Caitlin Clark Shines in Career-High Game, Helps Carry Team to 3rd Straight Win in Gritty Fashion
Another game. Another questionable foul. Another impressive performance.
And — somewhat improbably, given how the season started — another win for WNBA star Caitlin Clark and her Indiana Fever teammates.
According to basketball outlet The Spun, Clark managed 18 points and 12 rebounds — the latter a career high — in an 88-81 win over the Washington Mystics on Wednesday.
As ESPN noted, that brings Clark ever closer to becoming the first WNBA rookie to ever amass a triple-double — double-digit tallies in scores, rebounds and assists in a single game. With six assists on Wednesday, she was four short of notching that first.
She’s also the first rookie in 16 years to have two consecutive games with 15 points, five rebounds and five assists. (The Los Angeles Sparks’ Candace Parker, now a leftist commentator, was the last to do it in 2008.)
But perhaps most impressively, the Fever, which started out 0-5 and looking every bit like they were in prime contention for the No. 1 draft pick for a third straight year, are now 6-10 with three straight victories.
Part of that is chalked up Clark’s improving rapport with Aliyah Boston, last year’s WNBA Rookie of the Year, who co-led the team Wednesday with 22 points.
Guard Kelsey Mitchell also managed to put up 22 in the win.
“You can even see me and Aliyah just having a better connection, reading where each other’s going to be, reading each other’s eyes a little bit better,” Clark told The Washington Post prior to Wednesday’s contest.
“It’s just the connection. You build that through playing together. … Everybody can kind of see the improvement.”
The win keeps the Fever in the eighth and final playoff spot in the young WNBA season.
However, perhaps the most impressive statistic of the night: 17,274. That’s the capacity crowd at the Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis. The social media post below gives some highlights of the performance they saw:
Caitlin Clark Impresses with Double-Double Against Washington Mystics
In today’s thrilling matchup, Caitlin Clark once again demonstrated her exceptional talent on the court, securing a remarkable double-double against the Washington Mystics. Clark’s performance was a blend of… pic.twitter.com/1edfKbEnjw
— Hoops (@DuckDuckHoops) June 20, 2024
To be fair, the Mystics are not the best competition to Clark the WNBA has to offer. The team fell to 2-13 after Wednesday night’s game. Guard Ariel Atkins was the top scorer for the Mystics with 27 points on 10-17 from the field.
And, it wouldn’t be a signature Caitlin Clark win without a questionable non-call on what looked very much like a foul, this one from Mystics center Stefanie Dolson:
Caitlin Clark got hit across the arm and no foul was called 🤔 pic.twitter.com/AEHxkQwrJo
— WNBA Got Game (@wnbagotgame) June 20, 2024
As anyone who’s played any amount of rec basketball will tell you, if you try to “block a shot” and don’t even come close to touching the ball — in this case, Dolson seemed to grab a whole lot more of Clark’s arm than anything else — you’ll normally get hit with a foul and the other player will be at the line. Alas, c’est Caitlin Clark.
At least Angel Reese wasn’t celebrating from the sidelines this time around:
Caitlin Clark got hit across the arm and no foul was called 🤔 pic.twitter.com/AEHxkQwrJo
— WNBA Got Game (@wnbagotgame) June 20, 2024
Speaking of Reese, get your popcorn ready, because Clark’s Fever and Reese’s Chicago Sky are playing again on Sunday, this time on ESPN.
Last Sunday’s game between the two rookie sensations was the most watched WNBA game in 23 years with 2.25 million viewers, according to ABC News. The Fever won that contest 91-83.
Given that no love is lost between the two squads and they both currently hold the eighth and ninth seeds in the WNBA standings, they may manage to give those numbers a run for their money, even on cable.
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