{"id":715478,"date":"2026-06-20T12:31:08","date_gmt":"2026-06-20T12:31:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/715478\/"},"modified":"2026-06-20T12:31:08","modified_gmt":"2026-06-20T12:31:08","slug":"swin-cash-asks-caitlin-clark-to-pass-the-ball-more-to-help-the-indiana-fever","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/715478\/","title":{"rendered":"Swin Cash asks Caitlin Clark to pass the ball more to help the Indiana Fever"},"content":{"rendered":"

Caitlin Clark<\/a> scored enough to keep the Indiana Fever in the game against the Atlanta Dream, but Swin Cash still saw a warning sign in how Indiana\u2019s offense functioned around its biggest star.<\/p>\n

The Fever\u2019s 108-101 loss to Atlanta on June 18 wasn’t a night when Clark disappeared. She finished with 26 points and seven assists, while Kelsey Mitchell also scored 26 as Indiana again showed it has enough firepower to compete with the WNBA<\/a>\u2019s better teams.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Caitlin Clark explodes after Stephanie White refuses to challenge her fifth foul<\/p>\n

The problem was that the Fever couldn’t stop the Dream often enough to turn their offense into a win.<\/p>\n

Cash, a three-time WNBA champion and four-time All-Star, focused on how Atlanta guarded Clark and how that pressure affected Indiana\u2019s spacing and ball movement.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey kept a fresh body on Caitlin at all times. Well, Caitlin had 26 points, right? All of her baskets, she had somebody right there. It was rare that we just shot an open shot. And so, they were applying pressure all day long,\u201d Cash said.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut the Fever, sometimes when you get into a situation where the ball stays in her hands a little bit longer, there are stretches where other players aren\u2019t getting any touches,\u201d Cash added.<\/p>\n

Cash\u2019s point lands in sensitive place<\/p>\n

Cash\u2019s comment touched one of the most debated parts of Indiana\u2019s season. Clark isn’t just the Fever\u2019s most dangerous scorer. She’s also their primary creator, the player most responsible for bending defenses and generating opportunities for teammates.<\/p>\n

That makes the criticism complicated. When Clark has the ball, Indiana often looks most dangerous. When she doesn’t, the Fever still need enough movement, screening and secondary decision making to stop opponents from loading up on her.<\/p>\n

The backlash from Clark supporters came quickly because the comment sounded, to some, like blame being placed on the one player consistently creating pressure. Clark\u2019s assist numbers push against the idea that she is simply dominating the ball for her own offense.<\/p>\n

Yet Cash\u2019s broader point was about balance. Against a Dream team that kept rotating defenders onto Clark, Indiana needed more ways to punish that attention without every possession becoming a test of Clark\u2019s shotmaking or passing.<\/p>\n

Fever\u2019s bigger concern remains defense<\/p>\n

The bigger issue for Indiana, though, isn’t whether it can score. The Fever are averaging 92.2 points per game, one of the strongest offensive marks in the league, and they still put up 101 against Atlanta.<\/p>\n

The concern is at the other end. Indiana is allowing 88.1 points per game, and its frequent fouling can slow down games that the Fever prefer to play at speed. When opponents get to the line, the pace drops, transition chances disappear and Clark has to work harder against set defenses.<\/p>\n

That’s why the Atlanta loss felt less like an indictment of Clark\u2019s usage and more like a reminder of Indiana\u2019s margin for error. Clark and Mitchell gave the Fever enough offense. The stops never came consistently enough.<\/p>\n

Indiana\u2019s path forward isn’t as simple as taking the ball out of Clark\u2019s hands. The Fever need enough balance to keep defenses honest, and enough defense to make Clark\u2019s creation matter.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Caitlin Clark scored enough to keep the Indiana Fever in the game against the Atlanta Dream, but Swin…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":715479,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[99,434],"class_list":["post-715478","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wnba","tag-sports","tag-wnba"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/715478","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=715478"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/715478\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/715479"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=715478"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=715478"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=715478"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}