BROOKLYN, NY -- One week after the Indiana Fever were embarrassed on national television by the Portland Fire in a 100-84 loss and a sideline fight between Caitlin Clark and coach Stephanie White spawned a thousand hot takes and rumors -- one fake news story had White being fired within days, another had Clark being traded to the Los Angeles Sparks -- the Fever lost again, this time on the road to the New York Liberty, 75-83.
Ahead of the Liberty game, the Fever spoke about the past week as a turning point for their season. In an almost two-hour meeting on Monday, the players and coaches had candid discussions about everything from the outside noise to their defensive woes, and followed that up with a few good practices and a dominant home win over the Atlanta Dream on Thursday night.
"I think the best thing we did was come out and respond on Thursday," Clark told reporters before Saturday's game, when asked about the fallout from the Fire loss. "We played a great basketball game, but the reason we played great is because we played for the person to our left and to our right, and that's why we dominated the game."
But on Saturday night at the Barclays Center, that tidy narrative was complicated by a second-half collapse that exposed a litany of weaknesses. The Fever led 57-45 with 3:26 left in the third, but the Liberty went on a 9-0 run to end the quarter, tied up the game at 66 halfway through the fourth and never gave up the lead again.
The Fever now sit at 5-5 and look far removed from the team that came into the season with championship hopes. While it is still too early to press the panic button, especially given the parity in the WNBA this year, it would also be wrong to dismiss concerns as hysteria. The Fever's problems are real, and while the team is doing its best to drown out the outside chaos, they haven't figured it out on the court either.
A lack of focus and discipline
The Fever's defensive woes have been making headlines, but on Saturday, the team held the Liberty to 36% shooting and 11% from outside. They paired that with their lowest-scoring night of the season and their second-worst game in terms of effective field-goal percentage, and the team was unable to capitalize on the Liberty's poor shooting night because they couldn't defend without fouling and missed a lot of easy baskets.
"We missed 11 layups. It's really tough when you're missing those kinds of shots to get back in transition defense. It's momentum killers at times," White said.
Kelsey Mitchell, who had a team-high 21 points, missed five layups on the night, shooting only 7 of 21 from the floor and 2 of 8 from the 3-point line. Aliyah Boston, who had 13 points and nine boards, missed four layups of her own. The free-throw disparity was glaring, especially in the fourth quarter when the Liberty had 23 free-throw attempts and the Fever only had two. And this wasn't a case of the refs giving an uneven whistle; the Liberty made a deliberate attempt to attack the paint and draw contact in the second half, and the Fever simply lost composure.
Once the Liberty got on a run, the Fever had no answers to stop it and lost control of the game.
"We got flustered a little bit by their zone, had some turnovers, and then they were obviously playing zone in the half-court too, and we weren't really able to execute," Clark said.
"I think sometimes we get a little complacent towards the end if we're up and figuring out how to continue to get stops, doing what has been working, continuing to play our defensive schemes," Lexie Hull told CBS Sports after the game. "I think we fell away from that for a few possessions, and they're a great team; they take advantage of it."
Clark is struggling to find her game on both ends
Clark is averaging 18.7 points, 4.7 rebounds and a league-high 8.2 assists on the season, so any consternation about her struggles should be taken with a grain of salt. However, her field-goal percentage is down from her rookie season and she looks uneasy on the court. And while some rust was to be expected after she missed all but 13 games last season with injuries, she has not looked more comfortable as the season has gone on.
Against the Liberty, Clark -- who, it should be noted, is battling an illness -- had 10 points, nine assists and seven rebounds. This was her fourth straight game scoring less than 20 points after averaging 23.8 points through the first five games of the season. She also got into foul trouble, picking up her fifth with 6:26 left in the game. In the past five games, Clark has finished with five fouls three times and four fouls twice.
"I'm probably guarding a lot more on ball than I have in the past few years as well," Clark said. "So you're put into more action, you have a higher percentage of probably getting fouls called against you. I think sometimes I'm doing my best keeping my hands out, and there was a couple that were just dumb tonight, and that's on me.
"I also, in return, need to do a better job getting to the free-throw line. Those are easy and free points, and I haven't shot many free throws this year."
Clark had zero free throws in the fourth quarter while Breanna Stewart, who led the Liberty with 30 points, eight rebounds and three steals, was 18 of 21 from the line.
White was insistent that Clark's foul trouble is a reflection of the Fever's defensive deficiencies as a whole.
"We've got to do a better job collectively as a team," White said. "I mean, there were a couple of those where we had opportunities to plug gaps because the person that we were guarding was behind the play, and we got impatient. We got impatient. We didn't help her out, we didn't plug the gap, so you know some of those are rotation-based, but some of them, it's just our team defensive positioning has to be better, and that can take some pressure off [Clark] if we're in the right spots."
The sky isn't falling (yet)
In the meeting last Monday, after Clark addressed the confrontation with White and confirmed that their relationship was okay, she had a message for her teammates: "We're right there."
"The sky's not falling, even though sometimes it feels that way," Clark said. "You know, that's this league."
One game later, even one bad game later, there is no reason for that message to meaningfully change.
Yes, it is a bit worrying that a month into the season, White is still discussing the process of "reintegrating" Boston, Mitchell and Clark together, even though the three have plenty of experience playing together. There are legitimate questions to be asked about whether Monique Billings was the right frontcourt addition to make in free agency, given the struggles she is having adjusting to White's system. (Though it should be noted, she was a highlight for the Fever on Saturday, with 15 points and eight rebounds.) It is noteworthy how disjointed this team looks on offense and defense, especially in crunch time. The fake rumors might be outlandish, but the reality of this Fever team right now isn't exactly comforting.
But this is still a team with three all-WNBA players, a generational talent in Clark, a proven head coach and a track record of fighting through adversity. The story of the 2026 Indiana Fever is still very much unfinished. It's just up to the players and coaches to figure out how to write a happy ending. One all-hands meeting and a few good quarters of basketball aren't enough, and nobody on the Fever thinks otherwise.
"We know we have things to work on, and we're going to show up tomorrow and practice and shoot around on Monday, focusing on the next game and approaching the next game like it's the most important one, because it is," Hull said.
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