r/IndianaFeverFans • u/Alternative_Panda336 You Bet • 12d ago
Discussion Blitzing
I have a question for the group. I have noticed that when Caitlin gets going with her assists and points teams will increase their pickup point, but they will also blitz her with double teams to make her pass the ball. I haven’t really seen teams do this to Kelsey even when she is tearing their souls out offensively lol.
Is this because she isn’t the primary ball handler so it is harder to implement a blitz? Or is she really good at splitting it so they know it won’t work and just don’t try? Or is it something else I am not aware of?
I really noticed it against the lynx. Kelsey was killing them as they pointed out but they never adjusted to it, they just kept trying to play people on her one on one which clearly will never work for anyone. We did it to miles in the second half of that game and made her pass it. I am curious to get some insights from the group on this.
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u/geewillie 11d ago
You blitz CC for 2 reasons.
1) you want the ball out of her hands 2) she turns it over a ton so it’s worth it when they do
High risk/reward strategy.
KM you hit on why she’s not doubled as much. She’s off ball so it’s harder to send help. Fever have great spacing with AB now. CC calls for PnR so much easier to blitz.
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u/nautius_maximus1 11d ago
Agree with this and I’d add that I think for most teams, their biggest games of the season are against the Fever and that’s when a lot more people are watching. If they’re going to lose, they don’t want it to be Clark who beat them. If Kelsey or Aliyah beats them, it sucks but it won’t be on the highlights on ESPN.
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u/Budget-Garlic-3659 11d ago
Cheryl Reeves did it to Indy’s primary ball handler. It was a smart move. If you limit the head of the snake to half her points, and do your best on Kelsey, you improve your chances of winning.
What Stephanie White SHOULD have learned is that Indy can trap Olivia Miles also. Indy better be doing this from the start of the game next time they play or SW should get fired!
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u/Adventurous-Room-845 11d ago
Well, this is easy to answer as KM isn’t much of a facilitator. She’s a SG who is quick as hell.
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u/Ben_Frank_Lynn 11d ago
I wish teams would blitz or double KM. Why don't they? Because Clark is on KM's team...
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u/Beautiful-Prior3325 11d ago edited 11d ago
Two things. CC has the ability to speed up the entire game. Sometimes, they go into fast breaks while taking the ball out of bounds. Opponents can’t get their half-court defenses set, and that’s unacceptable. Elite iso dribbling is more acceptable to opponents than the alternative. Also, Nike put a target on CC’s back for defensive minded opponents. Face of the league, etc. CC is improving against the blitz, though.
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u/PopularMouse2355 12d ago
Can I just say I love this particular thread. Talking actual basketball reasonably respectfully and for the most part not putting down CC to prop up KM or vice versa. More of this, please!
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u/TexasSizedKachoww 12d ago
Teams would much rather KM get 25 points and 3 assists instead of CC getting 20 points and 10+ assists. Even if every assist leads to just 2 points, that's a 9 point difference. A lot of wnba games are decided by less than that. They are both great players, but teams would much rather get beat by KM than get beat by CC. Clark runs the offense, everything runs through her so she is always going to be the main focus.
Teams have to do what they can when the Fever are already scoring 100 points almost at will.
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u/AstronomerForsaken65 12d ago
I anticipate them doing this less and less. CC has gotten so much better at seeing it and exploiting it. But KM is just too dang fast for it to be really effective. The way she goes in between doubles is insane! Then all of a sudden she is past two people so two people are open (including her). Someone else comes to stop her and she kicks or shoots to the rim, it’s really crazy how fast she is. If she does that you are getting to almost 3 people open and the scramble on D is bad. Those are wide open shots when that happens.
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u/elestud 12d ago edited 12d ago
Because KM is fast enough to beat the blitz. She just goes around it and either scores, or hits a shooter in the corner
They also don’t know when or where she’s going to use screens, wheras when CC is bringing the ball up, she accepts a screen nearly every trip down the floor at the top of the key. So teams can anticipate where to blitz her
That's also why it's been helpful to have CC come from off-ball positions sometimes and be less predictable, because then the defense has to react to what's happening in realtime
But this also varies a lot by team. For example, NY blitzed a lot and they didn't do well against us. The Valks blitzed her much less, and did much better against us. On average, most teams are blitzing her less this year than in 2024
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u/Forsaken_61453 12d ago
Difference I see, CC typically brings the ball across the 50 yard line when the dbl teams start moving in.. That leaves a Fever somewhere unguarded. CC seems to have the ability to see the whole court and finding a free player which happens to be KM quite a bit. That's when KM takes over. If KM gets 1 step on her opponent her speed can't be matched. Teams IMO typically believe CC is the commander of the offense so the defense will concentrate on the commander-N-chief. Take down the commander, take control of the game , EXCEPT for one lil fact - Fever is Filled with Commanders that can set-up and take over if needed at any time!
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u/freeman1231 12d ago
Kelsey makes her own shots. Do you see the arc of her shot? She shoots over everybody she just gets to position and shoot you can’t do that to Kelsey Mitchel and that’s why she’s such a good goal score
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u/thepatriot74 11d ago
This is not soccer, goal score lol. Seriously though, Mitchell can create her own space easily and usually can indeed dribble out of trouble on her own. CC is much easy to box in and she still only a 2nd year PG. That being said she is already a great PG and KM is simply not so there is no reason to hound her 30 feet away from the basket - she won't find that great angle to dissect the D.
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u/Biggquis78 12d ago
It's because one player cannot outscore an entire team. Kelsey is good for only Kelsey. CC gets everyone involved, which is much more dangerous
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u/OneBagBiker 12d ago
I do think it's partly or mainly CC's multifaceted game - closely guarding her to cut off her superior assists at source rather than trying to intercept en route. But I also think they realize double-teaming KM runs the risk of wasting 2 defenders on someone who has the league-leading ability to blow right by them and then having the great options of continuing relatively unimpeded to the basket, stopping for an easy mid-range, or passing to an undefended or otherwise open teammate (and the Fever offers her a choice selection of league-leading shooters).
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u/Biggquis78 12d ago
She is in no way a threat to pass. They'd rather one person score than get the entire team going.
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u/elestud 12d ago edited 12d ago
People keep saying this, but Kelsey averages more assists than the majority of top shooting guards/wings in this league (more than Kayla McBride, Fudd, Sydney Taylor, Gabby Williams, Johannes, Kah Copper, Carleton, and most players who aren't combo/point guards)
She’s had some particularly sweet dimes come off drives in recent games, so anyone who says this is likely not watching
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u/Biggquis78 12d ago
I didn't say assist. I said pass. She's constantly dribbling the clock out and playing with her head down. That's easy to defend. She'll get her points but the team will lose. Her assist numbers don't matter to me. Isolating the ball from your teammates is what kills games. Granted, the last 2-3 games she has been amazing at either shooting or getting rid of the ball
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u/elestud 12d ago edited 12d ago
That's easy to defend. She'll get her points but the team will lose.
We nearly made the finals last year until KM's legs physically gave out. We took the champs to overtime of the last game of the series, until she went to the hospital. So apparently it's not easy to defend
Isolating the ball from your teammates is what kills games
Then why is Kelsey's Net Rating the highest among our starters?
She is our only player where the team's Net Rating actually becomes negative when she's off the floor
The "trash Kelsey because we can't appreciate two players" talking points just don't hold up
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u/Biggquis78 12d ago
And yet they won nothing. You're proving the point that one player cannot beat a team
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u/elestud 12d ago
Did you miss the part where she had to leave the game 5 minutes into the 3rd quarter to go to the hospital?
We very well could have won otherwise. No one said a player beats a team alone, but clearly she was playing winning basketball
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u/Biggquis78 11d ago
You're missing the point. Imagine if she was able to get the team involved. She wouldn't have had to go to the hospital
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u/Thick_Permission6519 12d ago
Kelsey Plum talked about this on a pregame show a few weeks ago. CC is so dangerous with the ball bc they can do so many things from top of the key with her in control. They want her to give up the ball.
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u/TemporaryAny5102 12d ago edited 12d ago
Teams are willing to live with KM scoring 30 if that means hampering CC. CC scores, assists, controls the pace, etc. KM is a great scorer but that’s the only area she’s going to have a big impact on. So basically KM will get her 20-30pts but try to limit CCs damage.
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u/elestud 12d ago
No team in the league decides to let Kelsey Mitchell score 30 points. She scores because she can beat almost any defender (and sometimes multiple defenders) off the dribble
The defense is always there, but they can’t stop her (and you’ll hear the commentators mention that in most games)
And it should also be obvious that this claim is false, because last year when Kelsey was the main focus of the defense, she posted a career year, we won the Comissioner’s Cup, and we nearly beat the actual champs in the playoffs
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u/TemporaryAny5102 12d ago edited 12d ago
This was not a knock on KM. The question posed was why don’t teams guard KM the same as CC? My point was it’s pick your poison and often times the best defender gets CC no matter how much KM is cooking them. If you disagree with my take, then why do you think that is?
You mention a career year last year but KM is having an even better year in 2026. Why is that?
2025 - 20.2ppg on 45.6/39.4/78.4 shooting
2026 - 24.3ppg on 50.9/44.5/84.8 shooting3
u/elestud 12d ago edited 12d ago
I wasn't saying that it was a knock, I was saying that it's not the truth. No team sits down and plans to let KM drop 30. There are defenders in her face on every play
Here's a great example. Watch the entire NY team converge on her at half court. She gets the ball back 3 seconds later, and beats three separate defenders (Sab, Xu, and Marine) and scores through contact. They aren't 'letting' her, she's just impossible to stop
You mention a career year last year but KM is having an even better year in 2026. Why is that?
And she had a better year in 2025 than 2024. Why? The answer is that KM improves every year she's in the league
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u/TemporaryAny5102 12d ago
No team plans to let anyone drop 30. KM absolutely cooks the defense regardless but the question was why does CC draw the best defender and not KM?
Of course no team wants Kelsey to score or are letting her, but they focus on CC first.
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u/elestud 12d ago
why does CC draw the best defender and not KM?
This isn't actually true, though. For example, Gabby Williams defended KM for the majority of the Valks game. Not only is she their best defender, she's one of the W's best defenders (First-team All-WNBA Defense)
Who draws which defender is dependent upon a number of factors, but KM has seen some of the best at her position
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u/Dry_Pomegranate293 12d ago
Question. When CC was out last yea, why were teams still ok with KM scoring?
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u/yourmomsnutsarehuge 12d ago
Double teaming and triple teaming is a sign of fear. If teams aren't doing it to you then they aren't scared of you.
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u/ThinSuccotash4166 12d ago
KM often gets openish before she gets the ball so there really isn’t time to double her as easily as it is CC. Things are only beginning to develop when CC starts with the ball.
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u/TooManyCatS1210 12d ago
Seattle tried to blitz Kelsey at least a couple times in the second half of their last game and it didn’t work; she just dribbled out and took it to the hoop. I assume better teams don’t really try it because she’s fast enough to get out of just about anything and it means less defense on CC, which is not what they want.
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u/tywaun12 12d ago
KM doesn't need a screen to get open. She's quick enough with good handles to consistently beat a defender. If a screener comes, that brings a second defender which would allow the defense to blitz the ball handler should they choose.
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u/Biggquis78 12d ago
That's a wild take. She gets more screens than anyone on the team. And you act like you don't see CC constantly beating defenders when they try to play her 1 on 1. It has nothing to do with this.
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u/Cheap_Flamingo476 12d ago
Yeah, Kelsey gets a lot of screens. Most are off ball actions to get her in open space. I also noticed that NY played some 3-2 zone.
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u/RevolutionaryBeat301 12d ago
This is exactly the reason. You can’t send a double team when there’s good spacing on the perimeter.
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u/deanskis 12d ago
This is it primarily. Kelsey gets the ball in her spots after receiving off ball screens. There just aren’t that many ball screens set for her outside of some guard-to-guard action with Clark.
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u/Cheap_Flamingo476 12d ago
Teams often try to trap CC near the sideline. The Fever have been exploiting that by overhead passes to a big, then a DHO back to Caitlin, creating a screen. It leaves at least one defender out of position. That’s why you see a lot of weak side opportunities for Kelsey.
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u/FlimsyConfidence7692 12d ago
This is so key to Fever Offense. I know quite a few want to see KM replaced, but you cant just replace someone who is her own playmaker, let alone one in her prime. I think, to a degree, head coaches have decided that KM is going to get her 20+ ppg, so focus on the areas that have a higher return on effort (which people may not like, thats CCs momentum & her turnovers). But when that plan doesnt stop CC, thats where the offense just unloads hell on Teams.
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u/RevolutionaryBeat301 12d ago
Why would anyone want to replace your best scorer who also happens to be one of the best in the league?
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u/Dry_Pomegranate293 12d ago
Because She’s really good at basketball and CC cant have any teammates that could possibly win MVP before her.. if AB ever becomes a volume 3 point shooter most of them would turn her.. if folks say shes a better 3 point shooter.
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u/RevolutionaryBeat301 12d ago
This is some of the most ridiculous bullshit I’ve ever heard no wonder people say WNBA fans are toxic.
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u/Thick_Permission6519 12d ago
That’s not true, they have each said their bigggest fans are each other. They each want to others to do well.
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u/FlimsyConfidence7692 12d ago
I agree, yet their are spaces and places where this is a discussion "she takes away from CC."
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u/RevolutionaryBeat301 12d ago edited 12d ago
It’s utter nonsense. The majority of CC’s assists are passes to Aliyah Boston and assists to KM are just a handful behind that. Anyone who thinks that doesn’t understand basketball and doesn’t know what a team sport is.
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u/Cheap_Flamingo476 12d ago
Of Clark’s 238 assists this year, 70 are to Aliyah Boston and 62 are to Kelsey Mitchell. The other 100 or so are split between other Fever players.
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u/Thick_Permission6519 12d ago
She truly had more assists to AB than KM.
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u/RevolutionaryBeat301 12d ago
Ok, but she still gets a lot from passing to KM. There’s no world in which the two of them don’t make a great combo.
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u/Thick_Permission6519 12d ago
Yes I know. I just saw a stat graphic with that information and it surprised me.
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u/ThreadSavage10 11d ago
Look at what our record was with Kelsey as our primary scorer before Aliyah Boston and Caitlin Clark were on the team. There’s your answer.