Indiana Fever Coach Questions Caitlin Clark's Toughness

The Indiana Fever got embarrassed by the visiting New York Liberty on Thursday night.

Not only did the Fever lose the game, 102-66, but they often completely lacked cohesion on the court.

Perhaps this is to be expected of a relatively young team that has only practiced together for a few weeks.

But Fever head coach Christie Sides doesn’t like what she sees from her team and isn’t about to start offering them up excuses. She sent her team a very clear message during her postgame press conference about where they must improve.

"If somebody keeps punching you, you've got to be able to respond to it," Sides said. "You've gotta give some of that back. And that's where we are. We've got to get to another level of mental toughness."

A minute later Sides added, “We just have to get better. More mentally tough.”

Related: Indiana Fever Coach Addresses Caitlin Clark's Physical Outburst During Practice

Sides has thrown down the gauntlet to Clark and her teammates. Now the question becomes how they will respond to this challenge.

The Fever’s next game is on Saturday at 1 p.m. ET, when they rematch the New York Liberty in Brooklyn.

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