Caitlin Clark flirts with career-high as Indiana Fever score 102, hand NY Liberty first loss

Indianapolis Star

9 hours ago

INDIANAPOLIS – Caitlin Clark didn't have any rust to shake off, and the Indiana Fever returned to form with a 102-88 win over New York on Saturday afternoon.
Clark flirted with another triple-double, scoring 32 points with eight rebounds and nine assists. Kelsey Mitchell followed with 22 points and Lexie Hull had 14.
Fever vs. Liberty stats, box score: How Caitlin Clark and her teammates did Saturday
Here are three observations:
The Liberty are undefeated no more, just days after they became the last undefeated team in the WNBA. And the Fever, which gave Connecticut its first win after an 0-5 start just last week, were the one to take them down.
New York, the reigning champions, started the season 9-0. The Liberty were the final undefeated team in the league after Minnesota, which also started the season 9-0, lost to the Seattle Storm on Wednesday.
This win also puts Indiana at a tie with Atlanta and New York at the top of the Commissioner's Cup standings with just one loss in the series so far.
To become the Eastern Conference representative at the Commissioner's Cup final, the Fever first will have to beat Connecticut, then hope Atlanta loses to either the Washington Mystics or the Liberty in the Dream's final two games of Commissioner's Cup play.
If both Atlanta and Indiana finish 4-1 in cup play, then Atlanta will be the representative in the finals because of the head-to-head tiebreaker. If Indiana and New York both finish 4-1, Indiana will be the finals representative.
Caitlin Clark missed three weeks and five games with a quad strain suffered on May 24. In her first game back, though, it didn't feel like it.
Clark took over the game from the start, draining three 3-pointers in 38 seconds. And they weren't just regular 3-pointers, of course. They were deep, 35-foot 3-pointers — the ones that make her such a unique player. She scored 14 points in seven minutes of play in the first quarter, digging the Fever out of an early deficit to tie the score.
Those 3-pointers didn't stop in the second quarter; after she shot over 6-4 Breanna Stewart for another long-range 3-pointer, all Stewart could do was laugh.
a fun first half back for Caitlin Clark 😁 pic.twitter.com/wxojPxazMu
Clark had 25 points by halftime, about half of Indiana's 53 points as a team. She was singlehandedly running down the best team in the WNBA.
She finished with 32 points on 11-of-20 shooting, just three off of her career-high of 35. She also went 7-of-14 from 3-point range, tying her career-high of 3-pointers made.
Clark's return had all of her classic traits: a dominant shot from 3, assists no other player could make, and her first technical foul of the season.
Clark was open about her disagreement with an out of bounds call in the second quarter, running over to the referees under the baseline. She had her arms up in exasperation, talking to the refs pointedly while Fever coach Steph White called for a challenge.
But first, the officials gave Clark her first tech of the season. After she got T'd up, her coaches guided her back to the bench, when she sat in frustration. The challenge was unsuccessful.
WNBA players can get up to eight technical fouls (up from seven in the 2024 season) before they're suspended without pay for one game. Clark got six technical fouls last season, one away from being suspended, but she has pledged to get just two this year.