“You can’t play in this league if you have to coach effort. It’s just too hard,” is what Christie Sides had to say after their playoff loss against the Connecticut Sun last year. She came down hard on the players as they were blown away 2-0, with both games being rather one-sided. Since then a lot has changed, as the Fever moved on from Sides and brought in Stephanie White to take this team to the next level. 

White was loved by the fans until that Atlanta Dream loss. The Fever encountered a physical team and White had no answers. She avoided substitutions in the last quarter, which was heavily criticized, but the moment that highlighted her backlash was the last play. With one point down and seconds to go, she chose Caitlin Clark to take the last out-of-bounds, which meant she was not shooting. That did not make sense to many fans and even national Rachel De Mita.

She said on her Youtube Channel, “This is something that we also saw last season with coach Christy sides. Now, a lot of people have much more faith in coach Stephanie White than they did in Coach Christy Sides but you can understand why we were kind of confused that she was the one taking the ball out of bounds.”

The Christie Sides comparison is on point, as the main criticism surrounding Sides was regarding her rotations and why she gave certain players more minutes than they deserved. No player on the court was guaranteed a starting spot, as Sides was chopping and changing early in the season. It led to that 1-8 start, but she figured out her combination in the end, which resulted in a playoff berth.

Since White’s reputation among the Fever fandom is better, she might not face that much heat, but there are good enough reasons behind it. White has coached Fever to a final in 2015 and a playoff berth in 2016, their last before 2024. Along with that, more importantly, she took the blame in the post-match conference. 

She said, “We probably should’ve called timeout in that situation. But I felt like Tash was due. She had a good look. She had two good looks, and that’s really all you can ask for in that situation.”

White further admitted that not making those subs was a mistake, saying, “it’s tough when you feel like you’re starting to get some momentum to sub. I probably should have subbed a little bit more in that second half, um but, like, the group that was out there”.

When a coach steps up and takes accountability, it’s a relief—it shows leadership. But let’s be honest, that final play was a clear blunder. Caitlin Clark is your best shooter and passer, and she should never be inbounding the ball in a game-deciding moment. Still, given Stephanie White’s postgame comments, it sounds like this kind of mistake won’t happen again.

Another point that the fans have noticed White doing better than Sides is backing her players. One of the other criticisms of Sides was that she did not have Caitlin Clark’s back when she was pushed around last year. Foul after foul, and Sides said nothing. On the other hand, White has been vocal after that Clark incident on Reese in the first game and was also crashing out on the referees and backing her players in the Dream game. The fans love an active coach who stands beside the players and does not give in to outside pressure. 

Despite the backlash and controversies, Sides improved the stature of the team greatly through her tenure. Guiding two back-to-back first draft picks in Aliyah Boston and Caitlin Clark in their debut seasons. She has laid the foundation and White will carry her torch to try and challenge the title with this improved squad. 

Physicality is going to be a problem for Indiana Fever

Against the Dream, they went up against Brionne Jones and Brittney Griner, two of the best bigs in the league and it was really tough for Aliyah Boston and DeWanna Bonner to prevent these two from dominating them. Griner is 6’9, while Boston is barely 6’5, which puts her at a disadvantage. 

Despite that, she did her part, scoring 24 points going forward and grabbing 6 defensive rebounds. The Dream were just too scrappy and physical for the Fever to contend with and this is going to be their Achilles heel throughout the season. They have to work their way around that, as size is not their strong suit. Even White agreed in the post-match conference that they just could not handle the Dream’s physicality. 

She said, “We didn’t handle their physicality. I mean, that’s going to be the MO against us all year long teams are going to be physical um, they’re going to push us, they’re going to shove us, they’re going to hold us Um, they’re going to do whatever they’re allowed to get away with, and we have to figure out how to use that physicality against them.”

In this game they couldn’t. Griner was just too good, getting buckets at will and ended up with 21 points in the game with 8 rebounds. Brionne was just as good, as she scored 19 points with 13 rebounds and remember that it was she who prevented that last play from going to plan.

It was initially drawn for Boston but Jones was in her face and shadowing her around, because of which Clark had to go to Howard and she could not finish. They have an opportunity to show how they can work around the physicality immediately as they face the Dream once again but this time on the road.  Other teams will be looking at this matchup and analyzing what the Fever will do after being overwhelmed by physicality. It will be a real test for the coach and the players as they will have to maneuver around one of their glaring weaknesses.