This Caitlin Clark play with Fever's Aliyah Boston and Kelsey Mitchell is already wrecking WNBA defenses

The Fever look like a completely different team from the one that started the season with losses in eight of their first nine games. Caitlin Clark has taken off, which has fueled their meteoric rise. More quietly, Aliyah Boston and Kelsey Mitchell have drastically improved their offensive outputs throughout the season.

It is not a coincidence that all three of the Fever's top scorers are playing better as of late. It took some time for them to gel and for coach Christie Sides to figure out the best ways to use them together. Rather than playing individual games, they're now using their strengths to create even easier baskets for each other.

One example of this phenomenon is with Sides' use of Horns Chest (also known as Horns Flare). That play is a clever way to utilize three of her most dangerous weapons.

Horns Chest has been a favorite of the Fever lately, and it's easy to see why.

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This Caitlin Clark play with Aliyah Boston, Kelsey Mitchell is already wrecking WNBA defenses

The play

The Fever have been using Horns Chest at the end of quarters and out of timeouts. It creates mismatches and generates open looks for all three of their top scorers.

Here's an example of the play in motion:

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The breakdown

Horns is a very common alignment found throughout every level of basketball. It involves two players stationed around the elbows like so:

With Clark handling the ball up top and having the ability to come off either screener at the elbow, this is a great way to involve Clark, Boston and Mitchell at the same time.

In Horns Chest, Mitchell runs up to set a screen for Clark. After setting that screen, Mitchell comes off a flare screen from Boston. That movement from Mitchell is what's referred to as the "chest" or "flare" part of this play.

Mitchell's screen appears pretty simple, but it does a couple of different things to put the defense in a bind.

First, it forces Kia Nurse to switch onto Clark. Nurse is a good defender, but she's lost a step since having ACL surgery. She couldn't stick with Clark on her drive and was forced to foul her.

The effect of having Boston set a flare screen for Mitchell also kept 6-7 center Li Yueru away from the basket, making it easier for Clark to get to the rim. Yueru is one of the tallest players in the WNBA. She was nowhere near Clark because she had to worry about Mitchell, a 39.1 percent 3-point shooter, getting open off Boston's screen.

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It's not just Clark who benefits from this play. The Fever have also used Horns Chest in order to generate mismatches for Boston, forcing Clark's smaller defender to switch onto her.

Boston has gotten easy layups from Clark when that switch happens, plowing through guards.

Boston's interior scoring, Mitchell's shooting and Clark's drives are hard to stop on their own. When all three are combined at the same time, good luck stopping it.

Horns Chest is just one of several ways Sides has learned to use her stars. Mitchell in particular has seen tremendous growth as a scorer thanks to the attention that Clark receives even when she doesn't touch the ball.

After struggling early, the Fever have found a ton of stuff that is working perfectly. It took some patience, but they are building towards an unstoppable offense in the coming years.