INDIANAPOLIS — A return to the starting lineup didn't quell any agitation for Fever forward NaLyssa Smith.

Smith had been a full-time starter her first two seasons. Since she joined the team, she has been the go-to player at power forward.

That changed this season. In the past two games, Smith came off the bench in favor of Temi Fagbenle. But Fagbenle injured her foot in Tuesday's game against Los Angeles, paving the way for Smith to return to the starting lineup.

Takeaways: Defense goes AWOL as Fever fall to 1-8 despite Caitlin Clark's 20 points

Smith played well Thursday, reaching 1,000 career points on a double-double night (23 points and 10 rebounds). But it came in a 103-88 loss to Seattle, and that doesn't the sit well with her.

"I don't take this game for granted, so every time on the floor, I'm gonna give everything I got," Smith said. "I mean, our goal is to win here. I'm just so ready to win now. It's not a good feeling just losing games, because we have so much talent in this room."

The Fever had a strong night offensively: they scored 88 points with five players in double figures — Smith (23), Caitlin Clark (20), Kelsey Mitchell (14), Katie Lou Samuelson (12) and Aliyah Boston (11). It was an offensive output that would normally win games.

If only the Fever defense could get stops.

"It's not really about offense," Clark said. "It was our defense. The offense was good, 88 points, but you're not gonna win a basketball game giving up 103."

Indiana trailed by just six points at halftime. But the third quarter was the Fever's undoing due to dismal defense, allowing Seattle to score 34 points in the quarter.

"We did some good things, we won the second quarter, we were only down what six at halftime, and then it really gets away from us in the third," Clark said. "This league is that good where you have one bad spurt and it's over. That seems like it's been the case for us in a lot of these games that we've lost."

Clark said the defense's second rotations need work, and that contributed to Seattle's 12-of-18 shooting in the third quarter. At some points, Smith added, it comes down to simply making that extra effort to get a stop.

"It sounds simple, but it's just taking pride in the defense, guarding your man, helping on help-side," Smith said. "Just controlling things you can control. Back cuts, getting over screens, talking more."

The Fever struggling on defense is nothing new. In coach Christie Sides' first season last year, Indiana's defensive rating was 106.3 points per 100 possessions — 11th in the WNBA. Nine games into this season, the Fever's defensive rating of 112.6 is at the bottom of the league.

To give the Fever some benefit of the doubt, Indiana does have a young team. Clark is a rookie in the starting lineup, Samuelson came into the system just this season, and Smith and Boston are still on their rookie contracts. Pair that with 11 games in 20 days, and the Fever have little practice time to make substantial changes to their defense.

Indiana has two more games in the next three days, playing Chicago on Saturday in Gainbridge Fieldhouse and New York on Sunday in Brooklyn. Right now, they can't make any big changes. But with four days off next week, they're going to go back to the basics.

"We've not had the practice done, and that has a lot to do with it," Sides said. "... We've got to get back there and find some time to practice, to get back to just our shell defense, working on -- we've got to read helpside, we've got to help the helper. One of the things we've talked about again and again."

Follow IndyStar Fever Insider Chloe Peterson on X at @chloepeterson67.

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Indiana Fever poor defense dooms it to another loss, 1-8 WNBA record