{"id":164895,"date":"2025-09-23T23:24:04","date_gmt":"2025-09-23T23:24:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/164895\/"},"modified":"2025-09-23T23:24:04","modified_gmt":"2025-09-23T23:24:04","slug":"stephanie-white-explains-how-odyssey-sims-factors-into-fevers-success","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/164895\/","title":{"rendered":"Stephanie White Explains How Odyssey Sims Factors Into Fever&#8217;s Success"},"content":{"rendered":"<p id=\"inline-text-1\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"5k\">The 2025 season has come with plenty of surprises for the Indiana Fever &#8212; some pleasant, others not so much. The emergence of veteran guard Odyssey Sims falls under the former category.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-2\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"5n\">Initially inked to a seven-day hardship contract as a replacement for injured point guard Aari McDonald, who also began her Fever tenure under the hardship label, Sims filled a glaring hole in Indiana&#8217;s backcourt.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-3\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"5q\">With McDonald and free-agent acquisition Sydney Colson both sidelined for the remainder of the season, the Fever turned to Sims, hoping the 12th-year journeywoman could be a serviceable replacement. Flash forward to the postseason, where the 32-year-old is starting at point guard for a Fever squad that&#8217;s two wins away from advancing to the WNBA Finals.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-4\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"5t\">&#8220;The moment that we lost Aari and &#8216;Syd&#8217;, we knew we needed a playmaker,&#8221; head coach Stephanie White recounted <a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/9eCzGy69WV4?si=I1vbIPR9_20Qg_x-\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">ahead of a Game 2<\/a> against the Las Vegas Aces. &#8220;[Odyssey] does that at a high level; she has done that at a high level throughout her entire career, so right time, right moment.&#8221; <\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-5\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"5w\">Kelsey Mitchell remains the star of the backcourt, but Sims has played her role nicely, averaging 10.8 points, 4.1 assists, and 1.3 turnovers in 16 games with the Fever, postseason included.<\/p>\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Also Odyssey Sims deserves to be on a roster full time.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Khristina Williams (@Khristina) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Khristina\/status\/1969878598828933275?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">September 21, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-7\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"62\">&#8220;I think playing with this group who just allows her to do what she does best, I think it gives her a comfort zone to know that we need her to do that,&#8221; White added. <\/p>\n<p>Odyssey Sims Taking On Vital Role in Fever Playoff Run<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/01k5wcwnbvb1eczctrmh.jpg\" alt=\"Indiana Fever guard Odyssey Sims dribbles the ball against the Las Vegas Aces\" title=\"Indiana Fever guard Odyssey Sims dribbles the ball against the Las Vegas Aces\" width=\"5616\" height=\"3159\" class=\"undefined w-full w-full blur-[5px]\" q:id=\"6e\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Sep 21, 2025; Las Vegas, Nevada, USA; Indiana Fever guard Odyssey Sims (1) dribbles the ball against the Las Vegas Aces during the first quarter in game one of the second round for the 2025 WNBA Playoffs at Michelob Ultra Arena. Mandatory Credit: Lucas Peltier-Imagn Images | Lucas Peltier-Imagn Images<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-10\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6i\">It is both needed and appreciated.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-11\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6l\">Through four playoff games, Sims is Indiana&#8217;s No. 2 scorer with 12.0 PPG. Her 4.5 assists trail Aliyah Boston&#8217;s 4.8 for the team lead, while her 2.0 steals pace the squad. Plus, she&#8217;s doing it all with a 3.60 assist-to-turnover rate, good for seventh-best this postseason.<\/p>\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Odyssey Sims has quietly been one of the most dependable players in the postseason. She\u2019s averaging (4.5) assists to only (1.3) turnovers, which works out to a (3.46) assist-to-turnover ratio \u2014 numbers that show just how sharp she\u2019s been with her decision-making.<\/p>\n<p>Her control\u2026 <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/vwpQh4GQM9\" rel=\"nofollow\">pic.twitter.com\/vwpQh4GQM9<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 I talk hoops \ud83c\udfc0 (@trendyhoopstars) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/trendyhoopstars\/status\/1970542398976758073?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">September 23, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-13\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6r\">&#8220;There are some games where I&#8217;m on her if she&#8217;s too passive,&#8221; White shared. &#8220;We are not successful if she&#8217;s not the best version of herself &#8212; which is getting downhill, getting into the paint, creating for herself, creating for others, and playing with that high intensity level.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-14\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6u\">The Fever have seen that version of Sims in each of the last two games, and it&#8217;s worked in their favor.<\/p>\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Odyssey Sims deserves a massive shoutout for how she\u2019s slotted into the Indiana Fever after being out of the WNBA last month <\/p>\n<p>She\u2019s averaging 16.5 points, 5.5 assists, 3 steals, and 0.5 turnovers across her last two games <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/f3ErynwkPZ\" rel=\"nofollow\">pic.twitter.com\/f3ErynwkPZ<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Noa Dalzell \ud83c\udfc0 (@NoaDalzell) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/NoaDalzell\/status\/1970239354963370108?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">September 22, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-16\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"70\">As Indiana stamped their ticket to the semifinals with an 87-85 win over the Atlanta Dream in a winner-take-all Game 3, Sims recorded 16 points and a playoff-best 8 assists, including the feed on Boston&#8217;s game-winning layup.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-17\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"73\">Sims then helped the Fever set the tone against Las Vegas in an <a href=\"www.si.com\/wnba\/fever\/news\/espn-analysts-must-eat-crow-after-fever-playoff-prediction-ages-like-milk-01k5s8fdp6cw\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">89-73 Game 1 win<\/a>, notching 17 points on 7-of-13 shooting in 32 minutes.<\/p>\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Odyssey Sims showed up in a BIG way in Game 1 of the Semi-Finals for the <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/IndianaFever?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">@IndianaFever<\/a> \ud83d\udd11<\/p>\n<p>She finished with 17 PTS (13 in the second half), 3 AST and 3 STL to fuel the Fever win \u2b07\ufe0f<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/WNBAPlayoffs?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">#WNBAPlayoffs<\/a> presented by <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Google?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">@Google<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/KDxKep1mu4\" rel=\"nofollow\">pic.twitter.com\/KDxKep1mu4<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 WNBA (@WNBA) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/WNBA\/status\/1970186412692816173?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">September 22, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-19\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"79\">&#8220;She&#8217;s been terrific for us, and we&#8217;re gonna need her to continue to be,&#8221; White declared.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-20\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"7c\">Any team would sign up for this level of production out of their starting point guard. The fact that Indiana is getting it from a hardship player is merely icing on the cake.<\/p>\n<p>Recommended Reading:<script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The 2025 season has come with plenty of surprises for the Indiana Fever &#8212; some pleasant, others not&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":164896,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[629],"tags":[49,48,82,630],"class_list":{"0":"post-164895","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wnba","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-sports","11":"tag-wnba"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/164895","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=164895"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/164895\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/164896"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=164895"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=164895"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=164895"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}