INDIANAPOLIS \u2014 The Indiana Fever are back in the WNBA semifinals for the first time in nearly a decade, despite entering the postseason with longshot odds and losing some of their biggest names to injury.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s just continue to make sure that every time we approach a game, it\u2019s approaching it ready to win and ready to compete,\u201d Fever center Aliyah Boston said.<\/p>\n
In July, oddsmakers gave Indiana a 12% chance to win the WNBA title. After star rookie Caitlin Clark was sidelined for the year, that number dropped to 0.6%.<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel like we\u2019ve been resilient the entire season, especially with stuff like that and being down in deficits,\u201d Boston said. \u201cThat\u2019s just what we continue to do.\u201d<\/p>\n
Forward Natasha Howard said the team\u2019s playoff push has been fueled by a collective mindset and an uptick in intensity. <\/p>\n
\u201cSemifinals. You know, this is the playoffs,” Howard shared. <\/p>\n
Players credit their success to staying loose under pressure. <\/p>\n
\u201cI think there\u2019s no pressure,\u201d one Boston said. \u201cI think going into the game, the best thing is playing free. That\u2019s how we played our best basketball the entire season. And I think it\u2019s obviously exciting to be here.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sports psychologist Dr. Elaine Gilbert of IU Health said the Fever\u2019s success is about more than talent.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey all have a role, and they understand that their worth doesn\u2019t depend on their minutes in the game or the shot percentage that they make that day,\u201d Gilbert said. “To me, I really see them have a united goal and stance and uplift one another.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gilbert also noted the team\u2019s belief is tied to seeing other Indiana franchises succeed. <\/p>\n
\u201cI think it builds momentum, right? So the whole idea of confidence is that we have to see others do it, right? And social learning theory brings in modeling. That gives us the opportunity to not only do that same behavior, but then to relate it in our form of success.\u201d<\/p>\n
That bond has carried the Fever through the postseason.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen things get tough, we don\u2019t run. We come together, and we talk about it, and we have discussions. And I feel like that\u2019s just helped us so much about this entire season,\u201d Boston added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"INDIANAPOLIS \u2014 The Indiana Fever are back in the WNBA semifinals for the first time in nearly a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":171718,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[629],"tags":[49,48,82,630],"class_list":{"0":"post-171717","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\/171717","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=171717"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/171717\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/171718"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=171717"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=171717"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=171717"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}