Indiana Fever Pregame Media Availability (vs. Las Vegas Aces) | September 13, 2024

Head Coach Christie Sides was just wondering what the process was yesterday you know how much was spent on film how much was spent on rest uh for players just in between yeah just um really what whatever they needed is what they did other than the we did have Team video and a team stretch but you know some of them needed treatment some of them needed um a good stretch so it was just one of those days you know we keep showing them different things that helps them understand like what their body needs in a you know in a game after a game um with one in between So Christine so Christie levity I imagine is a big part of keeping everyone loose and happy and fun and the video that's out there of Lexi's birthday and Caitlyn singing and she wishes there were other rookies because she has to sing the whole thing by herself and she picks her up and all that in light of what you did with the game playing and all that in the break that led to the team building and whatever how important is something is silly and fun that obviously is getting tons of hits out there how important is that just that little those couple moments of levity yeah I think it's just you know once you um build relationships with people and get comfortable it just kind of changes um you know how you interact daily and and I really think that that's had a huge play in and how we've played on the court um these guys spent you know time off the basketball court quality time just spending time with each other getting to know each other um kind of just letting their hair down a little bit and and having a good time and so that's you know but I've said it you know kayln is um I won't tell her this but I'm sure here but she's she's really a funny funny person um she's she has us laughing a lot uh out on the practice court a lot of times Chloe yeah obviously Wednesday's game was pretty physical for today have you done anything like physically or mentally with your team to kind of just prepare for that no not really anything you can do uh to to help with that but you're completely right that was a real physical game way more even going back and watching it um just when I was able to focus on some other things um just got to make sure we're uh you know Kelsey and Caitlyn just couldn't get loose the other night from you know their Defenders and it wasn't like you know there was a lot of times there was a lot of rapping and holding going on so hopefully we'll get those calls tonight and they'll have a feel feel a little bit more free um trying to get from point A to pointb uh Lexa go ahead yeah Chrissy just kind of going back to um a little bit earlier in this season when you think about just Kelsey getting healthy and how you know she wasn't practicing in training camp and took some time for her to kind of get going how much did that was that a factor in just like things not going the way you guys wanted to at first and when did you start to realize that she was kind of getting into her own Groove um that we've seen now yeah yeah not having Kelsey in training camp was was really hard just because you know we needed to start um just what it was going to look like uh from day one but you know we weren't able to do it but she was there every day she was right on the side line every day talking she she really talked to to Caitlyn and the other players um even though she wasn't able to be out there with them um I think Dallas when we went to the preseason game she got in um I think that was the first game without any practice um but probably you know again it's still a process you know I can't pinpoint a time it's just been over a period of time um with with her in there with the the other players and just you know she's just so Dynamic when you're not used to playing with someone like her it's different with her uh ability to get down heill and her ability to knock down shots and um so it was you know once we got her back and they started the process of getting to know each other playing together it just you know we just keep getting better Matt yeah um two to three games ago Caitlyn was pretty um expressive and obviously you've said before that that's the player that she is um on Wednesday not so much was a little bit more Reed in does that mean that you were the staff maybe sat down with her had a little bit of talk about that I mean we we talk about the um her her competitive spirit um a lot you know there's just things that you know we didn't want her to pick up that um you know those technical fils we didn't want to you know we don't want her nobody wants her to sit out um and I think it's just a it's just a conversation about you know what the result will be if you know you get those and um she understands that and she you know she obviously doesn't want to you know have to sit out a game as well um but I mean again that's her drive and that's her spirit and that's something you know um I want her to have it you know the way she's been off season and then just maybe you know we've got to pick and choose some of our times like once you realize it's just not going in your favor anymore you know it's time to let's go to the next play so we kind of talk about that just getting into that next play got time for one more maybe uh in the room kelse you got one more uh coach could you just talk a little bit more about Aaliyah um obviously she had the big night scoring and she struggled a little bit offensively and that's kind of been the story but could you talk a little bit more about her defense and her rebounds and how big of an impact that has made um on the last few games yeah goly you know Aaliyah Boston whether she's scoring or not and we want her to score and we're going to get the ball to her down there um for as many touches as um as she needs but her defensive presence has just been um it's just so solid um and that was you know she was really down on herself early really you know and but her impact on the defensive end like we just kept trying to show her like what she's doing for us um is just is just huge I mean she broke the franchise record last year in rebounds I'm pretty sure and then she I think she just broke it again um broke her own record I mean that's huge against um Asia Wilson and this Vegas team I mean the way she's able to to rebound the basketball I mean you know she's a huge huge part of our success I don't know if you have any Caitlin Clark sort of relationship with Asia but you know as one of the faces of the league up to this year what have you thought of the way she's carried herself throughout her MVP Seasons yeah I mean I thought I think she's had a tremendous year um obviously I don't know her too well coming into this league and just being a rookie and she's obviously been in this league for many years but um I think getting to witness it firsthand obviously this is going to be our fourth time matching up and we've already played three times prior she's just been incredible like there's only so much you can do like there's so many different schemes you can try to throw at her but uh she's able to get to her spots and get what she wants um I think she impacts the game on both ends of the floor um which you know not every player can do that so um um it's been fun to see um you know I think she's just been able to expand her game even more and more whether it's the mid-range whether it's threes whether it's off the dribble so uh definitely presents a tough matchup for us but she's definitely had a tremendous season go Chloe then Christine yeah you talked about physicality on Wednesday just coming into this game is there anything you can do mentally to just prepare for that yeah I mean that's that's you know how they've guarded me you know every time we've matched up is just like they have strong physical guards um I think they've just played really good defense honestly and I think setting and using cuts a little bit better I think that goes for a whole team is just like setting people up you know taking a couple steps away to come off of a screen a little bit harder um I think you know trying to use our speed a little bit better I think me especially try to get downhill more I think I was playing side to side a little too much um but I think more than anything just use use change of pace um and push in transition and gets more stopped defensively because you know even how we started that game the other night um the reasons we scored was because because we had mismatches um so the more we can do that when we get stops on defense and going in trans transition the better it's going to be for us we go Christine then we'll go Lou Caitlyn the idea of levity of having fun of laughing whatever it looked like you guys were having a great time today at Sho around and another birthday and I guess as a rookie the only rookie you said right had to perform yeah tough job you said you need more rookies right yeah I did and and then you picked up Lexi yeah um can you just talk a little bit about you know here these games are so important right In the Heat of the Season just the value of laughing joking and course said you're pretty funny and you kind of cracked them up what what that means to you and keeps you loose that kind of thing yeah I mean you know even though we're coming off of a loss where we felt we didn't play very well and I didn't feel like I played very well and I think everybody keeps everything in perspective really well is like you're going to have some nights where the ball just doesn't really go your way um I thought the game felt very choppy but you know we came back the next day and everybody you know was happy to be here anded excited to work and excited about the next opportunity is you know we get another chance at them on our home court so um I think that's where it comes from but also I think this team has really built some great chemistry over the course of you know the last couple months of really finding our groove and finding our flow and I think you know having fun and smiling is a huge reason why we've been able to find so much success and why people have also enjoyed watching our group is like you can tell we we have a lot of fun out on the court we play basketball the right way we celebrate our teammates success um and I think that's what overall has brought us even more team success so for me I try to bring that every single day and you know if it wasn't fun I don't think you would love doing it I mean from like I've said many times like it doesn't feel like a job I feel like a little kid and I know everybody kind of gets a kick out of me at practice so uh we try to keep it light and fun um and that's what m you know you wake up every single day and I enjoy coming to practice I don't I don't know if everybody says that but I do like I love practice so um you know we just try to keep it light and fun and have a good time with each other go Lou then we'll go Alexa but have youever studied any YouTube tapes or anything of other well-known point point guards from the past and in particular I was wondering if you're familiar at all with Bob Koozie and his history at all honestly no I was never uh I mean I've seen like highlight tapes but I was never one that really like you know like I've seen everybody's highlight tapes you know but I was never one that like sat down and studied specific players like I just loved the game of basketball and I loved having it on um whether that was men's whether that was women's whether that was you know the high School level as a young kid I would like you know Tuesday and Friday were the were the days that my high school team played growing up and those were like the best days of the week for me because I knew that night I got to go to the high school basketball game so I was always just like a fan of basketball whether it was men's women's Pros College High School I just loved to be around the game and I think that's the best way I could learn um whether it was my older brother's basketball team whether it was the high school basketball team or whether it was turning on the TV at nights it's just like I was a fan of the game and really enjoyed watching it go what yeah made yeah I I did not watch so I don't know yeah okay go Alexa then we'll finish up with Kelsey in the back Caitlyn how would you compare the way that you can process the game like kind of live as it's happening and the way that defenses are regarding you now versus if you think back to May or even like early June and um was there like moments where you've really started to realized that was a process that was like picking up for you yeah I mean I think the game has definitely slowed down overall for myself where I can kind of tell what teams are doing and through the first like 10 games or so it was almost overwhelming at points of like I was just getting trapped and blitzed so much off of a ball screen it was almost just like get it out of your hand and that was kind of what I was most focused on of like trying to just get it to my teammates while two were were coming at me I think now I'm kind of almost picking it apart in a way where like I want to get Blitz like that should offer us an advantage on the offensive end when if I can hit ab and we can attack out of it I still think at times we can do a little bit job of once we do get the ball out of the Trap like we got to be a little bit more aggressive whether that's our Shooters on the perimeter or whether that's our post players playing together um so I think overall just like my experience and the game has definitely slowed down in that manner and um you know teams will definitely switch it up within the game so I I don't think it's something that you can get comfortable to what like say if the aces come out tonight and they start in like a drop coverage like I know at some point there's going to be a ball screen coming so I can never get used to them just playing drop defense so I think like I always got to be on my toes um that's something I learned too and um um I think also understanding my own teammates and knowing what spots they're going to be in too has helped me be more more successful too finish up with Kelsey Caitlin the story with Aaliyah a lot this season has surrounded her offense she struggled early but found success but last night she broke her own franchise record for rebounds could you just talk about her impact defensively especially on the boards and how that impacts you yeah I think ab's been tremendous um you know as of late especially she's been huge for us I thought her defense was pretty good the other night as well like that's a tall task any mat matched up with Asia and there's really you know only so much you can do you're relying on your your help defense as well a lot but I thought she was really up for the challenge and and did a good job and um you know I'm happy for her I think she's had a great year offensively but also defensively and then obviously rebounding like she's somebody that dominates the boards I feel like that's been something we've been pretty good at all year long is is rebounding and when you have somebody like her really you know patrolling the paint like you feel pretty confident in there so uh I feel very fortunate to be able to come into this franchise and have a post player like that that I get to work with and learn with like obviously we're both young so um it's fun for us getting to continue to learn I feel like we've kind of found our connection as the years's gone on but um I still think AB is really raw like she has so much skill right now but I think like really sky's the limit for her like she can continue to improve and get so much better and um like I said she's already really good but I think she's going to be one of the one of the best players