Commemorating Caitlin Clark’s meteoric career at Iowa and evaluating the start of her WNBA rookie season.
Commemorating Caitlin Clark’s meteoric career at Iowa and evaluating the start of her WNBA rookie season.
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INDIANAPOLIS – The game went on, but Caitlin Clark chose not to be a part of it.
The Indiana Fever superstar wasn’t watching from the sidelines on Friday against the Minnesota Lynx; she wasn’t stuck in bad trouble or nursing an injury. She was in the middle of the action, lying on the court, and just gave up. It was like Clark was in a video game and the game player controller died. But this was not virtual. This was the real deal.
This was a matchup — and a potential first-round playoff preview — between a pair of MVP candidates and their respective teams. However, Clark’s composure evaporated. After Lynx superstar Napheesa Collier blocked Clark’s shot and sent her to the floor, Clark didn’t get back up. She didn’t even try. Instead, she looked up at the Gainbridge Fieldhouse plinth for a few seconds, while the Lynx played five-on-four on the other end, resulting in a mid-range jumper by Courtney Williams that extended Minnesota’s lead to 10 points.
Clark thought she had been defiled. A bad guy wasn’t called. And the Fever’s disastrous third quarter continued as the Lynx held on for a 99-88 win. That anger-filled sequence from Clark, one in which she vehemently complained to the referees and had to be subbed out, did not decide the outcome of the game. But it sure wasn’t helpful.
“I think I could have done a little better job controlling my emotions,” said Clark, who finished with 25 points, 8 assists and 8 rebounds.
Caitlin Clark congratulating the thing for getting a call right.
She is full 😭pic.twitter.com/91BViQWD4E
— BricksCenter (@BricksCenter) 7 September 2024
Fever coach Christie Sides, while appreciative of Clark’s fiery nature, was more direct.
“It reminds me of Diana Taurasi,” Sides said. “So when she’s upset or mad, that’s what we’ve been working on, trying to figure out how to get past those moments. I was worried she was going to take a (technical foul) in that third quarter, and thank God she didn’t. But that’s growth, and she has to learn that in those moments, I need my point guard to have a calm head.”
Clark wasn’t the only one.
Feverish forward Aliyah Boston was assessed a technical foul early in the third quarter after she argued with an official over what she believed was a missed foul call. Of course, this did not change the referee’s opinion, and Sides admitted that the Fever had become too consumed by the officiating. The Bobcats quickly jumped on the Fever’s upset, turning a five-point deficit at the start of the frame into a 12-point lead heading into the fourth quarter.
What could the Fever learn from its lack of composure? Kelsey Mitchell did not mince words.
“I think, from a leadership standpoint, we’re pulling together as a group to say, ‘Shut up and work. Leave the refs out of it, obviously,” said Mitchell, the Fever’s longest-tenured player. “Go to the next play. Go to the next action. Go to the next set.”
And, in theory, go to the next level.
Three nights ago, the Fever clinched a playoff spot for the first time since 2016, and from Sides’ perspective, Friday felt like a playoff atmosphere. The crowd was loud, and the play was physical. Nothing was easy, and in the fourth quarter, the Fever responded as a team that finally understood that.
Mitchell scored 8 of her 23 points in the final frame. Boston chipped in with 6 of her 20 points and recorded a block. However, it was Clark who emerged as the main catalyst in the last 10 minutes.
Once she regained her parity, she changed the game. Clark scored or assisted on 14 points in the fourth quarter, helping the Fever pull within a point, but that was as far as Indiana would climb. Trailing 78-77, Clark blocked Alanna Smith’s jumper and secured the loose ball on the ensuing fast break, but she threw an ill-advised pass toward Temi Fagbenle that was easily caught by Natisha Hiedeman.
“Honestly, I thought we played really well in the fourth,” Clark said. “My turnover in transition is what I felt really kind of ended the momentum for us.”
Caitlin Clark makes it a 3-point game in INDY 🍿
The arena Erupts!
Lynx Fever on ION 📺 pic.twitter.com/rConwYDwAA
— WNBA (@WNBA) 7 September 2024
Williams responded on the other end with a 3-pointer to push the Lynx’s lead back to four points en route to handing the Fever their second defeat in nine post-Olympic games. Both of Indiana’s losses came at the hands of Minnesota and Collier, who was again brilliant. The four-time All-Star finished with a game-high 26 points, 10 rebounds and 2 blocks.
Clark called the Lynx “the toughest team in the league to guard” because of how well they move the ball, noting that it wasn’t just Collier who made big plays. Bridget Carleton nailed three 3-pointers in the fourth quarter to quell a possible Fever comeback.
Mitchell said the Fever can learn from Minnesota’s play and the composure it showed at Gainbridge Fieldhouse, which doubled as a pressure cooker when Indiana made its late surge. The Lynx didn’t blink, and it’s a huge reason why they’re now slated as the No. 2 seed in the WNBA playoff standings.
“(Minnesota) is the standard,” Mitchell said. “And if you want to compete at that next level and be a part of that playoff run — not just get there, not just be a part of it, but make a run and make an impact — we’re going to have to use this as leverage and know that they’re the most good ones. And to beat the best, you have to compete every night.”
And in every play.
Clark was reminded of that lesson Friday when, for a brief moment, she didn’t compete to the fullest extent.
“Yeah, I think there’s a line and sometimes, your passion, your emotion can get to you,” Clark said. “But that’s never something I would ever change.”
And as Sides said, the Fever is not asking her to change. They just ask her to grow up.
(Photo: Emilee Chinn/Getty Images)
