Indiana Fever head coach Stephanie White talks loss to Golden State Valkyries

I thought our energy was not great to start, for whatever reason. It's hard when you dig yourself a hole against a really solid defensive team, because they don't give you extra positions very often, and they make it really hard on you. We dug ourselves a hole, and then we started to claw back, and then we dug ourselves another hole and started to claw back. Some of it's, again, discipline, positioning, rotation. Some of it, the turnovers kill you when you're trying to mount the comeback, and when you kind of give yourself an opportunity, again, against a team that doesn't typically give you those possessions back. So it was a collection of things. I felt like they were the tougher team tonight. I felt like they hit first often, and we just couldn't consistently recover. You mentioned turnovers. Now I have to say, really good defensive team. This is your most important game of the season. What do you attribute that to, whether it's what they did or something you guys did not do? Yeah, I mean, one, they're really good defensively. They force you to do some tough things. I think our turnovers, we miss some shots we typically make early, and it puts a lot of pressure on your defense to be perfect when you struggle from the floor and when you give them easy opportunities in transition. I thought there were times where we did some really good things, and then there were times where we didn't, and that's building that consistency. They shot 52% from the floor. We didn't feel like we were as disruptive as we needed to be. And, again, they do a really good job of spacing the floor, and they make it tough. So you talked to the official after that play, Caitlin, about needing the quad, and I thought for a sec, did they give you an explanation for the no-call there? No, they said Caitlin initiated the contact. She seems to always be initiating the contact on their way. What did you see? Yeah, I mean, our ball screen coverage in the middle wasn't good. We were trying to make a couple of adjustments in the moment on the fly. There just wasn't enough, I feel like, urgency. She's been playing really well the last six or seven games, and I thought she had her ability to get downhill, her ability to keep a soft balance, and then making the right play in the right read. Coming off a long road trip, do you think fatigue had an effect on the way they finished off the play? Yeah, I mean, probably, but we don't have time for that. This has got to be no excuses, standard over feelings. Everybody in this league goes through this. It's not something that we're going to be immune to and everybody else isn't. I just think our mentality to start the ball game needs to be better, and when you spend all of that energy trying to come back at multiple points in the game, it becomes, you know, at times, and so we can't give in to those excuses. Trying to not get fined, all I'll say is that we just keep asking for consistency.