Indiana Fever might look to benefit from the FIBA World Cup break as the championship race heats up

The Indiana Fever enter the FIBA World Cup break on a high note, closing out a three-game winning streak with a 20-point win over the Connecticut Sun last weekend.

Now the WNBA pauses from August 28 to September 18 on Indiana’s schedule, and the Fever are treating the gap as a chance to sharpen up rather than just rest, according to Tony East of The IX Sports.

“It’s a chance to work on things. Work on things individually, but also collectively,” forward Lexie Hull said. “We’ll have most of our team here outside of [Boston] and [Clark] and [White]. It’s a chance for us to get better.”

Hull’s point matters because most of the roster isn’t losing this time to Team USA duty. While Caitlin Clark, Aliyah Boston, and head coach Stephanie White are suiting up for the World Cup.

The other 12 players and the rest of the staff get an actual reset, one the team is determined not to waste, according to Tony East of The IX Sports.

Veteran forward Myisha Hines-Allen said several players will head home briefly before circling back to work.

“I think we’re pros. First and foremost, I’ll speak for myself, I’m taking a break for a second. Then just get back into the gym,” Hines-Allen said, per East’s report, adding that every player has trainers and gym access wherever they land during the pause.

HC White, who will be leaving her assistants to run things stateside, framed the priority as building structure into that unsupervised time.

“We’ve got to create structure. I think that’s the most important thing. You create the structure for them,” said White. “Prioritize what you can do. Rest that first week, then prioritize what you can do in the next 10 days before we play.”

While Hull is among the group staying to train together with the team, a stretch she has some history with after her condensed 2022 rookie season and the 2024 Olympic break, following which the Fever won seven of their next eight games.

Second-year forward Makayla Timpson, going through her first international break as a pro, put the mentality plainly, according to the same Tony East report.

“Just staying disciplined to who we are,” said Timpson. “I know all the time we say, ‘we’re a pro, so act like a pro.’ Don’t just sit around at the house. Still take a little bit of rest, but also be disciplined.”

Guard Tyasha Harris echoed that urgency without revealing her own plans. “You’ve got to take the time that you get honestly. The season comes fast,” she said.

The stakes for getting this right are steep. Indiana has four regular season games left, three against teams over .500, which matters directly since that record is the tiebreaker the Fever are chasing against Atlanta and New York.

Three wins would lock Indiana into a top-five seed, though home-court advantage isn’t in their hands.

How the Fever spend these next two weeks may end up mattering just as much as how they play once the games resume.