The Indiana Fever couldn’t get a win over the last-place team, heading into the league-wide Olympic break.
In Wednesday’s game, Indiana Fever top-overall pick Caitlin Clark checked these three notable boxes. (1) Clark surpassed teammate Erica Wheeler for the most single-season assists in Fever franchise history. (2) Clark set the all-time single-game rookie assist record. (3) In turn, Clark overtook 13-year vet Courtney Vandersloot to set the WNBA single-game assist record with 19.
Despite that, with 24 points, and Aliyah Boston’s career-high 28 points, the Fever lost on the road to the Dallas Wings, 101-93. Before Clark could answer about what the WNBA milestone meant to her, Boston chimed in and bantered, as she has done many times so far this season.
“She’s going to say it means nothing,” Boston said afterward. “But I think it’s pretty cool. I think that’s pretty cool. So, sorry.”
“I mean,” Clark said, pausing. “I just try to set my teammates up for success. I think at times, I can almost overpass and that can maybe, I don’t know. There probably could have been a few times where instead of passing that leads to a turnover that I may have, I can probably shoot the ball… I’m just looking to set [Boston] up so much. My eyes are always on our post players.
By halftime, Clark had assisted five of Boston’s seven baskets. The pair almost had yet another, when Clark dished her behind-the-back pass to Boston in traffic below the basket. Boston was fouled, but couldn’t get the bucket to fall. Boston acted frustrated. The Fever trailed by as many as 16 points, but cut it down to eight points at half. They lost by that identical margin eventually.
Caitlin Clark opens up on latest frustrating losses
The Fever head into the Olympic break going 4-3 in their last seven games. They were turning the corner too by beating upper-half opponents in the 12-team standings: Indiana came back at the Phoenix Mercury on the road, then did the same to beat the league’s-best New York Liberty. But that was followed up by losing to the last-place Washington Mystics at home four days later.
The Fever regrouped: beating the Mercury at home and the Minnesota Lynx on the road. Both teams were battered by injuries, sure, but the Fever will take any wins they can get. In another let-down Wednesday night, they lost to the last-place Wings, which only won five games prior. That’s four good wins mixed with two bad losses: the latest as the final sendoff until mid-August.
All teams don’t play for about 30 days due to the Olympic Break. The Fever sit in seventh at 11-15. The top eight teams make the playoffs. The Fever’s gauntlet schedule to begin the season surely didn’t help.
“For me, it’s kind of frustrating,” Clark said. “I feel like we’ve left two games out there that are very winnable for us going into the break. The Mystics at home and then obviously this one. Then we’ve won other matchups that are really tough… I think that’s the biggest area for our team to grow these last 14 games of the year. You can’t leave these opportunities on the table.
But you just use it as motivation,” Clark added.
So, what has plagued the Fever versus subpar teams?
Clark alluded to it in her response, but the Fever weren’t able to produce four solid quarters versus the Mystics and the Wings. In both games, they opened in sluggish fashion, allowed too many points in the first half, and had to claw back into it. They weren’t able to both times. The Fever can’t win every game, but for their sake, hopefully these losses don’t come back to bite.
Clark mentioned this as well: they’re right on the playoff bubble when August play resumes.
Those two games, we just weren’t who we were in those other games against top teams,” Fever head coach Christie Sides said afterward. “And it doesn’t matter who you’re playing night in or night out. You have to show up and play your game… but that’s just growing, finding these, getting these experiences.”
