4 observations as Fever down Wings with impressive performance in second preseason game

INDIANAPOLIS ‒ After a double-figure loss to the Chicago Sky in their first preseason game, the Fever responded with a 90-83 win over the Dallas Wings on Saturday in their second and final preseason game and first at Gainbridge Fieldhouse leading up to next week's season opener.

Here are four observations:

NaLyssa Smith shows off her inside-outside game

From the time Aliyah Boston was drafted first overall in this year's draft, Fever forward NaLyssa Smith has been thinking about how playing with the four-time All-American center would allow her to step out more and show off her inside-outside game and benefit from that high-low connection. Smith's performance Saturday was an indication of just how much potential she has as a scorer in such a role.

Smith found a rhythm immediately with seven first-quarter points on 3 of 5 shooting and kept rolling from there, knocking down 3s when they were available and attacking off the dribble from the perimeter. While Boston was fighting Dallas' massive bigs in the post, Smith was taking advantage of much easier matchups. She finished with 22 points on 7 of 12 shooting, including 4 of 6 from 3-point range and 4 of 4 at the line. She also finished with eight rebounds and two assists.

"When you got great guards that bring all the attention to them, I had so many open 3s," Smith said. "My challenge is to knock them down like coach always tell us. 'Y'all are going to have that open shot, y'all need to make it.' When they're drawing so much attention and AB is drawing that much attention in the post, it gives me the opportunity to knock those shots down."

Fever coach Christie Sides said Smith's ability to attack off the dribble from the perimeter was a particularly good sign, because it shows the value of her conditioning.

"NaLyssa is getting in shape right now," Sides said. "Her fitness from Day 1 until now is the reason she was able to go by people. She's really struggled, but she's continued to work. I am challenging her with her conditioning, because I think if NaLyssa Smith gets in top, top conditioning, I don't know who can stop her, because she can do all the above. She can take it to the rim. I need her to be able to handle and more. She gets a lot of rebounds. She can take it and go and make things happen."

Aliyah Boston has her welcome-to-the-W moment and learns from it

If Aliyah Boston ever faced an opponent she couldn't physically move around in her four years at South Carolina it was assuredly rare, as she was the dominant post force in college basketball during her era. But playing in the WNBA means facing grown women with more years of weight room investment, and Boston got to see up close what that looks like on Saturday.

Boston started the game matched up Wings 6-7 center Teiaira McCowan, who was the Fever's No. 3 pick in the 2019 draft and was once the blue-chip draftee on which the Fever's hopes for the future rested like Boston is now. McCowan moved on after three years that were solid individually, even if they weren't enough to positively change the trajectory of the franchise. Now she's 26, listed at 239 pounds and trying to get her to back up in the post is just slightly easier than trying to push a brick wall.

Boston found that out quickly. She said McCowan is the biggest opponent she's ever played against -- "Sure was," Boston said -- and a lot of what she can usually do to keep an opponent away from the lane on defense or push her into it on defense was not enough to budge McCowan.

"I tried my best," Boston said. "Please put that in there. I tried my best. ... I think they ran Horns action or something and I tried to nudge her before she got to the paint and somehow, someway she was in the paint. I was behind her and I tried to get around her and it was really hard. But I tried but that in there. I tried."

Boston picked up three fouls in just seven minutes of first half action. She had two assists at the break, but didn't have time on the floor to attempt a field goal. McCowan had just eight points at the break on 3 of 4 shooting, but she had effectively neutralized Boston.

But at halftime, Boston figured out how she could counter. On one of the first possessions of the second half, she stepped out and hit a foul-line jumper, then scored again on a drive from the right wing. She finished with just eight points on 4 of 6 shooting, but even that adjustment shows some maturity and an understanding of what she'll have to do when she isn't the biggest player on the floor. McCowan finished with 14 points on 5 of 7 shooting, but just four rebounds, so Boston wasn't totally pushed around in the matchup. She got at least one bucket in the post when she had to make multiple moves to create space for a bucket, which showed fortitude. She still committed six fouls in just 17 minutes -- Sides said keeping her hands straight up and not hooking would be a point of emphasis -- but Boston's teammates were impressed with the way she battled.

"It's so funny the way the tables have turned," said Fever guard Kelsey Mitchell, who was in her second year with the Fever when McCowan was drafted. "I started out with Big T, and to see the way her game is going, it's up hill. It's crazy. To see Aliyah compete against someone that rare -- Big T is a rare one. Teiara McCowan is not your typical big. On top of her size, she's also long and for Aliyah to compete and to grind it out and give as much grit to a person like Big T is phenomenal and I think she handled it really well."

Kelsey Mitchell and Erica Wheeler step up

The Fever have just four players with more than a year of WNBA experience on the roster and they only played two of the four, but both of them were exceptional on Saturday.

Guards Kelsey Mitchell and Erica Wheeler were a tough backcourt to deal with when they were teammates during Wheeler's first stint in Indiana and they proved trouble for the Wings on Saturday, combining to score 39 of the Fever's 90 points.

Mitchell had a slow first quarter with just two points on 1 of 2 shooting, but she went off for 11 on 4 of 8 shooting with three 3-pointers in the second quarter and kept rolling from there to finish with 29 points on 10 of 18 shooting including 4 of 8 from 3. After the Wings got back within 3 in the final three minutes, Mitchell went to the lane to hit a floater and draw the foul, converting a three-point play that gave the Fever a breather.

"Kelsey Mitchell, she's just speed," Sides said. "It's hard to guard speed and that's what she has. She's able to get by people getting downhill. I give our team a lot of credit. Our spacing was so good. We were able to get Kelsey wide-open 3s and she knocked them down."

Wheeler finished with 10 points, six rebounds and five assists, and she also hit a key bucket in the final minutes that put the Fever up 10.

Fever spent their week fixing mistakes

Fever coach Christie Sides was deeply dismayed in Sunday's loss to the Sky, particularly because of a lack of ball pressure on defense and turnovers on the offensive end and spent much of the week harping on those issues. On Saturday, it was clear that her lectures took because in a span of a week, they turned weaknesses into strengths.

The Wings made five of their first seven shots to start the game, but the defensive pressure was drastically different the rest of the way and Dallas had to work for everything it got inside and outside. From that point forward, Dallas made 12 of 28 shots before halftime. The Fever took control of the game in the third when Dallas make just 4 of 14 field goals and scored 13 points. Dallas finished the game shooting 40.3% from the field, including 9 of 30 (30%) from the 3-point arc. Even with their size advantage, the Wings scored a modest 32 points in the paint and the rebound battle was even at 37.

Meanwhile, the Fever turned the ball over just 13 times after 25 turnovers last week, so even though they shot just 46.3% from the field, they didn't have a lot of empty possessions and they shot through slumps. With Smith and Mitchell hitting four each, they were 10 of 20 from beyond the arc.

"We had a special video session after that Chicago game, I'll just keep it at that," Sides said. "I really put (the turnover problem) on Kelsey and NaLyssa and just challenged them on what it was supposed to look like and they did exactly what that was."

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Fever vs. Wings: Fever win second preseason game