Indiana Fever Postgame Media Availability (vs. Los Angeles Sparks) | September 4, 2024

Christie Sides all right questions in the room for Coach uh James want to start Chrissy obviously it's a win I would imagine you want to perform better so what do you take away from you know 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 them 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 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 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 go Chloe macrin yeah Caitlyn obviously with her second triple double she also was the first rookie to have over 100 three-pointers made tonight just do her Accolade surprise you anymore or just how do you react to them you know she's been I mean she 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 role with her and ab and her and list that 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 it's been has been great well Matt 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 and one stretch yeah that's what I told Liz 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 gu vertical and had a huge block and then Lexy Hull with that rebound and then holding on to it and then going to the line after they fou her and 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 then Scott Christie um there's an EB and flow to a season right and now 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 break 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 grind out this Victory to set the tone for these next five that are coming at home yeah for sure 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 goal is to 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 uh 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 get that 1% better um I'm sorry what was the first part of that question that sometimes there is and flows yeah yeah I mean again I think the um just the emotions of today you know had we been in a situation where this game was going to make the playoffs for us I don't think it had been the same game um I think it had been a different level of intensity so I I definitely think you know but for me them you know staying together grinding it out getting this win um just shows so much growth in maturity go Scott then we go back on the right to Brad you started the season talking about closing games this is one where you Clos that I'm also curious postgame now that wins are you know expected no longer kind of celebrated how has that felt differently was that I said whoa whoa whoa we can't expect anything like it I'm so five wins in a row is huge I I think 2015 was the the last time the fever has has done that um but like we we can't go there like we can't start thinking that way like every game has to be the most important game the next game um showing up doing what we have to do to make sure that we put ourselves in a position to compete and get you know and have our and give ourselves a chance to win um you know five wins in a row is is pretty awesome and I'm I'm not like it makes me smile and I'm I'm really happy um for our players playoff you know playoffs for the first time but but we can't stop now like we've got to keep growing we have a lot of growing that we can keep doing and um we just want to make some noise once we once we start the playoffs we go down the line Brad then a chrisy there's a second half toughness and a finisher mentality that seems to have developed with this team over this stretch after the Olympic break where did that come from maybe did the break help that come out and how has that been beneficial here in this five game winning streak in particular yeah I think I think um more just just them being in these games having that experience in these kind of games understanding the importance of runs that other teams you know were were making on us and we weren't able to to Stop Those runs and stop that bleeding I think that's just part of our growth and maturity these are the things that happened last year these are the things that happened early for us that we've had to learn from and I think they've they've really grown um in that area but you know we we did not start well um we did not you know I think we gave up 29 points in the second second quarter um that just we can't let that happen like we've got to be better defensively that's where we're that's where our focus is that's where we think if we can be you know average sixth or seventh in the league in defense we give our t a much better chance to win know it came the Tony coach Aaliyah said it just came down to taking care of the ball but the the F first quarter turnovers and the way you guys rebounded and came back what does it say about the the growth of this team that you guys were able to respond when maybe earli in this season this would have been a game that got away from you you guys yeah earlier if we had had I think we had 11 turnovers in the first half and several early in the game that kind of set the tone and everybody just kind of just kind of stood there and you know we we gotten that time out and I mean it was all about just us taking care of because it was our it was turnovers on us like it wasn't anything that they were doing um we just had to make sure we were taking care of the ball and getting paint touches we weren't getting paint touches that were going to help us you know loosen up that outside um we had a time where it looked like we were a five out offense and we're not a five out offense yet want to get to that um and that that'll that'll be really fun but that you know we've got a bang on the inside and establish that you told us before the game about a conversation you recently had with Aaliyah about you know her player offense to to have her have this kind of game and the game ceiling shot what did you think of her response to what you guys talked about and how yeah I just told her all business she's been all business the last couple days um she her voice is the one I keep hearing these last couple days um she just you know she had she came out and had a really really good game tonight on both ends of the floor um you know when we get in that pick and roll situation with her and kayin you know we're in a three on two on that backside and you know she's just got to be really aggressive and and she has an opportunity to take someone off the dribble or shoot that little pull up um she missed a couple of those pull-ups and I know she was really frustrated that but just heck of a game for Leah Boston tonight for us go James in last one in the room to Matt Kaylin played all 40 tonight um obviously it's probably not that plan she said she could play another 40 right now but I guess how do you feel that throughout a game and then secondly when she keeps breaking records and doing stuff how much does her maybe not caring about that stuff helped the team as a as a group yeah you know I loved what you know she said in the press conference earlier about Kelsey Mitchell and what she thought about Kelsey Mitchell and how she you know deserved um some awards you know she she doesn't she really doesn't care about those things like she just wants to keep getting better keep her team get better and us just keep moving forward um to be the best team that we can be um but she's she's just um she's growing and she's steady and she's learning this game and she's learning her teammates and that's why we just have some really good things that keep happening cuz they're learning each other you know um and if one is down the other you know we've got others that are stepping up all the time uh you know Liss Liss has been so solid um the last two games Lissa Smith didn't play in the fourth quarter in Dallas um but she was so solid to start that game in in the third and then Dei was in in the fourth and we were just getting some stops and just had a good flow same tonight went back with Lis in the fourth quarter um for Dei and she had a hell of a job did a hell of a job rebounding um in some helps side defense which she got that block so they're just all figuring it out and it's just you know really fun for all of us right now um to see that with them Matt last one room then we go to zoom yeah and in hindsight you you you were able to pull out the win tonight but I'm just curious you know what what's it like as a head coach navigating a lot of young players emotions uh you know maybe pent up with the celebrating the playoffs yeah you know I just try to get a read off of them get a feel for you know where you know where I think their heads are the coaches my my assistant coaches do a great job um you know the the players are kind of separated amongst all of them and they have a really good feel for where they are so before game during warm-ups they'll come in and let me know hey this was you know this one just kind of really struggled right here maybe you should say something so just trying to get a pulse on them I mean and you're right they are young and they're trying to figure it out and that's just been part of that Journey that we've been on this whole year um and and probably the the part of that was able to keeping it together you know young team could have gone in any direction early and they just and I keep saying it the character in that locker room is incredible they're just great people um and it's just you know it's just really really been fun to to watch them grow go to zoom Rafi than Daniel this is RA but that SP the finally ended their playoff dra I mean what is this development for the team overall been like for Indiana fber franchise man man it's incredible um it's incredible for us to you know have clenched early um use this opportunity to you know work work on some things over these next six games um continue to grow but just you know for the fans the fans that have just been showing up night in and night out on the road too you know for them to enjoy this um and to to have the fever back in the playoffs um where they you know where they were um several years ago it's just an exciting time for the fever franchise exciting time for this young team and and what the future has for these guys I mean that's that for me is they keep growing and the sky the limit for these guys last two now we can up Rafi we got to go last two Daniel then Michael about that hey coach how you doing this is Daniel from the 9450 uh Nelissa Smith has made a lot lot of sacrifices in her game this season to help this team reach the level of success that they're having right now looks like earlier in the season she seemed to be like struggling to adjus his role but recently she's really been thriving can you speak to how her willingness to to sacrifice adapt and put the team first and how has it how how it it impacted the role I mean the growth of the the fever yeah you know all these guys um have taken on a role some of them it's not what they were used to um or what they' had in the past um but you know Liz comes out and gets 13 and four for us tonight she gets some huge blocks she's a rebounding machine um it you know she is doing she wants to win so bad and loves you know she had put out a tweet about last year about it's going to be so fun when we're in the playoffs next year and um you know just the sacrifice she has I mean she's sacrificed um touches but she knows that if she keeps you know the the amount of attention that is on some of these players really loosens up Nelissa Smith really loosens up Lexi Hall loosens up Caitlyn Clark and you know Kelsey Mitchell and ab I mean they all draw so much attention so she's able to find hers and it's really nice when you can look at a stat sheet and you know we've got several who are who are in double digits um I think we had five tonight in double digits I mean she you know that's that's that's how you win and S have sustainable wins um for the long run you the last one Mike Vel yeah coach sides obviously the toughest part of the triple double for guards is the the rebounds I just wonder if you could talk about about Caitlyn's rebounding ability this season something I feel like she's carried over well from college yeah I think she just moves in position always you know to where the ball could possibly just come off the rim she she reads that really well um you know she's she crashes uh pretty hard all the time um you know sometimes you know want these guys to block out a little more make sure we're getting five uh five bodies on people I think um once we get more consistent with that um that'll be great but yeah it's tough but I mean you know she's she's able to get her you know her hands on the ball wherever you know she sees that she's reading it off the rim um from where the shooters are which is you know that's just a skill for a lot of players all right thank you uh questions for Aaliyah and Kaylin where like to start James G start Kaylin how are we are you at the Caitlin Clark end of a game something like that obviously you're not trying to like manipulate the game but obviously people knew the last rebound is triple double I mean 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 AER for you um I guess how's it been just growing into a new role with this team this year and I guess picking your spots and having different games they might keep eight assists one night 24 points tonight and just knowing how Aliyah Boston to choose the spots yeah I think um it's just about 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 and assert myself on the boards and that's what it's going to be it's really just taking what they give meon Leah chrisy said she 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 know prayer just knowing that he's equipped me for anything and it was the game that we had tonight and so I'm just super blessed go Christine then L for both of you um obviously the 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 could you maybe describe your mindset 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 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 we go Lou then we'll go on the back to Dom Le um last week coach uh was talking about the Improvement of the team and she cited toughness and maturity has come out of 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 him 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 were 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 is 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 qu we go Dom then we go with Keem on the 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 that feel to get that home stand started out right and 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 and 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 at a time but to get the home stand started off on the right note I think was super important and it's just contining to go one step at a time and and continue to build that confidence but uh I feel like we're playing really good inside this build building so it's just continuing to build on that go with Keem then we go James again yep and just kind of following up on Christine's question earlier just when the turnovers start to kind of Mount and build what is said or what what do you guys do to kind of refocus and refocus 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 mistake 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 take care of the ball and make a good decision with it we go James we go on Zoom Caitlyn played 40 minutes tonight entire game um obviously probably wasn't the plan but I guess what how do you assess how you feel throughout a game and do you ever ask to come out or how did that go no I like I like sprinting I already told you guys he likes 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 stretch the coaches found good you know minutes where I could get a quick breather that becomes very important especially in the fourth but I thought felt tonight like I felt really good and could go like 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 I 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 with Mike George from the justic Bo Sports podcast Kaitlyn many rookies struggle to find both team and individual success in the rookie year LeBron pton Manning and F rard did not make the 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 out the court and the crowd's going crazy cuz 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 have 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 Vel 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 had 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 like 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 for 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 I was able to and then Liz 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