Heading into Sunday, the Indiana Fever had every reason to believe they could handle the defending champion Las Vegas Aces. They had the blueprint, taking two of three from Las Vegas during the regular season, and Caitlin Clark said she was playing her “best basketball.” But once the game started, A’ja Wilson tore that same blueprint to shreds, leading the Aces to a 102-85 Game 1 win. And Clark, who had sounded so confident before tipoff, had a very different take afterwards.

Asked about Indiana’s defensive intensity and a pregame conversation about making things difficult for Las Vegas’ shooters, Clark gave a brutally simple assessment of their performance.

“An F,” said the Fever Guard (via Indiana Fever on YouTube).

If you look at the numbers, that grade starts making sense. The Aces closed the game shooting over 59% from the field and 47% from three-point range, with A’ja Wilson doing most of the damage. The four-time WNBA MVP scored 38 points on 15-for-19 shooting and grabbed 16 rebounds, all while playing stellar defense and logging two steals and four blocks.

Meanwhile, the Fever’s star backcourt struggled hard. Caitlin Clark and Kelsey Mitchell combined for 27 points but shot a horrid 10-for-33, while turning the ball over nine times between them. The turnovers hurt the Fever especially hard, with the Aces turning 16 Fever giveaways into 28 points.

Notably, before the game, it was announced that Clark and Mitchell had both been named to the All-AP First Team, alongside Wilson, Minnesota Lynx guard Olivia Miles, and New York Liberty forward Breanna Stewart.

Clark made it clear during her postgame conference that she thought the Fever did not do much on the offensive end to offset the poor defensive effort.

“I thought our actions were sloppy,” Clark said. “I thought what we were running wasn’t great and nobody got an easier open look.”

Fever head coach Stephanie White, in fact, went one step further and credited the defending champions for their performance.

“Give Vegas credit,” White said. “They’re defending champions for a reason. They understand the moment. They understand the playoffs require a different level of intensity and urgency, and they came with it.”

Truly, the difference in urgency was hard to miss. Indiana had beaten Las Vegas 84-68 and 109-75 during the regular season, but the Aces looked like a completely different team once the playoffs arrived.

Moreover, Clark’s frustration was not just limited to the grade; it was visible when she was in the game too. With Indiana down 14 points and more than six minutes left in the third quarter, Clark was taken out of the game and raised her arms toward the bench before heading to her seat. She was also caught exchanging some words with a heckler some time before this.

That growing friction caught the attention of broadcaster Robin Lundberg, who feels that the excitement that was there around the Fevers has started to wane.

“I think a big part of it for me personally is that you get excited to watch these games, and it doesn’t feel exciting right now to watch the Indiana Fever,” Lundberg said. “It doesn’t feel exciting to watch Caitlin Clark play, which feels nearly impossible.”

He also pointed to a disconnect he noticed between White and Clark after the coach said young teams sometimes have to “be humbled first.” With Clark sitting beside her, a towel covering her mouth, Lundberg called it “not the most motivational speech if I’m sitting next to my head coach.”

Now, while the day clearly wasn’t for the Fevers, there were still some bright spots.

The few bright spots in a rough night for Indiana

Nevertheless, if there was any player, despite everything, who could wear the tag of best player among them, it was center Aliyah Boston. She ended the game with 18 points and eight rebounds despite playing through a lower-leg injury that caused her to exit the Fever’s final regular-season game against the Lynx. But she wasn’t the sole one to make an impact.

Rookie Raven Johnson impressed everyone with her performance, from Clark to White. She scored 14 points on 6-of-7 shooting in 22 minutes during her playoff debut, adding two steals, one assist, and a three-pointer. She gave the Fever the energy they had been missing in this particular game.

“I thought Raven did great,” White said postgame. “I think she came in and she gave us the lift that we needed on both ends of the floor.”

“Raven was fantastic,” Clark said. “Offensively she was great, but I thought her defensive intensity was really, really good, and that’s what we’re going to need. She’s somebody that puts in the work and somebody you can count on.”

Johnson’s performance could become even more important after backup guard Tyasha Harris suffered a season-ending leg injury in Indiana’s final regular-season game against the Lynx.

For now, the two teams head back to Indiana on Sep. 29 for Game 2 of the best-of-three series, with the Fever now having to win both games to advance into the second round.