Indiana Fever struggle with consistent injuries, point guard changes

There is no doubt a correlation between defeats and injuries here. The Fever have added Odyssey Sims and Kyra Lambert on hardship contracts in the interim as they try to stay afloat. So far, though, bringing in two new ball handlers hasn’t been enough to get the team back to their peak. Indiana is barely scraping by for understandable reasons, but they’re still struggling.

“Every loss hurts,” head coach Stephanie White said this week. “We know that after our injuries, our margin for error is smaller … We’ve got to make sure that we’re sharper at times. We don’t have the margin to have lulls within quarters.”

The Fever have been through these types of roster changes many times this season. McDonald joined the team on a hardship contract, then again later on a standard deal. DeWanna Bonner was in, then out. Chloe Bibby joined the squad mid-season. Now, Sims and Lambert are doing the same.

Integrating a player isn’t new for this team. But point guard is the most challenging position to add and subtract new talent. It’s the most important position on the floor. They hold the ball most often and can be responsible for not only their own success, but the success of others.

“We do have some new faces around. I think the hope is they bring a light full of love for us,” Fever guard Kelsey Mitchell said this week. “If we can work them in and they want to work with us and it’s a big chill happening.” That was all said, of course, before Cunningham went down. Once again, Indiana may have to work in a new player. If they fit with their character and values, Mitchell believes they’ll be a valuable piece. But the basketball part is still difficult.

The full playbook isn’t available for players who haven’t been with a team for long. That was the case with Bibby a few weeks ago for the Fever, and it remains the case with current additions. Having fewer offensive options lowers the ceiling for a team.

White has done what she can to work through that. Mitchell has gotten all the reps she can handle at point guard — she’s more of a natural scorer and hasn’t been asked to change her style much. But she knows the playbook and can bend a defense. Her two top games in assists this season have come in the last 10 days.

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There has been an attempt to play through Aliyah Boston more, though it hasn’t happened enough. Between a lack of guard-big chemistry and a general inability to get Boston involved, the star center hasn’t had as many opportunities to lift Indiana as needed.

Sims has improved steadily since her quiet debut and was terrific in a win over Connecticut Sun on Sunday. Lambert has yet to play meaningful minutes, though she did make her WNBA debut over the weekend. However, the Fever are trying to get some offensive flow back as the playoff race heats up.

The team’s recent win over the Sun was big from an emotional standpoint. White was intensely passionate when describing her team’s togetherness, a trait required to accomplish a 15-point fourth quarter comeback. That game showed what the Fever hope to be right now as they work through challenges — Mitchell was a blur and scored like crazy, Sims was at her best, and Boston was spectacular. That all needs to hold.

Given how tight the race for playoff seeding is, Sunday’s win was critical for the Fever. They’re right in the middle of the teams that could host a first round series and the squads just outside of the playoff picture. Being equidistant from both, they need to win the games that they should be winning. After falling to L.A. and Washington, the comeback changed the vibe around the Fever significantly.

It’s a good thing, too. In their loss against the Wings, their lack of point guards was obvious as they had 17 turnovers compared to just 15 assists. They lost by just one. A few days later against the Mystics, the Fever failed to finish possessions defensively — and turning defense into offense is one of their more reliable ways of scoring with all of their injuries.

In both losses, their bench struggled. Indiana Fever reserves were 6-for-16 against Dallas and rough on the less glamorous end of the floor against Washington. With so many players sidelined, depth has to be a strength. It wasn’t this past week, as the Fever’s run of good form slipped away.

“This one definitely hurt. The last two, of course. But we still have to look forward. We’ve still got a lot left in this season,” Sims said after falling to the Mystics. “It’s about what we can control. We can control how we play, how connected we are offensively and defensively. It’s a matter of just getting back to that.”

Most of their struggles trace back to their injuries in some way. That’s natural with three point guards out. White said on Friday it is “Absolutely, 100 percent” the most challenging position to be missing a team’s full rotation, and it’s clear why.

Cunningham had been forced into a larger ball handling role, but she is dealing with a right knee injury after leaving the win over Connecticut. She will be missed dearly if she’s out for any games going forward, and has an MRI scheduled for Monday. Cunningham and Mitchell were the team’s only two ball handlers on the opening night roster still healthy as of this weekend.

Lambert and Sims are now in the mix, and the Indiana Fever have four days off before their next game. They can practice and get their new guards up to speed, which is critical given the ramp up in schedule difficulty coming for the team. In particular, helping Sims become more comfortable should be a priority for the Fever — she might be the starting point guard until Clark returns.

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White shared on Sunday the hope is still that Clark will return this season. That alone should give the Indiana Fever motivation to beat anyone on a big stage. They have already toppled every single team at some point this season, and some of those wins even came without Clark. If the team hits their peak and gets healthy, they can still be a threat.

But they have to mend and reach the playoffs first. Each game rises in importance late in the campaign. Currently, they are not playing well enough to do that without help in the form of losses from other teams. “Every game is a big game for us. You have to stack the days,” Cunningham said this week. “Of course, you don’t want to lose two in a row, especially here on your home court.”

This week of practice time will be vital for the Fever. Clark’s return, whenever it happens, will be critical. If they emerge mentally tougher and more capable of winning, they might look back on this adversity as important. But this has been a tough stretch for the team, both in results and health. So far, they’ve carried the right attitude through it all. Soon, they need consistent play to come with it.