INDIANAPOLIS — The Indiana Fever are back on their home floor Friday night for Game 3 against the Las Vegas Aces, with the series tied 1-1.
"No, I honestly, I think there’s no pressure," said Fever forward Aliyah Boston. "I think going into the game, the best thing is playing free, that’s when we played our best basketball the entire season, and I think it's exciting to be here, I think our fans will be super loud, but as for pressure, no."
The Fever will have home court advantage and know playing at Gainbridge is an added benefit.
"Rocking, the fans are going to be rocking. That’s the one thing we love about our fan base, they bring the energy and help us out," said Fever forward Natasha Howard.
"It certainly gives us an advantage in terms of emotion," added head coach Stephanie White. "And our players, when they hear the crowd, when they hear cheers, it gives them an added boost, some adrenaline."
The Fever are coming off a 27-point loss in Game 2 where they turned the ball over 22 times.
"Game 2, they took away a lot of things, like us scoring in the paint; they took that away right there. They were more aggressive than us," said Howard.
"28 points off of turnovers? Not good enough, understanding that you have to withstand a knock, a punch in the face, you have to be able to withstand that, but their runs can’t be as significant as they were," said White.
But bouncing back is nothing new for this Fever squad that has bonded together every step of the way.
"Honestly, just the way we love each other and the way we want to compete for each other. I think we’ve just been able to build such great relationships with each other, so when things get tough, we don’t run. We come together, and we have discussions, and I feel like that’s just helped us so much this entire season," said Boston.
Game 3 is at 7:30 p.m. Friday night at Gainbridge Fieldhouse.
