{"id":642029,"date":"2026-05-14T05:17:07","date_gmt":"2026-05-14T05:17:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/642029\/"},"modified":"2026-05-14T05:17:07","modified_gmt":"2026-05-14T05:17:07","slug":"raven-johnson-debuts-for-fever-in-107-104-loss-to-wings-mogaz","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/642029\/","title":{"rendered":"Raven Johnson debuts for Fever in 107-104 loss to Wings \u2014 Mogaz"},"content":{"rendered":"

Raven Johnson<\/a> made her regular-season debut for the Indiana Fever<\/a> on Friday night, stepping into a packed home arena and playing 12 minutes off the bench in a 107-104 loss to the Dallas Wings<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Johnson, the No. 10 overall pick, finished with four points, two assists, two rebounds and a steal. She was making her first WNBA<\/a> appearance after Indiana selected her in the first round, a move that signaled the team\u2019s intent to add another ball-handler around Caitlin Clark<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Stephanie White<\/a> said Johnson showed \u201ca little bit of nerves\u201d in her first game, adding, \u201cSometimes it\u2019s game one, it\u2019s day one, it\u2019s a different environment.\u201d White also said, \u201cI thought she did some really good things for us on the defensive end, pushing the ball, pushing pace.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Fever need that kind of contribution as they try to build a contender around Clark, and Johnson\u2019s role is expected to grow from there. Indiana views her as a possible backup ball-handler who can defend, organize the offense and help handle pressure situations, the kind of guard work that made her a trusted piece at South Carolina.<\/p>\n

White did not sound alarmed by the debut. \u201cI don\u2019t know if she\u2019ll admit to it or not,\u201d she said, when asked about Johnson\u2019s nerves, a line that fit the moment more than the box score did. Johnson\u2019s numbers were modest, but her first night suggested the framework Indiana wanted when it used a first-round pick on her was already visible in flashes.<\/p>\n

That matters because the Fever are not asking Johnson to become the lead story. They are asking her to make the game easier for the players around her, and Friday gave the first look at how she might do that under real WNBA pressure. The next step is less about the debut itself than whether she can turn those brief defensive possessions and pace changes into a steady second-unit role.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Raven Johnson made her regular-season debut for the Indiana Fever on Friday night, stepping into a packed home…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":642030,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[1760,2834,2839,72670,99,4803,434],"class_list":["post-642029","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wnba","tag-caitlin-clark","tag-dallas-wings","tag-indiana-fever","tag-raven-johnson","tag-sports","tag-stephanie-white","tag-wnba"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/642029","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=642029"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/642029\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/642030"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=642029"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=642029"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=642029"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}