Caitlin Clark had a rough playoff debut, sporting a black eye after an an accidental clash during her team’s loss to the Connecticut Sun.
The Indiana Fever’s star rookie missed 10 of her first 11 shots before finishing with 11 points and eight assists in the team’s 93-69 defeat on Sunday. The Sun’s Alyssa Thompson was the star on the show as she finished with 12 points, 13 assists and 10 rebounds in a superb triple double.
“I felt like we just played a crappy game,” Clark said. “Like the flow of the game was really bad.”
The AP’s Rookie of the Year also took personal responsibility for the loss and refused to use the poke to the eye that left her bruised as an excuse for her off-night.
“Got me pretty good in the eye; I don’t think it affected me,” she said of the first-quarter injury. “I felt like I got good shots, they just didn’t go down. Tough time for that to happen. I thought I got some really good looks. Three pretty wide open threes in the first half, you usually make.”
Clark’s shooting struggles continued early into the third quarter before the Fever called a timeout. The guard smacked a chair on the bench in frustration. That seemed to get her going as she came out and hit her next three shots, Unfortunately for Indiana, Connecticut guard Marina Mabrey got hot, scoring 11 of her 27 points in the third quarter and the Fever could never recover.
“My shot felt like it was right there,” said Clark, who finished the game 4 for 17 from the field, including missing 11 of her 13 three-point attempts. “It’s so frustrating as a shooter when it won’t go down for you. That’s what [stink] about it. … We were right there, I think we cut it to eight but then they came back down and hit a three on us.”
The Sun switched up their defense as far as who was guarding Clark. DeWanna Bonner, who is 6ft 4in, drew the assignment for much of the night against the 6ft Clark. “I took on the challenge, next game she’ll come out firing,” Bonner said.
Clark will get another chance Wednesday in Game 2, hoping to send the series back to Indiana for a decisive third game on Friday.
In Sunday’s other playoff games, Leonie Fiebich hit four three-pointers and scored a career-high 21 points on 7-of-8 shooting, Breanna Stewart added 20 points and 11 rebounds and the New York Liberty never trailed in their 83-69 victory over the Atlanta Dream. Napheesa Collier scored a playoff career-high 38 points and Minnesota blew a 23-point lead before rallying late to beat Phoenix in Game 1 of their series.
In the other first-round matchup, A’ja Wilson scored 21 points and blocked five shots after earning her record-tying third MVP award, and the two-time defending-champion Las Vegas Aces held the Seattle Storm to a pair of free throws in the fourth quarter in pulling away for a 78-67 victory. “The MVP MVP’d,” Seattle coach Noelle Quinn said after the game. “She’s MVP for a reason.”
