INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — The Fever got out hustled and out worked against the Connecticut Sun on Monday. They were down by double digits at the end of the first quarter and were down by as many as many as 28 points in the second half in the 17 point loss.

Fever head coach Christie Sides was frustrated with her team after the game, questioning the effort level they were playing with.

“You can’t at this level coach effort,” Sides said on Monday after the Fever’s loss to the Sun. “It felt like we were just trying to ask them to keep playing hard. You can’t start there. You can’t play in this league if you have to coach effort.”

She talked to the team after the game about the effort. She said at shootaround on Thursday they need to be able to fight back when adversity hits. The Sun are one of the most physical teams in the WNBA, and the Fever let that get to them.

“We’ve just got to be able to match that and be able to handle that from the beginning and not let their punches take us out of what we do really well,” Sides said.

When Sides was asked if she thought that she would have to talk about effort with this team 13 games into the season, she responded with, “I don’t think we’re going to have to talk about that again.”

Caitlin Clark only played 22 minutes in the game against the Sun, recording just 10 points following her 30 point outburst in the previous game against the Mystics. The 22 minutes was the least amount of time she played up to this point in the season.

Clark did not think they were ready to play against the Sun.

“I felt like we didn’t give everything that we had,” Clark said.

Clark was asked if Monday’s game against the Sun was a turning point for the team. She pushed back on that, but said that it’s always great to be held accountable.

“It was just a good refresher refresher in our minds, you’re getting paid to do a job,” Clark said. “You need to come and do it every single day.”

Clark said Sides’ message heading into the Atlanta game is to have fun. She said that basketball is a fun game and it needs to be played with passion and joy.

The Fever take on the Atlanta Dream on Thursday at 7 p.m. at Gainbridge Fieldhouse.