INDIANAPOLIS – When the last horn rang on Saturday, Caitlyn Clark didn’t want to accept it. With two points dragged on with 2.2 seconds remaining, the Indiana Feverstar attempted to become a potential three-pointer to win the game. However, before she entered the upward shooting movement, New York Liberty Guard’s Natasha Cloud thrusts the ball freely. A final chance of fever to defeat the defensive WNBA champions bouncing down the lane and bounced back into Breana Stewart’s arm.
Liberty held on a dramatic 90-88 victory at Gainbridge Field House, and Clark’s rage also sank as Fever’s second straight home loss sank. With his arms wide, Clark made a beeline towards Ryan Sassano, the nearest civil servant, and shouted at him as he walked in the opposite direction. When Reference refused to admit her complaints, she begged her coach, Stephanie White, as White pointed her towards the locker room.
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There, away from the microphone and camera, Clark unleashed her utter frustration about hosting the second half of Saturday’s match, and it certainly encouraged discussion. White grabbed a few more headlines as the Fever coach rang out after a disappointed Clark said “I don’t know” what happened on the final play.
“I thought she had been fouled,” White said. “I think it’s pretty bad what’s going on with us in the last few games. A minus 31 free throw contradiction (the last three games). You might understand just chucking the 3S, but we’re attacking the rim.
Before Clark’s no-call, the fever was at the wrong end of another no-call involving Dewanna Bonner. The veteran forward, tied behind 88-88, caught a pass from Clark near the basket and hit the cloud. I couldn’t believe that Bonner had no mouths. She was even more upset when New York guard Sabrina Ionescu was awarded two free throws 5.9 seconds later after being fouled by hot security guard Lexi Hull driving to the hoop. Ionescu sunk both free throws. This proved to be a difference between the front and back games, including 14 lead changes.
White understood that he had fined the WNBA for officials who were publicly criticising him, but said it was a shame that the phone call was “not going both ways” early in the season. She plans to send video clips to the league office, but said she doesn’t feel consistently “as if the system works.”
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However, during White’s rants on the officials, she pointed her fingers at the team. Authorities did not give up a 14-2 run in the fourth quarter. They did not allow freedom to build a 15-point second quarter lead. They didn’t let New York shoot 64.3% in the first half.
The fever did all that and they paid the price with a severe loss.
“We have to be able to play (the host), we have to be able to control what we have control,” White said. “We haven’t noticed any mismatches yet. We felt there were plenty of opportunities for (Aliya Boston). We were able to lower her touches. We had some turnovers, important turnovers. We sometimes settled down (for poor shots).
She picked out the players in her message and didn’t emphasize the importance of calm and execution, but Clark seemed at the heart of it. White didn’t have to say her name. The sold-out crowd at Gainbridge Field House saw it. Clark had his usual moment of glow on Saturday. Most notably, when he excavated a three-pointer while being fouled by Liberty Guard Rebekah Gardner late in the third quarter. Clark tracked her four-pointer play with a 33-foot 3-pointer on the horn in the third quarter, giving Indiana a 76-68 lead.
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However, these momentum-wielding plays were negated by a decline in overall performance. Clark totaled 18 points, 10 assists and five rebounds, but she committed a season-high 10 turnovers. He’s done the most in the game since his WNBA debut. The second-year pro was held to just two points in the fourth quarter, missing three of his four shots, including a 30-foot 3-point try with 29 seconds remaining, tied the score at 88.
“It’s not my best filming night,” Clark said. “I thought I could have done a little better care for the ball. I had tough (revenue) despite my arms being held, but whatever.
Clark, like her coach, also focuses on Indiana’s lack of attention to detail, particularly the fourth quarter DIP after the third quarter. Boston, who led the heat with a game-high 27 points and 13 rebounds, said the fever contradiction has been an early theme so far, and that if they want to achieve the championship goals they declared during the preseason, they must immediately correct them.
“We just played against the defending champions, right? And we were 12 years old in the 12th quarter,” Boston said. “So for us, there’s something we see and say, ‘Listen, this worked.’ Because we will see them again. And then, when it comes to that fourth quarter, obviously, you have to dig deeper into them, especially against them, especially as defending champions. ”
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Liberty forward John Kel Jones scored 14 of his team-high 26 points in the final frame, two more points than Fever scored as a team. Perhaps that difference would have consisted of a free throw line when Indiana was at the wrong end of some slow no-calls, but fever realized that targeting authorities would not exempt Indiana’s mistake.
Clark wasn’t enough. Her backcourt buddy Kelsey Mitchell also didn’t need 16 shots to score 15 points. He was also not a future Hall of Fame Bonner, held without a field goal in the third straight game. Despite the troubling conclusions to the unshiny show and Saturday’s contest, their two losses are due to a total of three points, despite lowering their fever to 2-2. Clark said the slim margin between victory and defeat is something that can build up heat.
“We are two possessions that are separate from being 4-0, and we are separate from beating freedom here,” Clark said. “It definitely stung, but this is what makes us better at the end of the year.”
This article was originally published in Athletics.
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