Indiana Fever Caitlin Clark, Aliyah Boston Postgame vs LA Sparks 9/4/2024

at the end of the game something like that obviously you're not trying to like manipulate the game but obviously people knew last rebound trip it's right next to the scoreboard so I think everybody's pretty aware of what's happening I mean honestly like somebody had to get the rebound and I was actually the closest one to the ball so aah for you um I guess how's it been just growing into a new role with this team this year and I guess picking your spots and having different game eight assists one night 24 points tonight and just knowing how to choose the spots yeah I think um it's just about reading the floor and taking what the defense gives you um I feel like I just try to let the game come to me and not force it so if it's a night where I have more assists than anything else and that's what it's going to be and then if it's a night where I can score the ball and get rebounds and Asser myself on the boards and that's what it's going to be it's really just taking what they can be chrisy said she and you talked a little bit about your recent games how they can help you get going what do you feel like ignited you tonight and and led to the big performance um god seriously I think you know you always want to play the best and I feel like especially these past two games for me just making sure that I have a presence on the floor so tonight I mean it was just you know prayer just knowing that he's equi me for anything and it's so the game that we had tonight and so I'm just super blessed Christine will for both of you um obviously that lots of great positive things happened in the last 24 hours was it a little difficult to get back up for it obviously La was playing well turnovers you know is it could you maybe describe your mindset when you know you you've already accomplished so many goals but of course you want to win the game and you did but how hard that is to kind of get through that on a night like this thank you yeah I thought we could have came out with a little more energy I thought we seemed a little bit flat um and I don't think that wasn't because of we felt complacent with already being in the playoffs or anything like that I'm just not sure if our energy was quite where it needed to be and um I thought we could have picked that up a little bit better um we weren't always on the same page and I think that kind of Started from the beginning we didn't really play with as much Pace as we usually do at moments we definitely did but I didn't think it was consistent uh throughout the game then obviously we could have taken care of the ball a little bit better I think you know we win by 10 to 15 maybe even more than that if we just take better care of the ball so um I think we something you go back and watch and we know um on Friday we got to come out with a lot more energy and that was a big question for me when I'm on my live and I'm like look they look flat I hope they're not getting complacent I hope the playoff clinch is not going to get them to play LAX deakle bring the fire the Sparks are going to bring the fire they want to beat you guys it's the LA Sparks you know you got Ria Jackson over there you got uh hamy you know you just got some players over there who aren't going to take it lightly and that's what they did they came out and they try to try to get it going early uh with the Trap and with the blitzing of citn Clark and then you know obviously they had some shots falling early they played they played fairly well the Sparks played well you know Indiana Fever that wasn't their best game to me it was uh it was an ugly win but a win is a win you know and they figured out a way in the fourth quarter to pull off that win and one thing that they're doing is they're eliminating um you know just having terrible third and fourth quarters where they just lose or they live they give up the lead you know we've seen it time and time again in the first half where they just blow a completely 15-point lead in the third or fourth quarter and we're like ah here we go again now going into the four I'm like n within that five minutes no matter what we got to close this game out and they've done that they they've played from behind in one games they've played in in front with the lead in one games they've shut it off they shut games out they still have a little bit you know they got to do a little bit better but they're doing it they're finding ways to win basketball games that's all that matters no matter what's throwing at them they're finding ways to win basketball I believe they're on a six game winning streak I believe or five game five or six game winning Street kayen Clark gets another triple double you know that that right there is another record you know and honestly I don't think it's about the record people are GNA say oh did a triple do I don't think Caitlin cares I mean she cares but not to the degree of if they would have lost she would not have cared so I think all in all the fact that they're winning games is what matters now getting aah Boston going early that's what I said I said look get AB going get the bigs going Nelissa Smith had 1 heavy points AB had 22 heavy points finished with a double double big big game and I'm like look they're not going to be able to play with this Download No Way create that contact get to the free throw line and do your thing down there ab and that's exactly what they did they were looking for her early and getting her in Rhythm and that's what it takes sometimes is getting your man in a rhythm knowing okay I'm going back to you back to you back to you this is your game I can see the mismatch I'm going back to you AB every time so I definitely love what I saw out there I still think there's some things that they need to fix and pick up but overall it was a great win let's continue with the interview go on the back to D um last week coach uh was talking about the Improvement of the team and she cited toughness in maturity has come out in the last month since the Olympic break and those practices do you feel like this fourth quarter was an example of that where you know you got challenged you made you made some runs but you you couldn't put them away but you had to fight them off again yeah I think you know over the course of the season it's about making sure that we're able to close out games there were some games that we lost at the beginning of the season because our fourth quarter wasn't great and so even going into this fourth quarter you know we just emphasized that listen this is the fourth quarter 10 more minutes we have to give it all our best we knew that they weren't just going to lay down and let us take the game and so just making sure that if they score then we have to score and then get a stop and that's really our mindset especially in that fourth quarter go down then we go team on the right yeah for both of you just six straight home games including tonight to get that home stand started off with a win knowing how well You' played already the second half crazy environment every night here how's it feel to get that home stand started out right knowing that you're just going to be here at home for so long yeah I think it's important you know these are games you really need to win um at home and the more we can win the better we can position ourselves for the playoffs so um and also we're just a competitive group of individuals like nobody wants to lose that's not fun especially in front of these fans that a lot of them like you know they only get to see the fever play one time they spend a lot of money to come here and watch us and have fun with us so um you know you want to you want to kind of give them a show every single time we're in here and honestly it's a lot of fun so uh don't take that for granted because before we know it the season will be over and I think this team is just trying to go one game at a time but to get the home stand started off on the right not I think was super important and it's just continuing to go one step at a time and and continue to build that confidence but uh I feel like we're playing really good inside this building so it's just continuing to build on that go ke then we go James and just kind of following up on Christin's question earlier just when the turnover start to kind of Mount and build what is set or what what do you guys do to kind of refocus and refocus and get back on the same page we get straight to it we say we need to take care of the ball I feel like that's as simple as it is I mean we know what we have to do and most of the times it's silly mistake so making sure that we just pay attention make sure that we're ready for it but at the end of the day like just take care of the ball make a good decision with it y James I'm on zo okay play 40 minutes tonight entire game um obviously probably wasn't the plan but just what how do you assess how you feel throughout a game and do you ever ask to come out or how did that come no I like sprinting I all you guys like I don't know like I feel like finding a balance of when to conserve my energy within the game um and playing with Pace at the same time I think you can there's times where you can pick and choose um I think I've done better at that and I think even over the last you know Road stretch the coach has found good you know minutes where I could get quick breather that becomes very important especially in the fourth but I thought felt tonight like I felt really good and could go the whole stretch it's never really uh they don't really ask me it's not really my choice it's more so they know what they're thinking and what we need in the moment so um yeah I mean I I could probably go play another 40 minutes I don't usually like to stop so go George on Zoom then D Clark she got that motor on her man this girl just wants to play basketball I didn't even know she played the full game you know there was some things in my life my life got disconnected because I was showing the game they were on my ass YouTube sent me an email oh my gosh then my people then we join Jo up on another live and then it was then my my smoothie wasn't it was a whole lot going on so for Caitlyn Clark to play the full game that just shows you her endurance and she stated I didn't ask to stay in I kind of just do what they tell me Chrissy sides rolled with her all game and that's what happened they got the win what else you gonna ask for they got the win mik George gu from the Just takeway Sports podcast Caitlyn many rookies struggle to find both team and individual success in the rookie year LeBron Payton Manning and Conor vard did not make the playoffs in the rookie season what does it mean to have team and rookie individual success I mean I think what is Caitlyn doing bro with the mic look at she is literally giving herself a a massage I I look it's soon as he brought this question up it was like oh here we go rookies struggle to find team and individual sucess in the rookie year LeBron Payton Manning and Conor did not make playoffs in the rookie season what is she's like what am I doing like why are you asking me this question like oh gosh please look at her have Team switch the eye look at to switch the eye bro I mean I think it comes with just playing the game of basketball the right way um you know coming in here obviously this organization hasn't been to the playoffs since 2016 and that was my main goal and I felt like you know once I got comfortable and kind of was you know I don't know playing style of basketball that we wanted to play which was Up Tempo which was playing off one another was playing um you know setting my teammates up for success and I think also once my teammates kind of got used to playing with me it's been pretty smooth sailing and fun basketball since then and you know everything besides team success like that all just comes with when your team wins like you got to win to have all that on the side and nobody really cares about that um you know people we can talk about it it is what it is um for me like it's it's fun winning basketball games it's fun walking off the court and the crowd's going crazy cuz you know you just won and you played a good game so for me like that's where my main focus is and I think when I do that everything else comes along with it and um I'm just thankful I feel like I'm surrounded by really good people really good coaches really good teammates um that allow me to be myself and uh set me up for success and you know have a lot of fun playing with me so I've enjoyed every single second of it and um you know I think we're just going to continue to get better last one Mike R yeah thank you um Kaitlyn I just want to ask you a little bit about the defensive aspect of your game uh obviously a lot of your rebounds are going to come on that end you have nine of them tonight on the defensive end and then three steals including that one late that uh was really key how much do you feel like you've grown as a defensive player and and how how that part of your game you you feel like is uh really coming okay then looks drained and over it yeah I mean honestly I I feel like I'm a pretty good on ball Defender it's just the off ball that I continue need to continue to work on um sometimes I get caught you know watching my man or don't always rotate in the way that I need to I get caught standing a little bit um and the rotations are very different than what I did in college so I think it's still been kind of a learning process for me and I continue to go back and watch the film with Coach Jesse and continue to learn um so I think that's just the biggest area that I can prove is definitely my off ball defense but honestly I think I just try to use my basketball IQ and understanding angles to make plays for my team on that end and try to get my you know try to get deflections um you know and the one that happened late where we had to end up switching I knew that was going to be the Play Just Because coming off a ball screen I come off a million ball screens and ab wasn't letting her take the mid-range jump shot so I knew she was going to try to dump it down to Hami so I tried to you know cut it off and get my hand on on the ball and I I was able to and then list kind of picked it up so I think just trying to use my IQ um and my length look before we continue with Coach sides we're going to talk about defense real quick right cayin Clark's defense a lot of people like to say she doesn't have defense for me the basketball IQ like she says her defensive instincts are always there it's just she gets caught she's always trying to help defense she always wants to be around the play so her man will be back door somewhere for a open shot or something it's not that you can't play defense I've seen there times where yeah at they're probably a little bit more physical than her they're probably four five eight years older than her wait till she's you know she's a freshman in high school right now so I I think the basketball IQ for the defensive instincts are definitely there I wouldn't say they're not but um yeah man they're they're definitely there you know so huge game from Ab huge game from Caitlyn Clark recording another triple double AB your partner in crime over there with the double double you know great fever win the fever are rolling right now they just keep on rolling and I believe they have the Sparks I know I think they got the Sparks Frid I mean the fever I mean the uh Aces Friday right let me let me check I believe it's the aces Friday man or you guys let me know I'll check the schedule in a little bit I got to get to some more content then I got to get to the gym so by the way if you're in this community you guys need to make sure you guys get in the gym okay now if you have or if you worked out today or if you plan on working out go ahead and spam Jim in the comment section besides that it's your boy CIO I appreciate you guys for tapping in I'm going catch you on the next video go fever I'm out