When Stephanie White claimed Caitlin Clark’s absence was a blessing in desguise, she was looking at a team with a new name under the spotlight each day. Career highs to franchise records, Indiana wasn’t slowing down. “Under our circumstances, we’ve had really great players step in,” Kelsey Mitchell agreed. For one of them, it came in the form of being the rock and the backbone of the team; or in case of the Seattle Storm, almost a nightmare for Sue Bird.

From Kelsey Mitchel and Natasha Howard to Aari McDonald, the Fever have seen a new player carrying the team each night. But the forward sneaking in attacks when no one’s expecting? That’s Aliyah Boston. The 2023 ROTY has been unstoppable, earning Eastern Conference Player Of The Week for Week 9, hitting consecutive double-doubles, and averaging impressive 16.7 points and 11.7 rebounds in the stretch.

 That included a 22-point, 12-rebound performance against DeWanna Bonner’s Phoenix Mercury, who are among the best teams in the league. It seems Boston’s performance heavily impacted Sue Bird’s perception of the forward.

“A couple of games ago, when she was entering the fourth quarter. It was against Phoenix. She only had, like I don’t even know four or five points, and then boom, explodes for 17. They go on to win.” the Storm icon reminisced on the ‘A Touch More With Megan Rapinoe And Sue Bird Podcast.’

Like Bird mentioned, Boston had a whopping 17-point, 5-rebound fourth quarter, which was more than half of the entire team. The forward was almost the sole reason for this Fever victory. But even with this performance, she was not entirely satisfied with her game. “I feel like my fourth quarters recently have been pretty solid, and that’s why I need to keep it up. But maybe a little bit more in the second and third, that’d be great too,” she admitted. Because the late-game explosion wasn’t a one time thing. 

Boston was in a similar situation once again in the next game against the Seattle Storm, with Bird in attendance. Her heroics against the Mercury kept haunting the 13x All-Star in the stands. 

“At the game against the Storm, I looked up headed into the fourth quarter, and I was like, uh, Aliyah only has, I don’t remember exactly, three, four, five points. I was like, and I thought to myself, I hope this doesn’t happen again. I hope what happened at Phoenix doesn’t happen again. And it happened again. It happened again. She had 10 of her 16 points in the fourth.”

Bird hoped lightning couldn’t strike twice, but it did. Like she mentioned, Boston had 10 of her 16 points, which was half of Fever’s points, along with 4 of her 11 rebounds in that last quarter. The Fever held off a resilient Storm comeback, leading to Bird leaving the stadium disappointed. Another uptick that’s setting the young forward apart? Compensating for the Fever’s lack of physicality. This improvement could be attributed to this NBA star whom Stephanie White asked to follow like a hawk.

Aliyah Boston was asked to learn from this NBA star

In just 30 games this season, Boston is arguably playing the best basketball of her career, posting personal bests with 15.5 points and 3.8 assists per game. She’s also pulling down 8.4 boards, swatting 1.0 shots, and is knocking down 54.1% of her attempts, which is the sixth most efficient in the league. Her rebounds total to a staggering 251, which is the second highest in the league. Furthermore, Boston is the top-passing center in the WNBA with 109 assists. Even more impressive? She’s doing all this while averaging just 30.3 minutes a night, the lowest playing time of her WNBA career.

The question comes in as to who her inspiration is and what Stephanie White instilled in her after coming in this year? The answer is Nikola Jokic from the Denver Nuggets. 

“In the offseason, I said, ‘I want you to watch Jokic,'” White said, reflecting on a conversation she had with Boston before the season. ESPN’s Ramona Shelburne pointed out that Boston has been speaking about Jokic’s influence in her new podcast with Candace Parker, Post Moves. “Yes, love that,” White responded.

While there are not a lot of similarities between Boston and the ‘big man’  of the Nuggets, who is as unique as they come, Jokic is often the hub of their offense and defense, orchestrating plays from the top of the key, elbows, or low post. In Clark’s absence, that role has been passed around this Fever side, and it’s often up to Boston to make some plays. 

Her creativity has improved, but it has a long way to go to match Jokic’s. One similar thing is their footwork around the post. Both can get through any tricky situation and score. Along with that, Boston seems to have assimilated Jokic’s tendency to think and find her way using her IQ rather than just grunt work.

Even after her weak first 3 quarters, Boston has left a mark on a legend like Bird, which speaks volumes. Boston was one of their best players yet again in their loss against the Sparks, almost getting another double-double with 15 points and 9 rebounds. White and her staff will be counting on her to maintain this level of play, while Clark’s return remains uncertain.