Sitting at 11-8 in the 2026 WNBA season, the Indiana Fever has shown flashes of becoming one of the league’s best teams. They certainly have the roster for it. But if you were to ask Sophie Cunningham what is really stopping them from reaching their true potential, she would tell you who (or what) is really to blame here.

“We are not going to win very many games when people score 100 points on us, and they average around 80 points, and we let them score like 111,” she said in the latest episode of the Show Me Something podcast. “Our defense is horrible, and everyone knows that. You know how, just like sometimes you’re on a high, sometimes you’re on a low, and it’s on the grind. We’re in the grind right now.

“We just haven’t fully clicked yet, and we have all the potential. So when we do it’s going to be really good, but we’re getting to the point of like, all right, what has to give? What has to sacrifice? What do we need to do to actually even start tapping into that potential?”

As per WNBA Stats, Indiana currently leads the league in scoring at 93.9 points per game and plays at the fastest pace in the WNBA. Powered by a trio that has been deemed one of the most dangerous offensive cores in the league when their offense is flowing, they look nearly impossible to stop.

Caitlin Clark and Kelsey Mitchell have been orchestrating the attack at an elite level by combining for 42.6 points per game, while Aliyah Boston continues to anchor the paint with dominant performances like her 34-point, 12-rebound outing against Chicago.

But the problem has never been scoring. It’s their defense.

In most of their games, they start strong and build a lead that looks like it should be enough to win comfortably. But they often break down in the middle stretch, lose defensive control, and allow opponents back into the game, thus turning what should be routine wins into tight finishes or even frustrating losses.

Indiana is currently allowing their opponents to score around 90 points per game.

Then there is foul trouble. The Fever currently leads the league in personal fouls at around 24 per game, repeatedly putting opponents at the free-throw line and disrupting their transition-heavy style.

Nevertheless, all the pieces they need are there. Monique Billings is bringing in toughness and rebounding, and Sophie Cunningham is providing energy off the bench, even if her scoring has dipped to 5.3 points in the last three games. So all they need to do is find their footing.

But the concern is, with nearly two months of the season already gone and their primary scorer is currently sidelined due to a back injury, the Fever are still searching for consistency. So time is slowly becoming the one thing they can’t afford to waste if they want to turn their potential into results.