Indiana Fever: Caitlin Clark, Aliyah Boston, Christie Sides speak with reporters after win vs Sparks

obviously you're not trying to like manipulate the game but obviously people knew the last rebound and triple it's right next to the scoreboard so I think everybody's pretty aware of what's happening I mean honestly like somebody had to get their rebound and I was actually the closest one to the ball so yeah for you um I guess how has it been just growing into a new role with this team this year and I guess picking your spots and having different games might keep 8 assist One n 2 points tonight and just knowing how to choose the spots yeah I think um it's just about reading the floor and taking what the defense gives you um I feel like I just try to let the game come to me and not force it so if it's a night where I have more assists than anything else and that's what it's going to be and then if it's a night where I can score the ball and get rebounds Ander myself on the boards and that's what it's going to be it's really just taking what they give me aah chrisy said CH and you talked a little bit about your recent games how they can help you get going what do you feel like ignited you tonight and and led to the big performance um God seriously I think you know you always want to play the best and I feel like especially these past two games for me just making sure that I have a presence on the floor and so tonight I mean it was just you no prayer just knowing that he's equi me for anything and it was the game that we had tonight and so I'm just super blessed go Christine for both of you um obviously that lots of great positive things happened in the last 24 hours was it a little difficult to get back up for it obviously La was playing well turnovers you know is it can you maybe describe your mindset said when you know you you've already accomplished so many goals but of course you want to win the game and you did but how hard that is to kind of get through that on a night like this thank you yeah I thought we could have came out with a little more energy I thought we seemed a little bit flat um and I don't think that wasn't because of we felt complacent with already being in the playoffs or anything like that I'm just not sure if our energy was quite where it needed to be and um I thought we could have picked that up a little bit better um we weren't always on the same page and I think that kind of started from the beginning we didn't really play with as much Pace as we usually do at moments we definitely did but I didn't think it was consistent uh throughout the game and then obviously we could have taken care of the ball a little bit better I think you know we win by 10 to 15 maybe even more than that if we just take better care of the ball so um I think we something you go back and watch and we know um on Friday we got to come out with a lot more energy go Lo then we go the back to D last week coach uh was talking about the Improvement in the team she CED toughness and maturity is come out in the last month since the Olympic break and those practices do you feel like this fourth quarter was an example of that where you know you got challenged you made you made some runs but you you couldn't put them away but you had to fight them off again yeah I think you know over the course of the season it's about making sure that we're able to close out games there are some games that we lost at the beginning of the season because our fourth quarter wasn't great and so even going into this fourth quarter you know we just emphasized that listen this the fourth quarter 10 more minutes we have to give it all our best we knew that they weren't just going to lay down and let us take the game and so just making sure that if they score then we have to score and then get a stop and that's really our mindset especially in that fourth quarter go Dom then we go with K on right yeah for both of you just six straight home games including tonight to get that home stand started off with a win knowing how well you've played already the second half crazy environment every night here how's it feel to get that home stand started out right knowing that you're just going to be here at home for so long yeah I think it's important you know these are games you really need to win um at home and the more we can win the better we can position ourselves for the playoffs so um and also we're just a competitive group of individuals like nobody wants to lose that's not fun especially in front of these fans that a lot of them like you know they only get to see the fever play one time they spend a lot of money to come here and watch us and have fun with us so um you know you want to you want to kind of give them a show every single time we're in here and honestly it's a lot of fun so uh don't take that for granted because before we know it uh the season will be over and I think this team is just trying to go one game out of a time but to get the home standand started off on the right note I think was super important and it's just continuing to go one step at a time and continue to build that confidence but uh I feel like we're playing really good inside this building so it's just continuing to build on that go to ke then we go with James again yep and just kind of following up on Christine's question earlier just when the turnover start to kind of Mount and build what is said or what do you guys do to kind of refocused and refocused and get back on the same page we get straight to it we say we need to take care of the ball I feel like that's as simple as it is I mean we know what we have to do and most of the times it's silly mistakes so making sure that we just pay attention make sure that we're ready for it but at the end of the day like just just take care of the ball make a good decision with him go James I'm going on soon okay played 40 minutes tonight entire game um obviously probably was the plan like it's what how do you assess how you feel throughout the game and do you ever ask to come out or how did that go no I like sprinting I told you guys to run I don't know like I feel like finding a balance of when to conserve my energy within the game um and playing with Pace at the same time I think you can there's times where you can pick and choose um I think I've done better at that and I think even over the last you know Road stretch the coach has found good you know minutes where I could get quick breather that becomes very important especially in the fourth but I felt tonight like I felt really good and could go the whole stretch but it's never really uh they don't really ask me it's not really my choice it's more so they know what they're thinking and what we need in the moment so um yeah I mean I I could probably go play another 40 minutes I don't usually like to stop so go George on Zoom then we'll finish Mike George gu from the just State boy Sports podcast Caitlyn many rookies struggle to find both team and individual success in the rookie year LeBron pton Manning and fard did not make playoffs in the rookie season what does it mean to have team and rookie individual success I mean I think it comes with just playing the game of basketball the right way um you know coming in here obviously this organization hasn't been to the playoffs since 2016 and that was my main goal and I felt like you know once I got comfortable and kind of was you know I don't know playing style of basketball that we wanted to play which was uptempo which was playing off one another was playing um you know setting my teammates up for success and I think also once my teammates kind of got used to playing with me it's been pretty smooth sailing and fun basketball since then and you know everything besides team success like that all just comes with when your team wins like you got to win to have all that on the side and nobody really cares about that um you know people can talk about it it is what it is um for me like it's it's fun winning basketball games it's fun walking off the court and the crowd's going crazy because you know you just won and you played a good game so for me like that's where my main focus is and I think when I do that everything else comes along with it and um I'm just thankful I feel like I'm surrounded by really good people really good coaches really good teammates um that allow me to be myself and uh set me up for success and you know had a lot of fun playing with me so I've enjoyed every single second of it and um you know I think we're just going to continue to get better last one Mike bu yeah thank you um Kaitlyn I just want to ask you a little bit about the defensive aspect of your game uh obviously a lot of your rebounds are going to come on that end you have nine of them tonight on the defensive end and then three steals including that one late that uh was really key how much do you feel like you've grown as a defensive player and and how how that part of your game you you feel like is uh really coming along yeah I mean honestly I feel like I'm a pretty good on ball Defender it's just the off ball that I continue need to continue to work on um sometimes I get caught you know watching my man or don't always rotate in the way that I need to I get caught standing a little bit um and the rotations are very different than what I did in college so I think it's still been kind of a learning process for me and I continue to go back and watch the film with Coach Jesse and continue to learn um so I think that's just the biggest area that I can prove is definitely my off ball defense but honestly I think I just try to use my basketball IQ and understanding angles to make plays from my team on that end and try to get my you know try to get deflections um you know and the one that happened late where we had to end up switching I knew that was going to be the Play Just Because coming off a ball screen I come off a million ball screens and ab wasn't letting her take the mid-range jump shot so I knew she was going to try to dump it down to Hami so I tried to you know cut it off and get my hand on on the ball and I was able to and then LZ kind of picked it up so I think just trying to use my IQ um and my length and my speed at the same time but I think the biggest area I can still improve is definitely my off ball defense I would imagine you want to perform better so what do you take away from finding a way to win which matters the most but also looking at some things that you have to improve on yeah no question you know I when I went in and told the players like we had some I told him if we could get 50 points in the paint we'd win the game we ended up with I think 46 um but we weren't doing that early we were we were playing almost five out and we just weren't getting the ball in the paint which is what frees up our outside so so it started there um I don't know it was just a grind you know they were hitting they were matching shots with us um I didn't feel that we were as sharp defensively as we've been I didn't hear us talking as much as we've been doing um I think there's just been a lot of emotions today as well that might have played into you know just trying to get get going for this game tonight um you know the playoff um clinch just you know I mean they were excited and just that's that's huge for us so I think that had a little bit to do with it not an excuse but you know it just was a grind and we grinded it out and that's just you know where we've where we've grown got Cloud M Christine yeah Caitlyn obviously with her second triple double she also was first tury have over 100 three-pointers made tonight just do her accolades surprise you anymore or how do you react to them you know she's been I mean she's been playing and doing things and just getting um an understanding of the league every game she gets a little bit better every game she gets a little bit understanding of you know the speed and the quickness you know I don't think you know we had some opportunities in the in the middle pick and roll with her and a and her in list I don't think we capitalize on it and she and I talked about that for a minute um but I love the conversations with her about the game now like we have more uh conversations in the game she's I'm letting her you know I want her to call some of the sets that we're running um after after free throws just to you know I wanted to look who's out there with her who's playing well um she's playing really well she's shooting the hell out of the ball um and she's making sure she's you know she's finding those open players she had some amazing assists tonight um triple double second one for a rookie just really really proud of her and her continue to keep her teammates involved and then also just her growth um has been has been great no mad Christine yeah um Nelissa and Lexi score the fewest among the starters but in the final two minutes they each make a really big impactful play um so I guess just how fulfilling is that for you to see that and also how that reflects in the seven in one stret yeah that's what I told list just when we were in the in the locker room she had a huge block she came over on the help side and just literally you know went got vertical and had a huge block and then Lexi Hull with that rebound and then holding on to it and then going to the line after they found her you know make those free throws those are just big plays I mean that's just them um just grinding it out but you know not stop playing like sometimes we we would stop playing in certain instances and that's just that didn't happen tonight go Christine Scott Christie um there's an EV and flow to a season right and you're not going to have a team always be on you know top of their game Caitlyn said that pregame and it seemed like I guess I'm curious do you feel that that kind of was the maybe this game for you guys and then part two would be going back to the beginning after the Olympic bre with the Phoenix game that was set a tone right that you guys set the tone that has led to this yeah so was it important to gr out this Victory to set the tone for these next five that are coming in home yeah for sure [Music] um you know we're not you know we're not trying to um like we're not done yet and I think that's kind of the the the we don't want people you know like our go make the playoffs and we've done that and we have six games now remaining and we've got to make sure that we are um we don't have anything to prove I had a someone tell me today it's you know we don't have anything to prove we just have to improve um I appreciate that advice I thought that was really important because it's you know we don't have to prove ourselves anymore we just have to make sure we keep doing what we were we've been doing and finding ways to get that 1% better