Indiana Fever HC Reports Being Held to Restrictions After Paige Bueckers & Co. Force Troubling Reality

After dominating the Chicago Sky last weekend, the following game hardly felt like a challenge for the injury-ridden Indiana Fever. The Wings were on a 5-game losing streak, Arike Ogunbowale was sidelined, and with Kelsey Mitchell declaring, “This is the most resilient team I’ve ever been a part of,” confidence in a win was sky-high. However, come game time, the team’s troubling reality this season condemned them to a loss.

Entering the game without a true point guard, the Indiana Fever had a razor-thin margin for error. They even fought back from a 12-point first-quarter deficit to tie it 42-42 by halftime, but the second half told a different story. The third quarter collapse left them trailing by 17 with just over six minutes to go before a furious 19-3 run pulled them within one. With 33.4 seconds left, Paige Bueckers missed a midrange shot, setting up a final chance for Indiana. But Kelsey Mitchell, who had kept them alive with 24 points, couldn’t hit the contested buzzer-beater, and the Fever’s comeback fell short, 81-80.

But if you ask Stephanie White, the game felt lost in the very initial minutes. When asked about whether it should even have come down to a last shot during their post-game press conference, she admitted, “I think it’s tough when you dig yourself a hole. In the first quarter and the third quarter, we dug ourselves a hole. Turnovers for scores, easy buckets, free throws, all of those things.” Without a point guard setting up opportunities and bringing up the ball, the Fever’s offense looked disorganized from the get-go.

The Wings forced their opponents into 18 turnovers, resulting in 27 points. The HC directs the concern toward missing a true point guard, but it is also a troubling fact that the team ranks fifth from the bottom in turnovers, averaging 14.4 per game (only 0.4 ahead of 10th 10th-ranked Golden State). As she pressed forward, White offered a broader perspective:

“I continue to be proud of the grit, toughness, and resilience of this group. But our margin for error is small to begin with, and now it’s even smaller. And everybody’s hungry. Dallas came in, and they played really well. They shot the ball really well. Oh, (and) they have been playing well, have just not been able to finish games. And so, for us, our margin is small, and we’ve got to make sure our self-inflicted wounds—we can’t afford those. We’ve got to be better and more locked in from the jump,” she added in the press conference.

To put that in perspective, during their five-game skid, the Wings repeatedly blew late leads with missed shots, turnovers, and defensive breakdowns. In their previous game alone, they gave up a dominant third quarter to Washington, highlighting just how inconsistent they’d been. But on this night, Dallas reversed the narrative, knocking down timely shots and capitalizing on Indiana’s mistakes. Those early lapses loomed larger because, despite signing veteran guard Odyssey Sims on a hardship contract to cover injuries, she had little time to integrate into the system, making every mistake feel magnified.

With 11 games left, the Fever sit sixth in the standings, and their path to a top-four seed—and home-court advantage—is narrowing fast. Caitlin Clark’s return remains uncertain, and a grueling schedule looms ahead. For a team already operating with a razor-thin margin for error, this final stretch could decide not only their playoff positioning but also whether fans get another glimpse of Clark in the postseason.