Stephanie White Details How Dream's Physicality Beat Fever After Defeat

The Indiana Fever fell to 4-5 on the 2025 WNBA season after their 77-58 defeat to the Atlanta Dream on June 10.

While the two teams were tied at 33 heading into halftime, the Dream came out firing in the third quarter, and Indiana had nothing left in store for them. This ultimately allowed Atlanta to cruise to an easy victory.

This is already the third time these two teams have faced off this season, and the physicality that Atlanta plays with (which is largely because of their post duo of Brionna Jones and Brittney Griner, who combined for 30 points and 14 rebounds) clearly impacted Indiana. And Fever coach Stephanie White spoke to this physicality when addressing the media after Tuesday's defeat.

"I think they hit us in the mouth," White said of the third quarter (where the Dream outscored the Fever 23-9), per Scott Agness' YouTube account. "Their physicality on the defensive end really affected us. It took us out of what we wanted to do, and forced us to rush offensively."

She later added, "Our ability to match that physicality on the defensive end, our positioning, our connectedness, I thought wasn't there. And they took advantage of it."

When asked how to address this physicality in the future, White said, "We've just got to get the guys that we practice against to continue to beat the s*** out of us, to be physical and to make things difficult for us. We've got to be able to handle that. I think growth, in terms of mental toughness, in terms of being able to stay focused and locked in... are all things that we can continue to work on in practice."