Caitlin Clark is frustrated with herself and her Indiana Fever teammates. The start of her WNBA career has been a struggle for everybody involved with the organization.
She isn’t getting much help!
Indiana set a record by losing its first two games of the season by 57 combined points. The Fever followed it up with another loss to the New York Liberty on Saturday, by 11.
It was actually Clark’s best game of the year behind 22 points, six rebounds and eight assists.
However, she would have had a double-double if her teammates could handle her slick dishes. Instead, they stuck their superstar point guard with quite a few turnovers that she did not deserve.
Clark thread the needle on multiple occasions during the game and delivered beautiful in-stride passes to streaking teammates. They should have been able to convert the assist into points.
Instead, Clark’s teammates soured her stats by fumbling the ball and she finished with eight turnovers.
The repeated mishandles appeared to get to the rookie. At one point during the third quarter, ESPN’s on-court microphones caught an exchange between Clark and her head coach.
Christie Sides can be heard saying: “100 percent. 100 percent. We will. Just give them time. Give ’em time.”
Although whatever Caitlin Clark said to prompt that response did not get picked up by the mics, it looks like she said something like: “we need to catch the ball” or “they can’t catch the ball.”
The conversation took place right after the Liberty called a timeout in response to a Temi Fagbenle layup off of an assist from Clark. Fagbenle dropped a beautiful pass from Clark a few plays prior.
It would make total sense if the latter was speaking to her teammates’ inability to catch the ball in that moment.
Chicago Sky beat Indiana Fever 88-87 in intense rematch between Angel Reese, Caitlin Clark
Basketball fans pack Wintrust Arena, pay high prices to watch highly-anticipated matchup.
CHICAGO (WLS) — A highly-anticipated WNBA matchup Sunday in Chicago ended in a win for the Sky. Many fans were excited to see rookies Angel Reese and Caitlin Clark face off after their college rivalry has been reignited.
The Chicago Sky narrowly defeated the Indiana Fever in a final score of 88-87. Reese scored 25 points in the victory.
The game was at the Wintrust Arena in Chicago, and it was projected to be one of the most expensive WNBA tickets in history.
“Caitlin Clark… Angel Reese… Cardoso, just all them… great players,” basketball fan Linnea Popp said.
Clark continued to energize fans of all ages, with many donning her college jersey as she faced off against Reese, a college rival.
“I live in Chicago. I’ve never been to a Sky game, and Caitlin Clark is really inspirational, so I wanted to see her play,” basketball fan Lauren Herguth said.
The excitement of the matchup made for some expensive ticket prices. The average ticket cost about $250 dollars, which is about $165 more than other Sky games, according to TickPick.
Fans said they have no problem paying a higher price for a rivalry like this.
“This is crazy… this is like a playoff experience… out of control,” basketball fan Dave Sedeus said.
Some high-profile guests also showed up, such as Chance the Rapper and Jason Sudeikis.
“I dig it, I dig it, I’m from Iowa City. I went to the university of Iowa, and I’ve been following Caitlin Clark her whole career,” basketball fan James Tutson said. “It’s so fun. This is a great rivalry, and they’re gonna have a rivalry for a long time, so it’s great.”
Fans embraced the continued growth of the WNBA and women’s sports.
“I’ve been to WNBA but it was never like this,” sports fan “Marlins Man” said. “This is making it happen… watching a transformation right now in the country of the WNBA.”
Earlier this week, Chennedy Carter and Marina Mabrey scored 19 points each, and Angel Reese recorded her seventh consecutive double-double to set a WNBA rookie record and the Chicago Sky eased by the Dallas Wings 83-72 on Thursday to snap a four-game losing streak.
The Fever visited Chicago after NaLyssa Smith scored 21 points in the Fever’s 91-79 victory against the Atlanta Dream.
Chicago had a 2-6 record against teams above .500. The Sky were 2-7 in conference games.
Chicago was shooting 42.1% from the field this season, 2.8 percentage points lower than the 44.9% Indiana allows to opponents. Indiana averages 8.5 made 3-pointers per game this season, 2.1 more made shots on average than the 6.4 per game Chicago allows.
The Fever had gone 6-6 against Eastern Conference opponents. Indiana ranked third in the Eastern Conference with 24.8 defensive rebounds per game led by Smith averaging 5.2.
The teams met for the third time this season. In the last matchup on June 16 the Fever won 91-83 led by 23 points from Caitlin Clark, while Marina Mabrey scored 22 points for the Sky.
