Courtside Club.<\/a><\/p>\nNow, those three did not play for the entire fourth quarter. Kelsey played for around 3 minutes, Boston and Hull played for almost 5 minutes each. That is below their fourth-quarter average, but not by much. Boston averages 7.7 minutes a game in the final quarter, while Lexie Hull averages 7.2. White could have rested both of them more, especially Hull. Because if the Fever wants to win this series against the Aces, they need their starters in the best shape, so they cannot afford, as DeMita called them, \u201cstupid mistakes\u201d. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe Fever need to preserve their body. They have to play with energy; they have to play with pace. They have to play with defensive intelligence,\u201d DeMita further said. Before this, DeMita had also warned White, saying, \u201cAnd so I feel like as the series progresses, as playoffs progress, whichever one of these teams makes it to the finals, the coaching is going to come more into play than it ever has in the past\u201d.<\/p>\n
And well, those concerns hit harder knowing that White has struggled in this exact playoff scenario before.<\/p>\n
During Tuesday\u2019s Fever-Aces broadcast, ESPN flashed a striking stat: Stephanie White is winless (0-3) in playoff series after taking Game 1. That includes her playoff series while coaching the Fever in the early 2015-2016 period and with the Sun. That curse could strike again. In Game 1, White looked like a coaching genius, holding A\u2019ja Wilson and the Aces in check. But history shows momentum can flip fast, especially if you don\u2019t protect the two players who made it happen: Boston and Mitchell.<\/p>\n
Things become even more challenging without Clark, as her absence allows opponents to zero in on Indiana\u2019s other scorers, especially Mitchell. That said, Stephanie White did acknowledge the concern over Mitchell\u2019s heavy minutes, noting, \u201cI mean, the physicality, one..She\u2019s like a little pinball. \u2026 Sometimes I feel like she\u2019s getting pinged around everywhere. And also she\u2019s played heavy minutes for us. I thought she looked a little fatigued. (There were) some shots she typically makes that she didn\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Fever can\u2019t ignore the injury risk for Mitchell, who is averaging 32.4 minutes per playoff game. The 29-year-old has been remarkably durable, playing every game for Indiana over the past three seasons. They need that streak to keep going if they want a shot at making it through. As for Boston, she\u2019s the best matchup against Boston in this series, so the same applies to her.<\/p>\n
At this point, though, the options are definitely limited. And amidst that, the Fever players are ready to give their all.<\/p>\n
Fever Ready to Give Stephanie White the Extra Push<\/p>\n
The Indiana Fever have long had to go the extra mile, and that hasn\u2019t changed this season. Battling injuries and losing key players, including star point guard Caitlin Clark, their resilience has been central to their success. But Game 2 presented an even bigger challenge. The Aces came at them full force, just as Becky Hammon had warned: \u201cYou can\u2019t tiptoe into a bar fight.\u201d Hammon even noted that Lexie Hull was often on the receiving end of those blows in both games.<\/p>\n
So, \u201cIs this the most physical that you\u2019ve ever been in from Stanford days on?\u201d Hull was asked by a reporter. Hull simply answered, \u201cI mean, I feel like a physical game every game. Um feels like it\u2019s been a physical season. But yes, I think, you know, I feel like I\u2019ve been on the ground a little bit more this series so far. We just keep getting back up.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When Rachel DeMita saw Lexie Hull on the court in the fourth quarter, it rubbed her the wrong…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":167901,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[629],"tags":[49,48,82,630],"class_list":{"0":"post-167900","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\/167900","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=167900"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167900\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/167901"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=167900"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=167900"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=167900"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}