When the Indiana Fever dropped their first game without Caitlin Clark back in May, Sophie Cunningham didn’t sugarcoat it. “I think this was kind of a gut punch for us (not having Clark out there),” she admitted. But Kelsey Mitchell summed it up with one sharper word: humbled. Everyone knows that loss to the Mystics wasn’t the last without their rookie star, but thankfully, that wake-up call came as early as then. From there, the Fever began piecing things together, slowly but steadily, building themselves up, brick by brick. And all of it was leading to this moment – Fever’s first-ever Commissioner’s Cup.

The Fever had a 3-4 record without Clark heading into the game against the Minnesota Lynx. So, the entire WNBA community was holding its breath, waiting for the game-time decision about her availability. “She’s making progress… I think I told you this afternoon, it’s just long-term, making sure we don’t have any setbacks… We want to make sure that she’s confident. We want to make sure we’re not putting her in a position to have any setbacks,” Coach Stephanie White explained. And with that, it felt like the Fever’s chances were all but over. Did the Fever crumble, though? Absolutely not!

The Fever shot 42.9 % from the field while hitting all their free throws to end up comfortably beating the defending champions 74-59. Natasha Howard led the way with a game-high 16 points, earning MVP honors, as five Fever players finished in double figures. But it was head coach Stephanie White’s postgame comments that really got social media buzzing!

In the postgame press conference, White suggested the Fever actually benefited without Caitlin Clark on the floor. “Caitlin’s a player who has a high usage rate, has the ball in her hands a lot,” White said. “And learning to play without her, learning to make big plays in tough moments, um, on both ends of the floor is important because that’s going to pay dividends down the stretch of the season for us. They’re learning how to play together. Um, they’re learning how to make plays for one another.”

That was on full display tonight as the Fever had 20 assists among them. They were certainly ‘disruptive’, outrebounding the Lynx by 10. That wasn’t all. It seems like they were listening closely to Sue Bird’s advice, too. The Fever held the Lynx to just 14 free throws, while also conceding just 2 more turnovers than them! It was an overall complete team performance.

Clearly, Stephanie White’s game plan to contain the Lynx passed with flying colours. “So, we have to try to be disruptive, and we have to try to take them out of that rhythm,” White had said heading into the Final. But this win wouldn’t have been possible without the Fever managing to especially contain one certain player – MVP frontrunner Napheesa Collier. So, how did the Fever pull it off? As it turns out, White had a few tricks and a whole lot of trust in her Clark-less team.

Coach White explains how her team managed to keep Caitlin Clark’s rival quiet

The Indiana Fever’s game plan was spot on. Their defenders did a great job containing Napheesa Collier, who came into the game shooting 52.5% from the field and averaging a league-best 24.5 points per game. She ended the final with 12 points, 9 rebounds, and 3 assists on a 33.33% shooting from the field. Far from ideal, and one of the biggest reasons why the Fever won. However, the majority of the credit for that goes to Natasha Howard, who was guarding Phee much of the night.

“You know, Natasha was a defensive player of the year in our league. She’s got length, she’s got athleticism, she’s fast twitch(smiling). So her ability to recover I think… she stayed incredibly disciplined and made Phee take tough shots. I thought our off ball defense… was really good. We showed multiple bodies, we didn’t commit one way or another… we recovered back to shooters so we were able to keep them off balance.” Coach White said in the press conference.

The fact that the Fever pulled off a win against the league’s best team without Caitlin Clark says a lot about the kind of coach Stephanie White is. She’s been under plenty of pressure with the team’s 8-8 start, but this victory should ease some of that heat. What are your thoughts on this win? Do you think Clark and White can deliver the championship this season? Let us know in the comments down below.