BALTIMORE — The Indiana Fever knew it will be an adjustment enjoying their first recreation with out Caitlin Clark since drafting the star level guard first general in 2024.
However Recreation 1 sans Clark, who’s out for no less than two weeks due to a quad pressure, was rockier than they’d hoped.
Indiana fell to 2-3 on the season with an 83-77 loss Wednesday to the Washington Mystics (3-3), who hosted the primary WNBA recreation in Baltimore at CFG Financial institution Enviornment. The Mystics have moved 4 video games to bigger venues this season whereas D.C.’s Capital One Enviornment undergoes renovations, and can host the Fever once more in “Allure Metropolis” in early September.
“I believe this was a type of intestine punch for us,” Fever guard Sophie Cunningham stated. “We will come again tomorrow at apply with extra focus, extra vitality. We all know the place we need to be on the finish the season, however we’re not simply going to get there.”
“We weren’t sharp sufficient to be a contender for something tonight,” fellow guard Kelsey Mitchell added. “I believe getting punched within the mouth early is humbling, as a result of it exhibits the place we should be.”
The Fever — whose free company strikes catapulted them into early championship rivalry conversations — shot a paltry 39.7% from the ground and 23.8% from 3, each season-low marks, whereas ending with extra turnovers (16) than assists (15, one other season low). With out Clark to push the tempo, they managed zero fast-break factors, sometimes an indicator of their play.
Indiana averages 107.5 factors per 100 possessions with Clark on the ground this season versus 87.7 factors per 100 possessions along with her off it.
Veteran level guard Sydney Colson began rather than Clark, ending with 4 factors, 3 assists and three turnovers in 31 minutes. DeWanna Bonner had her highest scoring output since becoming a member of the Fever this offseason with a team-best 21 factors. Mitchell and Aliyah Boston, the workforce’s different two pillars and prime scorers, largely struggled to get going, ending 4-for-16 (14 factors) and 4-for-5 (10 factors), respectively.
Coach Stephanie White attributed the workforce’s offensive points to a scarcity of execution going up in opposition to Washington’s bodily protection.
“Feeling snug attending to our off-ball actions, that is nonetheless a development course of for us,” White stated. “You possibly can see when physicality occurs or defensive strain picks up, we revert to some outdated habits, settling for one-on-one, settling for soar pictures, settling for dribble handoffs, as an alternative of trusting the method of shifting the ball and of enjoying in some off-ball actions.”
Issues weren’t a lot better defensively, which White maintained solely compounded the problems on offense: Indiana allowed 48 factors within the paint, struggled at occasions to decelerate gamers with out fouling and was typically crushed again on protection for simple layups.
Washington was led by Brittney Sykes’ 21 factors, to go together with 9 rebounds, 4 assists and a pair of blocks, whereas rookie Kiki Iriafen added 16 factors.
“I wager they bought 4 to 5 layups simply on our poor shot choice,” White stated. “These issues need to get higher, and so they need to get higher each recreation. And I really feel like we have been somewhat bit stagnant in our development space in these.”
Clark, who missed a regular-season recreation for the primary time throughout her professional and collegiate careers, traveled with the workforce to Baltimore and sat subsequent to the coaches on the bench to listen to their suggestions and instruction in the course of the recreation. Previous to tipoff, she walked round with a digital camera snapping pictures of her teammates warming up, held the toddler of assistant coaches Karima Christmas-Kelly and Austin Kelly, and hung out signing autographs for followers who’d come to see her.
The sport was listed as a sellout (11,183), and although the stands didn’t find yourself full, the gang was stuffed with followers of each the house squad and the more and more fashionable guests.
Clark, a first-team all-WNBA choice who got here in fourth in MVP voting as a rookie, is on monitor to overlook no less than three extra video games, together with Friday’s contest versus the winless Connecticut Solar and Tuesday’s rematch in opposition to Washington in Indiana. The Fever are hoping Clark’s absence serves as a development alternative for Clark from the sidelines and for the workforce as an entire because it learns to function with out her.
“I do suppose brief time period and long run it will make us higher,” Cunningham stated.
