Just four minutes into Wednesday's matchup with Connecticut , Caitlin Clark was suddenly flashed back to her ignominious debut week in the WNBA .
In her third game of the season, Clark ran aimlessly into a screen from New York's Breanna Stewart and stumbled to her feet before the All-Star forward dove to the mid-post for an easy bucket against the Fever's hapless defense.
Another of the WNBA's premier players turned crushing brick wall, Alyssa Thomas this time, knocked Clark to the Gainbridge Fielhouse hardwood on Wednesday evening, and four months later Clark can admit that these devastating screens still leave a mark. "Yeah, it hurt a [little] bit," Clark told reporters. "I would say it’s up there with one of the most physical games I’ve played so far, but you know you’re gonna get that."
But the next 36 minutes served as a testament to both Clark and the Fever's tremendous growth over the past four months. As a late rally from Connecticut tied the game with 90 seconds remaining, the star point guard blew by Veronica Burton for a finger-roll finish, capping off a 19-point, five-assist evening as Indiana dispatched of the WNBA's third-best team 84-80.
"I think this is a really big win for us, I think this a team that we felt we hadn't really given a game to at all..." Clark continued. "We didn't feel like we were playing how we are now — the two games there [Connecticut] were about as bad as it gets for us as a team this season — so I'm just proud of our group. I thought we came in very motivated, very excited for this game."
Stewart's hard screen and dive to the rim back in May compounded a much more dire situation for the Fever, who fell to 0-3 after a third double-digit defeat. Clark was oscillating between erroneous shooting and devastating turnover woes — she'd finished 1-7 from 3 the game after setting the WNBA record for giveaways in a debut — as her collision with Stewart, for many, came to represent the league's patently physical style wearing down the slight point guard.
The Fever, meanwhile, posted a noxious 112.2 defensive rating through this three-game stretch, and by June 10, one of the aforementioned blowout losses in Connecticut, Indiana was on pace for the second-worst defense in WNBA history. Their fortunes improved modestly before the Olympic break, however, and since the league's return this month, the Fever appear a team reborn.
Over their last four games, the Fever rank sixth in defensive rating, perfectly adequate as Clark has led one of the league's most efficient offenses in recent weeks. A clutch conclusion to Wednesday's game embodied this improvement, shutting down the Sun on five-straight possessions to secure a fourth win in five games.
Clark is now in the upper third among 117 eligible players for effective field goal percentage while setting the all-time WNBA assist record for a rookie against the Sun. And perhaps most improbably for a team once defined by historic losing and testy locker room dynamics, Wednesday's post-game pressure featured contagious laughter and enduring smiles.
“I think the word joy you just used is something that we couldn’t find a lot of early,” coach Christie Sides said. “You got to have fun playing this game, and that joy is so important. When we came out of the Olympic break and won those two games, it was a different feel out there… there’s this joy.”
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