SEATTLE — With five minutes left in the first quarter, Indiana Fever center Aliyah Boston dribbled the ball up to the free-throw line, looking to pass into the post. She saw forward NaLyssa Smith just next to the basket, two Storm defenders guarding her.

At that point, the Fever were trailing by just two points, 10-8. Smith was ahead of her defenders, with an easy look at the basket if she could get the ball in her hands.

More: Indiana fails to take care of ball on the road, drops to 0-3 against Storm

So, Boston took a chance, throwing the ball overhead to Smith. And Storm forwards Jordan Horston and Ezi Magbegor beat Smith to the ball. Magbegor tipped the ball over Smith's reaching arms, and Horston recovered it on the baseline, just before it went out of bounds.

"Just being able to take one more second, honestly read what the defense is giving me, I think a couple times I tried to go high-low to Lys, and I probably should have just kicked out to the strong side corner," Boston said. "... just being able to control what we can control, and that's our pace. And just making sure we make the right decision."

Boston finished with four turnovers Thursday night. Fever rookie Caitlin Clark had six (with seven assists), Kelsey Mitchell had four, Erica Wheeler had three, Lexie Hull had two and Katie Lou Samuelson had one. Add in two team turnovers, and the Fever turned the ball over 22 times against the Storm on Thursday night.

"We know they're an aggressive team, but I think some of the turnovers kind of just came off our own doing," Boston said. "And that had to do with just not making the right reads, especially off that ball screen action."

It was the one defining thing, for coach Christie Sides, that made this game a 12-point loss (89-77) instead of a close game, or even a victory. The Fever outrebounded the Storm, 44-27, had more points in the paint and made just three fewer shots by the end of the game.

"That was the game," Sides said. "We ended up shooting 45%, won the (third quarter), beat them on the boards... 21 assists on 29 made shots. The stats, you wouldn't think — it's the turnovers, those easy buckets we gave up."

Turnovers have been an issue for the Fever the entire season so far. Clark leads the league with 106 total turnovers on 126 assists. The Fever are eighth in the league in turnovers per game, averaging 14.8.

Still, that's something that comes with a young team. The Fever are full of players still on their rookie contracts, and they didn't have the luxury of two or three months to work with their point guard (Clark) before the season. They had two weeks.

A lot of a player's rookie season is learning as they go, because that's what they're forced to do. And that's what Clark and the Fever are doing.

"We're a really young group, so we want to continue to build day-to-day," Clark said. "The Storm is the type of team we want to be at. We look at these teams."

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

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Indiana Fever undone by more turnovers in loss to Seattle Storm