That era of Hull’s career is long gone. Now, with Hull being one of the keys to it all, the Fever are rolling and are playing their best basketball in at least five years, and maybe much more.
The 2022 Indiana squad won five games in total. The current Indiana Fever team has four wins in the last two weeks. They’ve won five of their last seven, including victories over Minnesota, Phoenix, Seattle, and Connecticut. The Fever’s current high makes them as good as anyone.
“I’m so proud of our team,” head coach Christie Sides said. “These guys put in the work. They keep putting in the work, they keep showing up and just getting better, growing as a team.”
Hull has been a major part of it all, as has Kelsey Mitchell. Hull is a worthy place to start, though, as her recent run of play has shifted the shape of Indiana as a team. She has blossomed into a totally different player.
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Hull has moved into the starting five. She’s planted between Kelsey Mitchell and NaLyssa Smith, acting as a floor spacer and defender that can stop elite guards and forwards. Her defense has always been a weapon, but the three-point shooting has changed everything. Before the Olympic break, Hull was a career 22.2% shooter from long range. Now, her career percentage is 28.4%. She’s canned 70% of her outside shots since the Fever started playing again, raising her career percentage by over six percent.
Her defense has remained impressive during that stretch. She’s mobile and gets her arms in every play, causing disruptions. For the season, Indiana’s defensive rating is about 3.5 points per 100 possessions better with Hull on the floor than off, per pbpstats.
Some of that stuff isn’t new. Hull has always been a terrific defender, and she was a starter almost all of last season. Her production on the less glamorous end of the floor against stars has shown up before. But the shooting is fresh and new, and it’s leveled up the Indiana Fever in a major way.
“We had just really good ball movement,” Hull said after scoring a career-high 22 points against the Seattle Storm. “We’re hard to guard when everyone’s making their shots. It’s just exciting to get into a rhythm as a group.”
Her energy is contagious. Lineups featuring Hull have outscored opponents by 49 points since the Olympic break, per pbpstats, as the Fever have crushed teams on both ends with the Stanford product on the floor.
Hull, by her own admission, hasn’t changed anything in her routine. She’s just playing better, and she keeps doing it with her family in the crowd. Instead of an altered approach, star rookie Caitlin Clark joked that Hull is in a groove because the two started hanging out together more.
“Lexie stayed locked in and ready to go when her number was called,” head coach Christie Sides said after her team beat the Connecticut Sun on Wednesday. “She’s just done everything that we needed to do to get these wins and to be successful.”
Hull isn’t alone in reaching an elevated level to guide the Indiana Fever. Far from it, actually. Kelsey Mitchell has been on a hot streak that has lasted so long that it’s hard to call it a streak—maybe it’s just her reality now. The two-time All-Star is shooting 49.3% from the field and 40.7% from long range across her last 20 games. That’s a sustained stretch of dominance.
Mitchell is averaging over 20 points per game in that stretch. She’s at 22 points per game since the month of July started and 25.6 in August. She keeps getting better, and her connection with Clark keeps growing.
High scoring games are becoming a nightly occurrence. Mitchell just set the Indiana Fever franchise record for consecutive 20+ point games with five (and counting). That’s consistency, and the Fever go as she goes. Indiana is 8-4 when the2018 lottery pick reaches 20 points in a game this season.
“Kelsey Mitchell is special,” Sides said. The head coach added that the talent around Mitchell has opened up the floor this year. “She’s playing with such confidence. She’s a great shooter.”
For the season, Mitchell is now up to 18.3 points per game. That’s right in line with her last two seasons despite a troubling ankle injury early in the ongoing campaign. She scored 29 points in a vital victory over the Atlanta Dream that helped the Fever distance themselves from ninth place and had 28 in a win over the Phoenix Mercury—twice—that kept the team within striking distance of sixth place. During important games, she’s been even better, and she’s scoring with a level of consistency that not even the legendary Tamika Catchings reached.
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This type of stretch is well deserved for a great player and better person. As Mitchell has terrorized defenses, her teammates talk about her leadership and attitude. She is beloved when she has the rock and when she’s in the locker room.
“If anybody deserves this, it’s definitely [Mitchell],” Clark said. “She comes in and works so hard. She’s always been a constant voice.”
With Mitchell and Hull on the floor together, the Indiana Fever have a +8.86 net rating this season, per pbpstats. Those two have been dynamite, and the team clicks when they are both out there. The roles in the starting five just make sense with that pairing between Clark, Smith, and Aliyah Boston.
Together, they have helped the Fever reach a 15-16 record. They’re almost .500 with less than 10 games to go. Currently, the ninth-seeded Dream—the team Indiana needs to hold off to reach the postseason—is 10-20. That winning percentage would lead to a 13 or 14 win team over the course of a 40 game season.
This recent stretch from the Fever, highlighted by the dominance of Hull, and Mitchell may have been enough for the Fever to secure a postseason spot. They are just a few important results away, and two players who have been with the franchise for three-plus years are making it happen.
“I think we just have a really balanced attack,” Hull said. “Everyone’s bought in … our offense is just so fluid.”
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