Lexie Hull's Struggles Emphasize Concerning Fever Roster Flaw
Saturday afternoon marked another quiet outing for Lexie Hull, who failed to record any points for the third time this season. She managed just one shot attempt in the Indiana Fever's 113-96 loss to the Atlanta Dream.
The fifth-year guard has struggled to make an impact this season -- at least, on the offensive end. Hull has reached double figures twice through Indiana's first 16 games. Over her last 10, she's averaging 4.3 points with a 20.8 percent shooting clip from three-point range.
Granted, the Fever don't need Hull to be one of their top offensive catalysts. Even if she wasn't bringing anything to the table offensively, she'd still provide value as one of the club's top defenders and a capable rebounder at her position.
That doesn't make her recent stretch any less of a letdown, though. The 26-year-old seemed poised to carve out a significant role in the offense after a breakout campaign in 2025. Hull averaged a career-best 7.2 points while playing all 44 regular-season games. She dialed it up in a notch in the postseason, posting double-figures over eight games for an injury-riddled Fever squad.
Hully is hardly the primary reason for Saturday's sloppy loss. In fact, there's plenty of collective blame to go around after Indiana soiled a stellar 59-point first half -- its best thus far in 2026.
The Fever took 29 fouls, their most in a game since June 7, 2023. They turned the ball over 19 times, one shy of their season high. Star point guard Caitlin Clark accounted for seven, including five in a second half that saw Atlanta outpace Indiana by 20 points.
Clark took responsibility postgame.
"We just gotta take care of the ball better -- and that starts with me," the third-year guard told media. "What we did well in the first half was play in transition, spray, find open people. Really hard to do that when all we do is foul and they score."
Foul trouble for Aliyah Boston relegated the star center to the bench for nearly half the game. Clark posted the worst plus-minus on the floor at minus-19. Mitchell wasn't far behind at minus-18.
The star trio still combined for 56 of Indiana's 96 points -- though perhaps that illustrates the problem.
Is Fever Offense Too Star Dependent?
With 6:34 left in the second quarter, the Fever committed a delay of game violation.
Veteran forward Myisha Hines-Allen passed up a potential mid-range look with under 10 on the shot clock and dished for Clark, who drove the baseline and tried to kick the ball out to Mitchell with just two seconds remaining. Instead, the ball sailed over Mitchell's head for an empty possession.
"[Monique] Billings and Hines-Allen need to take some of those shots," ESPN analyst and Basketball Hall of Famer Rebecca Lobo remarked.
At the time, the Fever led by nine. They'd ultimately carry a three-point lead into halftime. In the grand scheme of things, one delay of game did very little to sway the outcome of a 17-point Indiana loss.
But it does seem to be the latest reminder of a flawed Fever roster that's too heavily reliant on its three stars to make the offense tick.
Angel Reese and the Dream take down the Fever in back-to-back games 🔥👀 pic.twitter.com/OgNXAogIPw
— espnW (@espnW) June 20, 2026
Clark, Mitchell, and Boston have combined for 59.1 points per game -- the highest-scoring big three in the WNBA. Indiana is the only team that boasts multiple players averaging at least 20 points, with Clark (21.1) and Mitchell (20.8).
That's not inherently a problem. Rather, it's helped the Fever stay above .500 at 9-7 despite having the league's fourth-worst defense. Indiana leads the WNBA in scoring offense (92.4 points per game) and ranks sixth in offensive rating (109.4), largely thanks to the efforts of its star trio.
The lack of support behind them, however, is a legitimate concern. Eighth-year guard Sophie Cunningham skirts this criticism with 10.4 points on 51.0 percent shooting, primarily off the bench. But she's the only consistent source of secondary offense to speak of.
Hines-Allen's addition has been a largely positive one, providing a notable spark off the bench as a two-way big. Her offensive impact has been somewhat muted, though, with the 31-year-old seeing a career-low 13.6 percent usage rate.
That's higher than the 12.9 percent usage rate that Billings sees in the starting lineup -- also a career-low over her nine WNBA seasons. Her touch at the rim has dipped significantly. Less than half of Billings' points this season have come in the paint. She's converting 48.6 percent of her attempts within five feet after shooting 70.7 percent on the same looks with the Golden State Valkyries in 2025.
Rookie point guard Raven Johnson is an ideal backup for Clark, but she's not a reliable point producer just yet. The Fever drafted the South Carolina alum in the first round (No. 9 overall) for her defensive prowess and playmaking ability. It's hard to find fault in either through her first 16 WNBA games, but her offensive game still needs refinement.
Indiana isn't getting much production from beyond the three-point line outside its big three, with the exception of Cunningham, who's shooting 43.8 percent on 4.3 attempts. That lack of three-point scoring off the bench has become particularly noticeable amid Hull's cold stretch. Johnson is shooting 34.5 percent from beyond the arc, but the volume isn't high enough yet to move the needle.
Sophie Cunningham called for the offensive foul and then the technical foul.
— Underdog WNBA (@UnderdogWNBA) June 20, 2026
The Fever once led by 11. They now trail by 16.pic.twitter.com/47bURLt4li
In fairness to Indiana's supporting cast, it's not the easiest system to excel in. The Fever offense, by design, runs through Clark, Mitchell, and Boston. That's partially why new additions like Billings and Hines-Allen are seeing the ball less than they ever have in their careers.
Still, Cunningham has made it work this season, and Hull's played the supporting offensive role exceptionally well in the past. It's no coincidence that for both, their best stretches have come with highly-efficient three-point shooting, making the most of a sometimes limited shot volume.
It's not to say Clark, Mitchell, and Boston hold no fault in the Fever's uneven start. Indiana has lost three games when scoring 100-plus points this season -- the most in the league. Being the highest-scoring trio in the league doesn't compensate for sloppy play on both ends, which has bitten the Fever in many of their losses.
There are team-wide issues that need to be addressed, ones that go well beyond secondary scoring. But if Indiana is to become the championship contender many pegged it as coming into the season, they'll need more from its supporting cast.
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Lou Orlando is a Fordham University alum, graduating with a Bachelor's Degree in Journalism. At Rose Hill, he covered women's basketball for the university newspaper, the Fordham Ram. In addition to calling games on 90.7 FM. The Brooklyn native enjoys bagels and thinking about random early-2010s athletes, that is when he isn't penning stories for Women's Fastbreak and Indiana Fever On SI.
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