INDIANAPOLIS -- As the Fever get back on the floor in the midst of the WNBA's Olympic break, Christie Sides wants her team thinking playoffs.

The Fever haven't seen the postseason since the summer of 2016 when former MVP and 10-time All-Star Tamika Catchings was still on the roster. In the seven completed seasons since, the Fever have cracked double-digit victories just twice and have never won more than 13 games.

But with 26 games down and 14 to go in 2024 with more than two weeks still separating them from their next game, the Fever sit at 11-15, which puts them in seventh place with eight teams making the postseason. They are in a virtual tie with the Chicago Sky (10-14) for eighth, holding a percentage points lead on that spot, but they have a three-game cushion on the ninth-place Atlanta Dream (7-17).

And as the Fever work back toward the re-start of the season on Aug. 16, Sides wants them thinking about what it's going to take to make sure they maintain that position.

"We talk about it," Sides said after practice Wednesday. "That's our goal. Making the playoffs is our goal. We're sitting in a playoff position right now. We have to keep getting better to put ourselves where we're not hoping people are losing games or waiting until the end. We want to be a playoff team this year. I'll take (seed) eight, seven, six, it doesn't matter to me."

Step one in pushing toward that goal over the course of the break was making sure her roster was rested after the Fever blitzed through a top-heavy schedule with the league looking to take advantage of the attention following rookie Caitlin Clark. They played 11 games in the season's first 20 days and they are the only team that has played 26 games.

It was most important for Clark herself to get a break after rolling into the WNBA season shortly after her final college campaign at Iowa, but her teammates needed to step away as well for both physical and mental reasons.

"Mentally I feel like I've improved so much throughout the season that it wasn't taking too much of a toll on me," second-year center Aliyah Boston said, "but that physical break was needed."

Veteran guard Kelsey Mitchell viewed it differently, saying she needed some time to just not be around basketball.

"Any breaks I can get to just get away from what the work is, it's always good for me," Mitchell said. "Mentally, if I can just re-set, it's what I need. ... For real, you just have to sometimes not see a court for two or three days. Just figure out what you need. You're still human, and you just want to always remain people."

Now that they're back on the court after almost two weeks since their last game against Dallas, and their focus in the early going is on the defensive end.

That's the side on the floor on which they've struggled, but they were much better after that frenetic start to their season. They gave up 101 points to the Dallas Wings on July 17 in their last game before the break, but that was the first time since June 2 that they allowed a team to score in triple digits. In that period, they didn't allow another team to score 90 points after giving up 90 or more six times in their first 11 games.

The Fever rank 11th of the WNBA's 12 teams in scoring defense (87.3 points per game) and defensive rating (108.2 points per 100 possessions) but they've been significantly better in their last 15 games when they went 9-6 after a 2-9 start. They've allowed 105.5 points per 100 possessions in that stretch, which puts them ninth in the league, and 84.9 points per game which also puts them ninth.

But they have specific areas on the defensive end where they still need drastic improvement and Sides has revolved the early break practices around those areas.

"That's where we are and that's where we have to get better," Sides said. "We've gotta do a better job of keeping people in front of us. We have to do a better job of pressuring the basketball. Our transition defense has a lot to do with us and our turnovers. But if we're just in the half-court, team defense is so important."

Indeed, the Fever rank 11th in fast-break points allowed (11.7 per game) and points allowed off turnovers (17.9 per game) so offensive problems have clearly led to defensive issues, but that's still not all of it. They allow 35.6 points in the paint per game, which is the eighth-highest figure of any defense.

"Keeping people out of the middle, defensively, I think that's something we can really focus on these few weeks," guard Lexie Hull said. "Especially having a really good group of guys to play against every single day. They're making us better and we're able to focus and break down specific parts of our defense."

Practicing without a crowd also allows the Fever coaching staff to more easily notice when their players are and are not talking to each other on the defensive and and how that affects their cohesion.

"Hopefully the communication part of it (is better)," Boston said. "I think we've been able to see especially over the past few days when we communicate, everyone's talking, we move a lot better. We move a lot faster. Just because we know exactly where everyone is. We realized when we don't talk that they find the holes, they find the gaps. So just making sure when we come out for the second half that our communication is a lot better that fuels our offense and we're able to push."

And if that part of their game comes together once the break ends, their late-season push might be enough to end that postseason drought.

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Fever focusing on defense during Olympic break practices