Man these two could be really, really good together in the coming years.
***Official Caitlin/Fever/Kate/Meg Games Mega Thread***
- Thread starter Tenacious E
- Start date
Famous because:
CC: scoring and assist leader, packed houses wherever she goes.
AR: did that thing to Caitlin Clark.
After that game where CC was clearly the best player on the court and AR was the 3rd best player on her team.
BTW I hope all the dads here are having a great day.
She had so much energy going she actually asked Sides to get her out. Caitlin was smiling as she walked down the bench but she was gassed. There was about 4 straight possessions of sprinting.
I agree I quite like cardoso. Too bad because I cannot stand Reese or Carter.
I would say her 30 points, 8 rebounds, 6 assists and 4 steals against the Mystics was better.
Individually I would agree, but I liked this game better because it really felt like more players were on the same page for far longer segments of the game than they have in the past.
I'm opening myself up to ridicule... but is Sides starting to turn the corner... a little bit? Still stagnant on offense at times, but the pick and roll with Clark/Boston and Clark/Smith seems to be getting better. And Sides has figured out to give more minutes to Hull.
Would be nice if they did more pick and pops with Clark and Samuelson. Also will be nice when Fagbenle returns.
Regarding the Sky, I'm glad that their coach has not figured out that Cardoso should be getting a lot more touches.
Would be nice if they did more pick and pops with Clark and Samuelson. Also will be nice when Fagbenle returns.
Regarding the Sky, I'm glad that their coach has not figured out that Cardoso should be getting a lot more touches.
Mitchell is lucky to hit the backboard
She's been two steps forward and one step back all season. But today there were signs that there might be a compromise offense between what Clark likes to do and the feed the post that AB likes to do.
True story, Mrs. spider (no pic) yells at the TV every time Wallace/Mitchell/Wheeler misses a shot (obviously, often), but calls every one of them Wallace. When I attempt to correct, I just get the “yeah, whatever.” csb.
Angel is the gift that keeps on giving 
They need to pay attention to detail on the offensive end. A couple of things caught my eye. Samuelson turned her head away from a CC pass, for a turnover. Wallace was dribbling around with her head down all the while until she gave up her dribble. Screeners rolled too early, before the screen was fully set.
Defensively, they looked better, but saw one player slam hard into a screen in a half court set, and CC elected to go under screens rather than try to go over them.
I'm hoping Sides is working with them to be in the right spots at the right times both on offense and defense. There were still times when off-ball movement was not good, forcing a late shot clock situation.
Overall though, I think I saw some improvement.
I thought the same thing but I got myself under control. Now I'm leaning toward blind squirrel finds nut.
Just so slow to make adjustments.
It's like she's watching the YouTube videos everyone is posting and making changes a week later.
She really has embraced the villain role.
Funny though, Caitlin never takes the bait. It’s hard to be the villain when the object of your derision doesn’t acknowledge you.
Clark fed Czinano in the post a lot, no? I'm doubtful that their decision to not use Boston in the post during the first 1/3 of the season was due to Clark not wanting to or not being able to play in that kind of offense. Honestly, I wonder if they simply hadn't had time to practice much of anything besides high ball screens.
She shoots all her layups underhanded. I haven't seen anyone do that shit since middle school......
to my eye, Caitlin hasn’t passed more to Boston, but rather Boston is now actually converting on the passes.
Boston set better screens yesterday too. Not great ones, but better ones. Allows for more converting into buckets and fewer turnovers because the defense can’t trap the ball handler as easily.
Players reflect their coach….until Spoon gets a handle on it, their players all will be hated, but I don’t think she cares.
While the Fever schedule has eased up, other teams are going the other way. Struggling Las Vegas just had to play the Liberty, and now their next two games are Seattle and Connecticut. Los Angeles is now feeling what the Fever felt earlier. LA has struggled to a 4-10 record and now their next three games are @ Sun, @ Liberty, @ Liberty. All of the lower half teams will have to go through ugly stretches like this.
Last edited:
After the brutal start and flack the team was catching, they will probably actually get the last spot in the playoffs. As others have noted, they seem to be playing a better brand of basketball, even though the shots really aren't falling yet. Just yesterday, Caitlin could have had another 3 or 4 assists if dishes she made to wide open shooters on the perimeter would knock those shots down. One would hope the averages would even out and they will. If they catch fire at the tail end of the season things could get interesting...
I have been out of the loop, but I will add, from what I saw yesterday and highlights I was able to see over the past couple of weeks, Boston seems to be playing like I expected to her play. She looks a little skinnier and to be in game shape.
I’m going to be that person and say that the schedule imbalance is more unfair to the Fever than other teams because that stretch was at the beginning of the season. They are also one of the youngest teams and their key addition is playing 35+ minutes after barely a break from a long college season.
They hardly know each other but had to go out and get hammered by the best teams in the league, who have already established their identities—on almost NO practice. The other bottom teams have at least had time to figure out how to play together by now. The Fever have improved but they can’t get those losses back.
The way they did it is different though. AB is used to posting up under the basket and fighting for position to get the pass and then fight her way to the basket. Iowa's bigs would typically get the ball a bit farther from the basket or while making a cut to the basket. There would be some fighting for position, for sure, but a lot more movement based touches. It's also why being able to make a layup was so important. At least that's the way I've gathered based on things I've watched and read. There are others who are far more knowledgeable about these things than me that can explain it better though.
Boston is slowly making progress, for sure. I think it's a result of everyone on the court starting to get more familiar with each other and a more coherent plan on offense. Whether this was always the plan or if adjustments are being made as they try to figure it out I don't know. They all still need to get much better at setting screens though.
I also think part of it is she came in out of shape. I didn't realize it at the start of the season, but she looks a little trimmer than then.
She definitely wasn't in shape enough to play at Clark's speed, that's for sure. There were several things Sides didn't do before the season started that she should have made a priority with her players.
