Caitlin & Aliyah DOMINATE, Mo GOES DOWN, roster predictions + game HIGHLIGHTS / RECAP!

Demon Caitlyn is back and she is setting

screens for Ilia Boston who is also back

by the way and surprisingly led the team

in drum roll assists. And it is no shock

that Indiana Fever blew Nigeria out of

the water 105 to 57. But let's go over

this final game of the preeason. talk

about who is ready, who is not ready,

who will make the development spots, and

I think it can be official. Raven

Johnson, you are an Indiana Fever.

>> I would like to caveat this video by

saying that the Indiana Fever played the

Nigerian Basketball Federation. So, in

no way did I think that the Indiana

Fever would be going down to Nigeria.

This did end up seeing like a friendly

game of pickup. And I have to be honest,

in the last half of the game, as with a

lot of these preseason games, it was

very hard to watch. But the first half

of the game was great. We have a lot to

talk about. Demon Caitlyn is back. She

was picking apart defenses. She was

playmaking. She was hitting shots from

all areas of the court. She even got a

little spicy at one point when she was

fouled by a player from Nigeria. It was

not called by the refs. She stopped

midplay.

Gave them some words.

About 2 seconds later, she's fouled. It

is called, but she still decides to hit

uh kind of like I guess like an FU3.

But one of my favorite plays of the game

was when Sophie cuts back door. Caitlyn

cuts through three defenders, threads

the needle and hits for pass. Beautiful

find to cutting.

>> I saw a lot of cutting back door

inside for Mitchell who pulls it down

and lays it in.

>> And I do think that these back door cuts

are going to be a very important part of

the playbook for the Indiana Fever this

season, especially with their lack of

size. In my opinion, they will be making

up for it with a lot of these like fast

back door cuts. And here is even some

offball action that worked where Raven

is bringing the ball down, passes it

over to Caitlyn, of which she decides to

spin and fade at the free throw line.

Now, she could have passed that over to

Dantas. Dantas. Let's talk about Dantas

later, but she might have just been

practicing different things that she can

do in different areas of the court since

this is the last preseason game before

the actual game opener on May 9th of

which they play the Dallas Wings. And

you know, I have to say I don't think

that they were trying against the Dallas

Wings. There was so much controversy

around that game, calling Caitlyn like a

foul merchant, of which she so isn't.

comparing her to SGA. She wasn't even

trying to draw fouls. I wish sometimes

that Caitlyn would go in and try to draw

more fouls because it is a tactic.

Briana Stewart does it. Sabrina does it.

Asia obviously does it. She's the best

at it. And Paige even mentioned herself

that she was working on that. And I

noticed Paige did start drawing fouls in

the last half of last season and she

looked a lot like Sabrini Anescu when

doing them. But Caitlyn was the ultimate

playmaker in this game. But her setting

a screen for AB was definitely not on my

bingo card. And speaking of AB, she is

such a difference maker for this team.

She actually did not lead the way in

rebounds. That was Raven Johnson, the

Swiss Army knife that she is. But it is

good to see someone boxing out under the

basket waiting for rebounds. That is

something that has been missing from the

other preseason games. And you know,

it's always nice to see some blocking

from someone other than Raven Johnson.

Aaliyah did play for 10 minutes, and she

did only come away with four points. She

had one rebound, but she had six

assists. This is going to come in very

handy as a team that will be sharing the

ball a lot. I think we did all know that

this was an Aaliyah Boston's bag. As a

center, she is elite. She has probably

the best best playmaking skills of any

center in the league. But if she just

developed a solid three ball, she would

be absolutely deadly. I should probably

mention Caitlyn stats also. She came

away with 12 points in 13 minutes. She

herself had two rebounds, four assists.

She had a steal. If she would have had a

block, she would have stuffed that stat

sheet. And she only had one turnover.

And Mo Billings finally playing her true

four position at the forward position

looked great tonight. Now, she was only

in for six minutes, but in those six

minutes, she did a lot. She didn't blow

any open layups like she was doing in

the previous games. She even hit a three

at the wing, but she did go down. She

rolled her ankle and as a precaution,

the Indiana Fever just took her out

because as Scott Agnes says, in a

blowout and a week before the regular

season starts, they would rather be safe

than sorry. And Stephanie White was

interviewed and says that it's probably

not bad. They did take her out just as a

precaution. She said she felt fine,

wasn't iced up or anything, and they are

going to get her evaluated tomorrow. And

it was her birthday and Mo Billings was

the birthday on her birthday. So, happy

birthday, Moings. You looked great. But

let's talk about Raven Johnson for a

second. I do want to go over some of

these things because she is an Indiana

Fever. She is a Swiss Army knife, a

utility player. She showed us a little

bit of everything tonight. Like here,

she has a nice crossover to Kelsey.

She definitely is showing off her

wingspan with that quick ball pickup and

stops on a dime into a pullup on the

other side. She even gets some perimeter

action going shooting from the three

here. And she really just suffocates her

defenders. I truly think at number 10

that Raven Johnson was the steel in the

draft. She really has proven her worth

and I think she has a great attitude

whether or not she did want to be on the

Fever or not. All she's showing is

pretty good vibes. I think that I can

see her being a great person in the

locker room, too. And Sophie Cunningham

is back. In the last game, she was

absolutely asleep at the wheel in the

Wings game. I don't know if that was a

tactic. I don't know if they were

purposely trying to look bad because

again they are playing them in the home

opener and I seriously doubt that

Stephanie White wants any of their plays

or any of their schemes met when it

actually counts in a week from now. No

time for adjustments keeping their cards

close to the vest. By the way, thank you

for everyone who commented in my

comments to let me know that is cards

close to the vest and not the chest.

Y'all are too kind. She went three for

four tonight. She did hit a three, one

for two. She was in for 12 minutes and

came away with eight points. Got a

rebound, three assists. Hey, and I saw a

lot of moments where she almost stole

disrupted plays a lot. Some of the

things that did not show up in the stat

sheet, but one of those steals did. And

she came away with a steal. And Kelsey

Mitchell was an absolute bucket tonight.

She came away with a game high of 17

points. And how long was she in? She was

in for 14 minutes. She also had two

rebounds, two assists, so it was good

seeing her move the ball around a lot.

Less isoing. She had two steals and this

crazy play which was definitely a

highlight reel

>> if they weren't playing Nigeria. That is

now Deiris Dantes is somebody that I

would love to talk about because in her

first game back, first time playing on

the court, I wanted to give her a lot of

grace. However, the 048 that she shot in

the last game from the three-point line,

just the three-point line, did have me

concerned a little bit because I felt

like Deir Dantas was in her head, but it

reminded me a lot of what looked bad

from her last season, but she was

hitting her threes in this game. I do