The Indiana Fever is 3-0 in preseason. All three games gave fans enough to talk about, and with a roster featuring five All-Stars, they’ve pretty much lived up to the hype. We already knew the Fever had added some serious firepower heading into Caitlin Clark’s sophomore season. But while the new players have been a buzz, you know what’s arguably the biggest game-changer? Head coach Stephanie White. Sure, we’ve heard the buzz about her vision for the team and we thought we knew what to expect—especially with those five All-Stars starting. Well, turns out, nothing is as certain as we thought.
Why? We’ll get to that but first let’s talk how Clark couldn’t have asked for a better 2025 WNBA preseason debut. The Fever straight-up demolished the Brazil national team 108-44, and it all went down at the Carver-Hawkeye Arena in front of her Iowa faithful. But by the time the third preseason game rolled around, there were some noticeable shifts.
DeWanna Bonner had been holding down a starting spot. She’s been a solid pickup, averaging 8 points, 3 rebounds, and 1.5 steals in 20 minutes. But her debut against the Mystics was a rough night—just 1-of-8 shooting and 0-of-4 from deep. Still, Bonner started both of those games. That is, until the finale against Atlanta, when she came off the bench. Taking her place in the starting five was Sophie Cunningham, who has already become a fan favorite in Indiana.
She dropped 21 points and grabbed 8 boards in that gritty overtime win against Washington and had the crowd buzzing with her energy and hustle. So… what does this mean? Are we rolling with Sophie now? Or is Bonner still the plan? Coach White, in typical coach fashion, kept it pretty open-ended. “Yeah, just giving a different kind of look… seeing what we might be able to do from that standpoint with Sophie’s energy in the starting lineup and with DB’s production coming off the bench,” she said.
Jun 10, 2024; Uncasville, Connecticut, USA; Connecticut Sun head coach Stephanie White watches from the sideline as they take on the Indiana Fever at Mohegan Sun Arena. Mandatory Credit: David Butler II-USA TODAY Sports
White even admitted, “We’ll probably continue throughout the course of the week tinkering a little bit… seeing different combinations.” And when asked if she had any go-to groups of three or four players? Her answer was basically, “Not really.” So, Fever is still in experimenting mode.
In Saturday’s game, Bonner still clocked in solid minutes—18 off the bench with 8 points. Cunningham logged 15 minutes, hit two of her three shots, and spaced the floor beautifully before exiting with a right ankle injury. That injury might also factor into the upcoming lineup decisions, but her defensive energy brought something different to the court.
So, get ready for more tweaks in the lineup, at least in the first few weeks. The Fever’s core trio isn’t going anywhere, but the rest of the puzzle is still being pieced together. Don’t count out someone like Lexie Hull either. Last season, she started 11 games and averaged 5.5 points, 2.5 rebounds, and shot the ball pretty well in nearly 20 minutes of play.
She wasn’t exactly expected to get starter minutes this year with all the added depth, but with Coach White in experiment mode..anything’s possible. After a perfect preseason run, Indiana is heading into their regular season opener at Gainbridge Fieldhouse against none other than Angel Reese and the Chicago Sky on May 17.
Whether we see the same starting five is the real cliffhanger. We’ll have to wait and see. But lineup debates weren’t the only headliner on the court Saturday.
Caitlin Clark’s first tech of the season
It’s back. Caitlin Clark and her ever-so-fiery temperament just made its first official appearance of 2025—with a preseason tech. Look, we all know Clark is competitive as heck. She’s loud. She talks to refs. She slaps the stanchion. And when things don’t go her way? She’s not shy about it.
Last season, she picked up six technical fouls as a rookie. One more and she’d have been forced to sit out a game. And this year, she claimed she had a new plan. On the Bird and Taurasi show during the national championship game, Clark spilled the tea. “I came close to getting suspended for our last game,” she said. “And they wouldn’t take any of my techs away.”
She even ran through the list—two for stanchion-slapping, one for accidentally poking someone in the eye. “Half of them weren’t even me talking to refs,” she said. “Which was dumb.” Diana Taurasi jokingly set the over/under at 4.5 for this season, and Clark responded, “I already told Steph, two max,” holding up two fingers like a peace sign.
She must be kidding.
In Saturday’s preseason game against the Atlanta Dream, the Fever took the W, 81-76. Clark had 13 points and ran the floor with her usual spark. But in the second quarter, after a turnover led to a Dream layup, she launched the ball at the stanchion out of frustration. And yes the ref wasted zero time handing her a technical.
tech szn babyyyy pic.twitter.com/cRlvNkZtHW
— correlation (@nosyone4) May 10, 2025
A fan-captured clip shows her walking away, visibly frustrated, while Sophie Cunningham stepped in trying to calm her down. But Clark fans weren’t having it either. Social media blew up, with fans defending her and even calling out the refs for “targeting” her.
Luckily for Clark, preseason techs don’t count toward the regular season limit of seven. So, in the grand scheme of things, she’s still at zero. But if this game was any hint of what’s to come… well, Taurasi might have been right.
The post Nothing Is Certain Inside Indiana Fever’s Locker Room as Stephanie White Makes Feelings Clear on Starting Lineup appeared first on EssentiallySports.
