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Indiana Fever

Kelsey Mitchell Scores 25 Points, But Fever Fall to First-Place Washington Mystics, 84-93

May 24, 2018 - Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA)
Indiana Fever News Release


KEY STAT:

Washington outrebounded Indiana 35-23 and held the Fever to only one offensive rebound. The Mystics outscored the Fever 13-3 in second chance points.

INDIANA NOTES:

The Fever posted their best offensive outing of the season with 84 points on 48 percent shooting.

Rookie guard Kelsey Mitchell was inserted into the starting lineup for the first time, and led the Fever with 25 points on 9-for-16 shooting and 5-for-11 from three-point range. Her 25 points is the most points scored by a Fever rookie since 2005.

Following her 20-point outing Tuesday against Los Angeles, Mitchell became the first Fever rookie since Coretta Brown in 2003. Her five three-point field goals is tied for the second-most by a rookie in team history.

Candice Dupree posted her highest scoring output of the year with 21 points on 8-for-11 shooting. She also finished with a team-high seven rebounds.

Tiffany Mitchell scored in double figures for the third time in four outings with 13 points, and handed out a career-high seven assists.

As a team, Indiana finished with a season-high 20 assists on 29 made field goals.

With tonight's loss, the Fever fell to 0-4 on the season, only the second time in team history that Indiana has started the season 0-4 and the first time since 2001, the team's second season in the WNBA.

WASHINGTON NOTES:

The Mystics improved their record to 3-0 this season, which is currently the best mark in the WNBA.

All-Star forward Elena Delle Donne posted her second straight double-double and game highs with 26 points and 10 rebounds.

Washington shot a season-best 50.8 percent from the field, including 15-for-29 in the second half to help keep the game out of Indiana's reach.

Nine of the 10 Mystics players who saw action in tonight's game scored. Washington placed five players in double figures and posted a 30-20 advantage in bench scoring in the win.

Quoting Fever forward Candice Dupree

"We just have to do a better job with personnel. I think we're allowing it be too easy for other teams. We have to take away their strong points. I think the main thing is we hurt ourselves, turnovers at crucial moments, kind of got away from what was working for us offensively. Why? I don't know. We're shooting ourselves in the foot in these games.

"We're making it too easy for teams. I think chemistry is fine. We get along great on and off the court. So that's not an issue. We just have to figure out how to put it all together. Compete, take it personal, play for each other."

Quoting the Fever guard Kelsey Mitchell

(On the faster start)

"It's those lapses that our coaches keep talking about. It's like when we have a good start, good couple minutes, then the next thing you know it's going downhill. We can just turn it on always for the whole 40 minutes, I think we'll put ourselves in good positions. I give my respect to Washington, but everything that happened today, we did it to ourselves."

(On the Fever defense)

"I think part of the reason is knowing personnel. A lot of it is knowing personnel. Knowing what people can and can't do. That's one of my issues coming to this league, knowing what people can and can't do and know what shots to give up and what shots not to give up. That along with playing tight D is our issue."

Quoting Mystics Head Coach Mike Thibault

(What did you do differently to get back in the game?)

"We got a little more focused than we were at the start. I thought we made some mistakes with our pick and roll coverage with Kelsey Mitchell, in the first quarter. She's going to be a big-time talent. She's going to be a big-time player in this league. Everybody can see it. I like rookies that don't have any fear. But once we got that a little bit more under control, we did a better job on (Candice) Dupree as the game went along. Then we started making some shots too. We were pretty inefficient the first five, six minutes in the game. We made some subs about midway through the first quarter and kind of got ourselves going. Got it tied up by the end of the quarter and I'll give our bench credit for that, (Tianna) Hawkins and (Natasha) Cloud and (Ariel) Atkins and (Myisha) Hines-Allen came in and did a good job in the second quarter and got us back in the game."

Quoting Mystics' Elena Delle Donne

"Big game for us, especially it being our first road game and obviously Indy being pretty desperate for a win right now. They played great. (Kelsey) Mitchell went off. She's a really great player and she is just going to continue to get better. Happy with the way we were able to get through some of their runs and stay composed."

(On the difference between the first and second half)

"We made a couple of adjustments on defense that I think helped us get out of rotation so much. We were kind of able to execute that. If our defense is flowing and we're able to get into transition offense that's when we're at our best."

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