It's safe to say that the Indiana Fever's messy 90-68 loss to the Las Vegas Aces in Game 2 of the semifinal left head coach Stephanie White furious. Poor officiating was again the topic of discussion following Tuesday night's game. With the Fever trailing pretty much the entire game, there just didn't seem to be any catching up for them. It was difficult for Fever fans to watch because their team was never really in the game. Any rhythm Indiana started to build was seemingly halted by a foul call or what some may consider a basketball play.
The Aces quickly figured out how to shut down Kelsey Mitchell, holding her to just 13 points and 4 of 14 shooting. Indiana seemingly made no adjustments at halftime and was flat from start to finish. One thing Las Vegas struggled to do in Game 1 was keep up with the Fever's tempo and fast break, but Tuesday seemingly showed none of that. In her postgame press conference, White was asked why the Fever struggled to find any flow on offense. Her answer was rather direct and wasn't necessarily anything new.
"Well, it's hard for us to find flow when there is a foul called every 10 seconds. I mean, it just really is," White said.
White was fined earlier in the year for her open criticism of officials—particularly as a result of Fever players not being protected from overly physical play, and fouls not being called on both sides.
In this loss however, officiating isn't the factor to blame. In fact, the numbers are very comparable for total fouls called. The Fever finished with 19 while the Aces finished with 22. What really should be alarming is Indiana committing 22 turnovers in Game 2. There are very few teams that would still have success with this statistic. Las Vegas capitalized on the Fever's many mistakes, scoring 28 points off their turnovers. So, it's very clear that the finger can't be pointed at officiating despite the outcome of the game.
If the Fever cannot clean up their turnovers, their postseason run may come to an early end.
Alarming postseason statistic has Fever fans worried
With the series with the Aces now being split 1-1, the Fever will have to hit the reset button before Game 3. What is impressive, however, is that Indiana was able to take at least one game from the Aces on the road, removing some really intense pressure. Head coach Stephanie White has been beyond impressive for the Fever this season, especially since she was able to get them to the postseason despite facing five season-ending injuries. The magnitude of this success is substantial because a WNBA roster only holds a maximum of 12 players.
Despite her impressive pedigree, there's one statistic that has Fever fans on edge as they navigate the playoffs. Stephanie White is 0-3 in her WNBA coaching career after winning Game 1 of a best-of-five series. All of these losses have come recently for White—last season her Connecticut Sun lost a Semifinals series against the Minnesota Lynx, in 2023 they lost to the New York Liberty, and back in 2015, when she was at the helm for the Indiana Fever, she lost the series to the Minnesota Lynx.
White will either snap that streak or the Fever’s surprising playoff run will end in the semifinals. One thing the Fever have going for them is that the next two games of the series will take place in Indiana, allowing the team to play in front of its home fans.