Equipped with two of the top young talents in the WNBA, the Indiana Fever still has no answers after a 0-2 start to the 2024 season.
They played a rematch Saturday of Thursday night’s contest against the New York Liberty which resulted in a nearly 40-point loss earlier in the week. Even though they have the No. 1 overall draft selection in Caitlin Clark and the reigning rookie of the year in Aliyah Boston, Saturday ended up being a near repeat of what’s starting out as a disappointing start to the schedule.
However, much of the blame isn’t heading in the direction of the team’s players, but more so the one leading them in head coach Christie Sides. Well before the game ended, fans took to X to express their frustration with the second-year head coach.
“Christie Sides is so unfit for her job as Head Coach of the Indiana Fever it’s actually insane,” Paula Baddyosa posted on X.
Several fans are upset with some of the coaching decisions Sides made throughout the game.
“Takeaways from this game so far @ChristieSides. Let Caitlin Clark be the only PG. Take Kelsey Mitchell out. What is up with Boston? She’s not shooting well, not rebounding or defending. Also, Fire Christie Sides and put someone in there that wants to win!” Jerrett Franklin wrote.
“Get Nalyssa smith OFF THE COURT PLEASE christie sides. She’s garbage,” another fan wrote about her personnel decisions.
Hassan de Casablanca believes Clark’s talent is wasted with this group saying, “This Fever team is terrible. Christie Sides isn’t gonna survive this. Caitlin is a Bugatti surrounded by Buick Sabers.”
Eric The Red says Sides deserves all the blame writing, “If they don’t fire Christie Sides, develop an offensive scheme and substitution pattern, they’re not gonna draw the fans that they should. No one wants to watch a losing team that woefully mismanaged by the coach.”
The halftime score status fielded a lot of comments for Sides to be removed as head coach.
Sides is now 0-3 in her second season with the Fever following the 80-91 loss. It’s unclear how much time she has left to prove she is still the best option to run this team, but several fans are already starting to turn on her.
Chennedy Carter SHAKEN UP After Hard Fall, Slow To Get Up | Chicago Sky vs Indiana Fever | WNBA.
CHICAGO — WNBA Finals aside, this was the league’s biggest game since, well, ever.
No disrespect to other exceptional games there’ve been over the years. But the Indiana Fever’s first visit to the Chicago Sky since Caitlin Clark, Angel Reese and Kamilla Cardoso were drafted gave a glimpse of the league’s future, and it is tremendous.
It was a heck of a game, first of all, the Sky winning 88-87 after the Fever missed a potential game-winners with two seconds left. Reese had her best performance as a pro with 25 points and 16 rebounds. Cardoso showed what a problem she’s going to be once she gets her timing down, disrupting the Fever’s offense time and again, including a redirection of a Clark pass that led to a Reese layup that put the Sky on top for good.
And Clark? Well, we already knew all she does is set records and she did it again Sunday. Her 13 assists, to go with 17 points, was a single-game Fever record.
But the best part of the day was the atmosphere of this game. It was electric, the kind of energy this city hasn’t seen for a professional basketball game since the Jordan years. Wintrust Arena was sold out, and there were lines snaking around the building well before the doors opened. There were celebs sitting courtside. Fans were into it from the opening tip, their cheers downright deafening over the last two minutes.
The game was nationally televised, too, on ESPN. Which likely means more blockbuster ratings in a year that’s already seen a lot of them.
“It’s good for the game. Good for women’s basketball but also good for women’s sports,” Reese said afterward. “Everybody’s watching right now. I think it’s just one of the most important times, right, and we just continue to keep putting on – I think both teams tonight did an amazing job of putting on a show. It was fun.”
Anyone who says differently is being a contrarian. Or a Neanderthal.
The WNBA has always had talented players. Maybe not the depth of it that there is now, but talent nonetheless. There have been some captivating Finals, too. Think the Las Vegas Aces and New York Liberty last year. The Houston Comets and the Liberty back in the day. Heck, Diana Taurasi’s Phoenix Mercury and … everyone.
What the league has lacked are the fierce regular-season rivalries. Not the personal animosity and cat fighting that some ignorant and ill-intentioned people are trying to stoke. But heated battles that deliver every time the teams meet, with the biggest stars bringing out the best in one another.
