Christie Sides after Indiana Fever's preseason finale - on what was accomplished and what needs work

Christie Sides, head coach of the Indiana Fever, answered questions from local reporters after the team's 83-80 win Thursday in their second (and final) preseason game. It was also their only home game before the regular season, which opens Tuesday at Connecticut.
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Scott Agness runs www.fieldhousefiles.com/ covering the Pacers and Fever.
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[@lizhricik]

Smith, Grace, Hull and Clark are awesome! Great potential!

[@dandydon6049]

Yeah Boston is real disappointing.

[@thedirtygot9570]

Sides gonna get fired if she doesn’t let Caitlin be Caitlin!!!!! Trying to turn her into a robot is not the answer!!! Coach Bluder realized this and won a lot of games, even ones they shouldn’t have!

[@dandydon6049]

I disagree. Letting CC loose isn’t going to win games.

[@thedirtygot9570]

@@dandydon6049 you obviously have never watched any Iowa games?

[@leroywicks3277]

@@thedirtygot9570 this is exactly right. Just like Larry Bird her biggest muscle is between her ears. Turn her loose and let her do her thing. Up tempo. Run and gun . Or they should have never drafted her 4000 fans last year 13,000 at a preseason game came to watch her game 🏀 people are paying a-lot of money for entertainment for family

[@jimshelton115]

I agree don’t try to make Caitlin a defensive player right now she looks hesitant to shoot long 3s plus she knows the game better than anyone & what she can do , Let Her Go !

[@leroywicks3277]

@@jimshelton115 💯 fans didn’t pay for tickets to watch her play 2005 style basketball

[@AlMellon]

As a casual observer, the coach is inept, she is trying to subdue Caitlin Clark from her natural game. That is why people are watching the WNBA right now. If you are not going to use the Ferrari you were gifted with, let someone who can use the capabilities take control and quit trying to make her like the rest of the WNBA.

[@snave59]

It was an exhibition game.Clark hardly played in the 2nd half.She has to look at other players.To see who can make the team.

[@_M....]

@@snave59 she played 32 minutes.

[@daveautrey5858]

I'd like if you could to elaborate on this. I'm new to the WNBA.

[@shf4592]

I agree. I feel like this coach won’t let Clark be herself and build the team around her, meaning to play Clark’s way. If you watched Clark at Iowa, she seemed to have more trouble making those long 2’s the coach wants her to shoot vs. the 3’s Clark is known for. Coach acts like Clark had some times where she had open shots (long 2’s) & passed them up. From what I saw, the times Clark had an open shot were far & few between.

[@AlMellon]

Caitlin played with players who complemented her style of play. She was part of a fast paced offense and defense who won because they hustled up and down the court, shooters like Clark feed the ball to their teammates when she did not have a shot for easy layups or open 2 and 3 point shots when the defense was attempting to swarm Clark. The entire team was across half court on offense and defense for the next play. Not leaving the stand of trees, players who are plus 6 foot, scrambling to rebound, who fight to score off the perimeter shots, I.e. the NBA. So let’s eliminate that element of the game by raising the basket up a foot or two. I take no pleasure in seeing 7 foot, plus or minus men or women, people dunk a ball. Basket should have been moved up to account for taller participants who score on a height determined years ago. Move the basket to 11 foot so that the NBA and WNBA centers and forwards cannot stand flat footed and stuff a basket. Make the game about shooting hoops like we did when we were kids, or participating in school. Just saying.

[@Joshua-me1wi]

Coach Bluder said in an interview that they created plays for Caitlin in practice, but not the logo 3s. That was all Caitlin's. Maybe Coach Sides and Fever teammates right now are unable to cope with Caitlin's fast plays? Let her play her game and they will thank her more when they start winning.

[@barryhoglund5399]

Christie Sides doesn't get it. She needs to get out of Caitlin's way and take advantage of her talent. If the coach doesn't leave CC alone she will soon be looking for a new job. Sides almost sounds as though she is jealous of the attention that CC is getting. Her attitude is too negative to motivate her team.

[@jdneely9939]

Clark is got to be pissed privately. She's doing EXACTLY what a point guard should n her teammates are blowing easy assists n not running the floor for her for easy passes.

[@leroywicks3277]

I believe that this will be one of the Greatest turnarounds in WNBA history. Get the other 2 players back. Run and gun and convert. Conditioning is key

[@BDE360]

The malcontent activists like Diana Taurasi, are trying to ruin everything! They need to cut her, get her as far from the WNBA as possible, she is just TOXIC. Plus it would probably help Phoenix win games. Something they don’t do.

[@dandydon6049]

She isn’t going to let CC run and gun. She wants her to be more of a team player.

[@leroywicks3277]

@@dandydon6049 that’s dumb .Iowa was one of the most organic non -manufactured non Blue blood Teams in recent History,old school and fundamental. That is why they were loved and followed. It all started right here.

[@dandydon6049]

@@leroywicks3277 I’m sure her new coach isn’t gonna let her open up each game with a signature half court 3. It’ll be interesting to see how she responds with a bit in her mouth. 😂

[@leroywicks3277]

@@dandydon6049 actually Coach Sides in her interview made it perfectly clear that there were plenty of missed opportunities around the rim amongst the bigs and needed to covert those opportunities. Actually I believe She plans to pick up the pace even more. Mentioning her great passing They have the shooters and athletes to do it Allysa says Caitlin draws a lot of attention and openings.

[@jackiegammon2065]

Great to see you alternating point guards tonight, you certainly have the skill and the players to do it. It also gives Caitlin a bit of a break and may confuse defense along the way as well.Hopefully, going forward the posts will also help set a few more screens at the top to help out, as well. It's exciting to see Indiana with this much skill and great coaching!! I can't wait to see how the season goes!

[@dandydon6049]

Berger is very impressive

[@TodaysNHLaction]

So hey everyone ..new fans here(clearly the wnba is blowing up because of Clarke.. Jordan factor) but this woman doesn’t seem to have too many impactful credentials - in fact this is her first starting coaching role. She’s only been an assistant coach from what I’ve read up on so far. Is this really the person fit to mold Clarke into the WNBA?

[@Consultant22]

I don't understand why they are having Clark play off the ball so much. They need to give her the ball and run. That is her style and ultimately is going to be the Fever's differentiator. Clark is not a half court 1:1 player. Also disagree with the Coach's concern about transition 3s. They need to shoot them if open and it's the best way to create rhythm.

[@stardemonspacecat]

@7:20... Coach be wildin'... Lol

[@aliciaedgar4211]

Do they have time off tomorrow?

[@yes350yes]

Sides is the one who needs to adjust her attitude concerning CC. Let her make decisions on the court as shes always done . That is why arenas are selling out not to watch CC shoot long 2's or stop shooting long 3 s or she may find herself out of a job.!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[@williecaballero2693]

The coach needs to adapt to CCs playing style. The exhibition games showed Fever were playing at a slower pace and missing high percentage shots.

[@coachfezz1137]

just not impressed with Boston at all

[@zj10]

Same. She looks mechanically challenged and she can't rebound to save her life

[@dandydon6049]

No energy

[@JET1970]

The coach is trying to change Clark's game to fit the team kzbin.infoK4SVYb7iEkk?si=tjfjaxE72UFpJvRv

[@dandydon6049]

@@JET1970 nothing wrong with that. She always lacked discipline.

[@voguehaven5154]

@@dandydon6049 slow and fat. I wish Angel and CC were on the same team. Instead its Boston, who is weak as fuck.

[@janellejacobsen2344]

This is a GREAT coach! I like this team! . . . and I met them all through Clark, so yeah, the Clark Effect is a thing . . . and it's a blessing to the WNBA. Go Fever and Go Timberwolves!

[@ScottAgness]

Well said!

[@Debidawg]

Hope they keep Celeste!! 🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉

[@nickespinosa7154]

What I've noticed is that the pros are a lot slower than newer players (past 2 years) and if you have great legs like Grace, Hull and Celeste with a running center, Fever will be ubeatable.

[@_M....]

crazy thing is the second year Aliyah Boston is the slowest player on the team and looks out of shape.

[@nickespinosa7154]

@@_M.... I didn't want to be negative about Aaliyah but I noticed that she couldn't keep pace with CC in the paint. Maybe she needs more time - which they don't really have much of.

[@_M....]

@@nickespinosa7154 did she forget when the season starts? there's no excuse for it, she's not in playing shape.

[@RealBBIMunchkin]

Smith grace hull Taylor Samuelson Berger an cc was solid yesterday go fever

[@snave59]

Clark did not play well.She missed numerous shots.She turned the ball over several times, with sloppy passing.

[@RealBBIMunchkin]

@@snave59 ok I give you that but she wasn’t the only one messing up she a rookie for god sake she even said the competition is much better and faster in the WNBA she effect the game and others ways like with defense and moving trying to get to spots so wht you talking about did you watch better yet is you a fan of the fever cc is gonna be fine moving forward

[@lizhricik]

Boston looked lazy and slow, if she dropped a few lbs, she’d be dangerous….

[@strikeeaglesquadron7775]

About 30 lbs

[@BDE360]

I thought she would be much better than she has been.

[@markahern9642]

McDonalds is delicious!

[@BDE360]

@@markahern9642 The quality has really dropped since the 80’s mainly the fries 🍟

[@markahern9642]

@@BDE360 Totally agree!

[@Vadimony]

I think the coach has to work on her lineups off the start. If the gameplan was to start those five players, and the execution was pretty bad (1 of 8 three pointers, with the only make being a Lexie Hull make with 3.1 seconds off of a pass) concerning that lineup given that your team took 20 shots and made 9, 4 of them beyond the paint and 1 of those 4 was a 3 pointer. You took 11 shots outside of the paint, and only 5 shots were made inside after 9 attempts in there. Opposing team took 4 less shots than your team did, but missed only 4 shots outside of the paint. They shot 70% with most of that "gameplan" in place from the start. Besides Rhyne Howard, the only other player to miss a shot was a 3 pointer with 25 seconds left in the first quarter. Second quarter, after the lineup change, the opposing team shot a 26% average, even though they had more shot attempts. The Fever team shot a better % from 3 pointers, Clark, Taylor, and Smith all made a 3 pointer from around the same area of the court. The rest of the game was basically the same, except Fever actually shot above 50% in the 3rd quarter. Fever had success at shooting from the right side of the court at the top of the key (missing like 2 shots from that area all game) and had one corner 3 from the left side by Lexie Hull near the last 3 seconds of the first quarter. Caitlin Clark has really been the only player to ever get a single shot to go in for the Fever so far from the top of the key on the left side of court. This game, she missed her attempts there. Last game, she made and produced 3 three pointers from that zone. All of this just shows that the Fever are very static and have little movement going on. If the Fever can only score from the right side of the court, and have a shot at Smith/ Wheeler/ Clark making shots from the middle as their game plan, then it is a problem. These lineups got to be better and more consistent. Clark's giving them box minus scores of "4" and "6" Her and Boston are probably the only Fever teammates that have had positive impact in their minutes so far (maybe Taylor as well), which means that the team produces the best results related to those players. Berger and Wallace have both been flip-flopped from games 1 and 2. Smith was negative last game and is negative this game. Maybe the lineups get better when the other starter comes back. But as far as it goes, I think the team's lineups need to be better utilized with a different shot selection in mind. This team can only make use of the top area on the left side when Clark takes a shot from there. Everything else is either around the right side or the middle area. This team needs to utilize the left side of the court better. It becomes very easy to defend your team if your gameplan is just focused on shots around two areas (besides layups) of the court. Set better screens from left side hand-offs, get a pick and pop or dribble drive towards the baseline from the left side with Clark setting it up (every attempt at this has been horrible from a play-making aspect), or maybe do a better job of passing from inside the post to the corner left side three (as this shot has been available to take a lot of games) because if they keep playing this way then they probably will have issues with shot selections. Maybe Mitchell is a good player on the left side, but here's to hoping she is. If Clark is stationed at that side, then chances are that's where the shot will be taken from. They had an open 3 pointer because Clark drove and passed from the right side to the left side, and then they passed across the line to Smith who shot an open 3 since 3 defenders collapsed on Clark and Boston inside and couldn't rotate around to contest. They gotta get those lineups going since lineups with Clark open up the spacing for the floor and the ones that had corner 3 shooters available often lead to good results. The ones that had bad spacing and positions didn't contribute to points. Especially when players didn't pass from inside to outside and got open looks for the other shooters. Maybe Mitchell will change that with dribble penetration and collapsing the defense on either side for Clark to get into isolations or open looks from a screen.

[@_M....]

exactly. tbh it's showing that Sides is not a top tier coach. a lot of this is down to schemes and coaching. when Mitchell gets back their scoring on the left side will improve drastically. this team has basically relied on her speed and skill breaking down defenses. they've won a combined 30 games over the last 4 seasons for a reason.

[@Vadimony]

@@_M.... I looked at the shot chart for Mitchell, Boston, and Smith from last year and it isn't looking like it'll change. Of those three, Smith is really the only one with any real effectiveness on that left side of the court (mostly works in the middle and high post) and that's why she's getting a lot of great setups and high scoring outputs so far in two games. Boston is struggling to get going because her playing style isn't meshing too well, or she's simply not yet in playing form. I haven't yet concluded that Boston is a problem since her Plus/ Minus isn't arguing that. Offensively, she ought to stop missing those easy layups, but that's probably due to conditioning which she can play to get into. Mitchell shoots better from the right side of the court. So, she likes to dribble and drive from the right side or goes from the left side to the right side. She's typically no different than Erica, but with better effective field goal percentage, based off of her usage and shot charts. If she's on the left side, she's usually missing those shots and she rarely does any baseline drives or jumpers. I don't really know how they'll play together unless she's capable of driving and kicking out to Clark after penetrating. Or vice versa, but Clark will have to dribble drive on the left more since Mitchell's a better shooter from the right than the left. It wouldn't be a problem if the coach's schemes were simply more effective than whatever they tried to get going so far. I seen a hand-off that ended up with Clark having the ball knocked out of bounds in a game. A play where she got doubled and passed to the post player that couldn't finish the drive for a layup like 7 or 8 times already in 2 games. I seen moments where Clark drove and was able to pass to a post player that failed to hold onto the ball and threw it away. Maybe they'll have a different outcome somehow, but it doesn't seem like they'll ever run plays that allow someone to go towards the baseline of the left side and do what Clark did last game when she penetrated baseline and passed around it and they swung the ball across the 3 point line for the open player. If they did that same sort of player, but in reverse, then they'd have an open 3 available for Clark a lot more often--since they literally have her take that 3 from that left side at least 5 to 6 times a game. Despite that volume, she's never been open for that shot and constantly has to dribble to get that shot off from there. It isn't a good look if they don't even have any success at all from the left side of the court except a couple mid-ranged shots after people collapse on Clark on the right side wing. It can't be that hard to run plays for the team to have success on that left side, right? A simple mid-range on that side is almost always available if you put a player around the baseline, since Clark is always covered so close when she gets the ball around the middle or left side. Give her some room to dribble towards the rim, instead of having 3 players around the middle and paint each possession since they put some player in the middle, right elbow or post, and then some player that's usually in a corner three on the right or a three position next to Clark (which is a single rotation away from Clark) that they can choose to ignore some player on the outside and just double Clark. It looks pretty bad.

[@lyndim6926]

Sides talks the talk, but can she get it done??

[@user-oz8su3ne5b]

Heard this before. "Lead, Follow or get out of the way"

[@jimmaynard8573]

Thats the same defense as last season . Dont do the same old things . This is after the game dont beat them up now they already fixed it. Now dont start putting time limits on the best player on your team. Time for the team to step up to caitlin you will win and christain your job is on the line DONT CHANGE CAITLIN make the team catch up and the wins will stack up or this will only take a month or two .dont screw it up.

[@user-rf6bq5tb7v]

It appears that she thinks she had a winning strategy last year? lol…I would really caution her about trying to reign in a wild horse like Caitlin Clark. Let her RUN!

[@BDE360]

They need to call Fran McCaffery ! Fire this coach.

[@user-gy2xh1sp9s]

Sides needs to GO ASAP. IN is top losingest. Clark changed WBB history, took IA to top. Who needs to change, coach? Right.

[@kaylamendenhall2393]

This is only the coaches 2nd year. And in her first year they doubled their wins from the previous year. So no, they don't need a coaching change right now. All the players are still learning.

[@BDE360]

I think Caitlin shoots to many 3’s only when she misses though.

[@dannybirch25]

@@BDE360She does and if you go against a team with size that can rebound you gonna be stuck if those shots aren’t falling

[@BDE360]

@@dannybirch25 I thought I was saying that. Sometimes I guess I’m not clear enough.

[@timm439]

Sides says Caitlin needs to be comfortable taking the long 2s?! The least efficient shot in all of basketball? Nobody should take those shots, period, except as a last resort because you didn’t get a good look for basically anything else. You should never go in wanting that shot.. SMH

[@voguehaven5154]

That's why Sides should be fired.

[@nickespinosa7154]

2nd comment...maybe CC was dancing around and waiting because the others were not in their place to execute the play. Execution of plays mean that your job has to be where you should be and ready for it to be flawless. I don't see these pros hustle quickly like the college players do. The pros are not as hungry as the new players (new recruits and past year) - is it because they think they can't be cut. It could be the difference between college and pros (in any league), they tend to slow down whether because of injury prevention or lack of hunger with the win - either way, win or lose, they won't lose their pay for the season.

[@jimshelton115]

Clark sitting on bench ? Let her play her game fans don’t come to games to her . Defense ? How about 25 pts 8 rebounds & 9-10 assists is excellent defense .

[@larryhallmark5724]

I absolutely love this coach! I have no doubt she is going to build a winning team and create a winning culture.

[@jimkoll52]

I totally agree with the coach on Clark. Clark needs to do less dancing and be more decisive about either shooting or taking the ball to the mid range or to the hoop where she can shoot or pass. She gets herself wide open very very frequently by forcing them to guard the long 3, but limits herself to the long 3 or a layup. The Iowa coach did not like the midrange shots. She repeatedly told her players that. Thats why Clark shoots only 3 and layups.

[@michaelkamau2957]

This coach is not going to take any BS!! Do your job!!

[@steveg2448]

This coach flat out does not get it. Her ego is causing her to demonstrate that she is in charge. She might not make it thru the season. Control freaks don’t work. NBA coaches get it … lose the locker room and you are gone

[@user-rf6bq5tb7v]

It appears that NaLyssa demonstrates exceptional skills both on and off the court. While I admired her remarkable performance, I observed a potential discrepancy in coaching strategy regarding Caitlin's gameplay. Encouraging Caitlin to deviate from her strengths, particularly her signature long-range shooting, may prove counterproductive. Instead of seeking conformity, fostering individual strengths can elevate the team collectively. Additionally, public statements regarding Caitlins style should be carefully considered to maintain respect and support from sponsors and fans alike. Drawing parallels to requesting a change in Steph Curry's game underscores the significance of preserving a player's unique talents and identity.

[@goodcitizendude9597]

Build the team around Clark or you will squander a great opportunity for not just the Fever but the WNBA. This coach is not ready for this new talent. She will try to turn Clark into a typical guard. The team needs speed players with high bball IQ. Boston doesn't impress and other players lack cutting, constant movement and energy . Clark would have been a good player under Gino but her Iowa coach saw her potential and allowed her to be extraordinary. The Fever coach will be fired for inability to create a team around Clark's capabilities. Watch how this team becomes a disappointment when they look like an average boring team