raved about her, but now I’ve got to be honest,” Bayless said. “She is officially into a deep, deep three-point shooting slump. It’s the worst three-point shooting stretch in WNBA history. She’s over three games, one for her last 23 from three. It’s just getting hard to watch.” And he backed it with numbers. Clark’s current three-point percentage sits at 29.5%, ranking her 55th among 61 qualified shooters in the league. She’s leading in assists per game (8.9), but also leads in turnovers—53 total.

She’s also now missed two straight games with a left groin injury—first against the Sparks on Thursday and again Friday night versus Dallas. This comes after just a couple of games after returning from a quad injury that sidelined her for five games. Head coach Stephanie White spoke on her status Thursday night: “I think it’s very much a day-to-day thing with how she responds to treatment… I stay in my lane and let our strength and conditioning and our athletic training staff do what they do best.”

Bayless added, “It just seems like great shooters don’t go through these kind of prolonged slumps… I’m sure some of the veteran stars that have criticized her are shrugging and saying ‘told you,’ when they should be rooting like mad for her to snap out of her slump.”

Still, even in a slump, Clark’s impact on the Fever and the league can’t be denied. In just two WNBA seasons, she’s averaged 19.0 points, 8.5 assists, and 5.6 rebounds over 49 regular-season games. She’s already been named Rookie of the Year and selected for an All-Star Game and was in top-5 in the MVP race. This stretch may be tough, but for a player already rewriting the record books, it’s just one chapter in a much bigger story.