Fever’s win streak can be attributed to Boston’s surge

Indiana Fever forward-center Aliyah Boston (l.) drives around Washington Mystics center Stefanie Dolson during Wednesday’s 88-81 home win in Indianapolis.

PHOTO: Courtesy NBAE/Getty Images

By W.G. RAMIREZ

The Indiana Fever are a playoff team.

As of Wednesday night's 88-81 home win over the Washington Mystics - the Fever's fourth straight in Indianapolis, by the way - they would be the No. 8 seed if the playoffs were beginning Thursday.

It's the team's first four-game home winning streak since the 2015 regular season, and a lot of their success can be attributed to the sudden emergence of second-year star Aliyah Boston.

After opening the season 1-8, Indiana has won five of its last seven. And in Indiana’s three games last week, Boston registered three double-doubles while averaging 20.0 points, 13.0 rebounds, 3.7 assists and 2.0 blocks per game.

For her efforts, she was named the WNBA Eastern Conference Player of the Week for the week of June 10-16, the second time she's received Player of the Week honors in her career.

Boston, who moved into a tie for fifth in franchise history for all-time double-doubles with 15, is a big reason Indiana is playing its best basketball after the world began spewing negative narratives into every conversation surrounding the Fever.

Whether it was rookie Caitlin Clark or coach Christie Sides, the hits kept coming, despite most making the noise while failing to recognize the team played 11 games in 20 days.

Enter second-year star Aliyah Boston, who had her fair share of critics, saying she was having a terrible season and no longer fit into a system that now belonged to Clark.

To her credit, Boston shut down social media early on, avoiding the outside noise while focusing more on making her team better.

"She's so extremely hard on herself, and when she wasn't playing well, she just was more concerned of letting the team down," Sides said after Wednesday's victory. "And so she just got in the gym. She got with (player development coach) Jhared (Simpson). He's her coach, and they just went to work."

And the more the Fever had time to practice after the season-opening, three-week gauntlet, the more Boston figured out the timing of things, including a working chemistry with Clark.

It's certainly no coincidence that Boston's offensive turnaround has coincided with the Fever's 5-2 win streak.

In her first 11 games, Boston averaged 10.4 points and 6.6 rebounds per game. She was also making 4.3 field goals on an average of 10.1 attempts.

But over a five-game span since June 7, she's averaging a league 11th-best 18.4 points and second-highest 10.6 rebounds. Her efficiency has also surged, averaging 7.4 made shots of 13.0 attempts.

Yet just as she's done all season, Boston refused to make anything about herself after scoring 22 points and grabbing eight rebounds Wednesday.

"I think we've just been playing a lot better team basketball," said Boston, who ranks 12th in blocks per game (1.2) and 13th in rebounds per game (7.9). "Everyone's getting their touches, everyone's knocking down their shots, and so I think it's just been really great. And also, I think our defensive intensity has been a focus for us, and we're able to use that to start our offense."

Since the start of June, which spans the Fever's seven-game run, they rank sixth in the league with 80.9 points and fifth with their 44.5% shooting percentage.

Both are an uptick from the league's second-worst 79.1 points on 42.3% shooting from the start of the season.

And while Clark, Boston and veteran Kelsey Mitchell all said after Wednesday's game it's been figuring things out collectively as a team - which is true - again, a big part of that has been Boston's maturity and poise, which is something to be amazed by for a second-year player on the youngest and most inexperienced team in the WNBA.

"AB's just got confidence," Sides added. "She got confidence after the Connecticut game (on June 10), she went into business mode, and she's just been business-like and doing what this team needs. She's been a focal point. She's knocking down shots. She's shooting a high percentage.

"Really proud of just her and the leadership that she's bringing for our team."