Caitlin Clark, Aliyah Boston postgame after Indiana Fever beat LA Sparks for 5th straight win

kitlin how aware are you at the end of games something like that obviously you're not trying to like manipulate the game but obviously knew last rebound 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 the rebound and I was actually the closest one to the ball so yeah aah 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 and having different games might eight assists one night 24 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 and Asser myself on the boards and that's what it's going to be it's really just taking what they give me 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 let 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 so it's the game that we had tonight and so I'm just super blessed no Christine and will for both of you um obviously that lots of great positive things happened 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 didn't think it was consistent uh throughout the game 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 got blue then we'll go in the back to Don um last week coach uh was talking about the Improvement in the team and she cited toughness and maturity has 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 were 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 is the fourth quarter 10 more minutes we have to give it all our best we knew that they were we're 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 down 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 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 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 not I think was super important and it's just continuing 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 building so it's just continuing to build on that go Keem then we go James again yeah and just kind of following up on Christin'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 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 take you on the ball make a good decision with it you James I'm going on Zoom okay play 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 come no I like sprinting I already it's all 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 play 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 coaches found good you know minutes where I could get quick breather that becomes very important especially in the fourth but I thought 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 then finish Mike George from the Jus Bo Sports podcast Caitlyn many rookies struggle to find both team and individual success in the rookie year LeBron Payton Manning and Conor vard 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 organiz ation 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 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 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 R 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 how that part of your game you you feel like is uh really coming along yeah yeah I mean honestly I I feel like I'm a pretty good on ball Defender it's just the off ball that I Contin 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