The Fever employed some load management in their back-to-back against the Sparks and Mercury. Caitlin Clark played the first game but missed the second, and Aliyah Boston played against Phoenix but not against LA. Those two games showed the different realities of the two stars’ absences: they can manage with one but struggle greatly to make up for the other.
Playing without Clark sucks, but the Fever can survive her absence. They have experience battling through games without her and the guard depth to have great production on the perimeter when she is out. No one on the Fever’s roster can replace what Clark does, but Kelsey Mitchell can take over games as a scorer and shoulder some of the playmaking responsibilities. They can even run offense through Boston, and Ty Harris has proven that she’s more than capable of putting up good numbers in a bigger role. It may not always be pretty, but there are ways for the Fever to work around Clark’s absence.
Playing without Boston, meanwhile, is incredibly difficult because the Fever just don’t have the frontcourt talent to make up for what she brings on both ends of the floor. Without her, they lack rim protection, overall paint scoring, and a big who can truly create her own looks around the rim, which was on full display in their loss to the Sparks.
Another Clark injury would vastly limit the Fever’s playoff chances, but it would be manageable in the regular season. A lengthy absence on Boston’s part, on the other hand, would be difficult to overcome even in the regular season. This is not to say that Boston is better or more important to the Fever’s success. The Fever’s roster is simply better equipped to deal with a Clark absence because of the talent around the two.
The Fever struggled without Boston
Boston missed just her second game of the season. She sat out an early matchup with the Storm, which the Fever won. However, the Storm were without Dominique Malonga, Ezi Magbegor, and Awa Fam in that game. Going up against a Sparks team with Nneka Ogwumike and Dearica Hamby was very different.
The Sparks lived in the paint, outscoring the Fever 60-38. Indiana averages 44.1 opponent points in the paint per game—not great but definitely better than 60. Without Boston, the Fever just didn’t really have anyone who matched up well with Ogwumike and Hamby on either end of the floor or a second line of defense to contain Rae Burrell’s drives.
Monique Billings and Hines-Allen both got into early foul trouble, which led to extended minutes off the bench for Makayla Timpson and Damiris Dantas. The Fever got production out of their frontcourt. Timpson blocked three shots, Billings grabbed 12 rebounds, and Dantas scored 12 points, but it wasn’t enough, especially defensively, to make up for Boston’s absence. The Sparks’ two starters outscored the Fever’s entire frontcourt rotation by 20 points and grabbed just six fewer rebounds.
Of course, the fact that Clark was on a minutes restriction and only played 16 minutes also didn’t help the Fever in that game.
When they were without Clark in the next game, it was a very different situation—for one, because Boston wasn’t on a minutes restriction, so the Fever had two of their All-Stars fully available instead of just one, as in the Sparks game. But, more importantly, Kelsey Mitchell exploded for 29 points and 8 assists, while Harris added 15 points and 5 assists with just one turnover. Mitchell had zero turnovers. Mitchell also single-handedly recorded more points and assists than the Mercury’s starting backcourt of Lexi Held and Kahleah Copper combined.
Mitchell and Harris can step up and soften the blow of Clark’s absence in a way the Fever’s frontcourt players haven’t shown they can when Boston is out.
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