Caitlin Clark is one of the biggest offensive threats in the league. She can hit big buckets from anywhere on the court and get her teammates involved like few others. So, what do you do against a player like that? You put physical defenders on her who can pick her up early and defend without fouling, and try to put her on the spot defensively.Â
Teams have been challenging Clark to defend her one-on-one matchups by putting her in isolations—a strategy that worked out beautifully for the Golden State Valkyries and Portland Fire. Both teams targeted Clark with quick downhill guards, mainly Veronica Burton and Carla Leite, got her into foul trouble, and made every second she was on the court difficult.Â
Other teams will follow their example. It’s on Clark to put in the extra work and become less of a target defensively, but that takes time. In the meantime, Stephanie White has to try out new schemes that protect Clark defensively.Â
The two have to be on the same page for the Fever to realize their potential. After Indiana’s loss to Portland, clips of Clark and White getting into it during a huddle went viral and have fans worried about the chemistry between their coach and superstar player.Â
Clark struggled immensely against the Valkyries and Fire
The Valkyries already went at Clark late in the first meeting with the Fever. Clark held her own in that game, forcing some bad shots from Kaitlyn Chen and helping the Fever to a win.Â
It was a very different situation in the rematch. The Valkyries repeatedly put her into isos with Burton and Gabby Williams. Clark couldn’t really stay in front of either, allowed a bunch of buckets, and picked up several fouls.Â
The Valkyries’ defensive rotation of Burton, Williams, and Kaila Charles also bothered Clark on the other end of the floor. She went 3-12 from the floor and got half of her sixteen points from the free-throw line. To make matters worse, the Valkyries also basically neutralized Kelsey Mitchell and Aliyah Boston.
Portland forced another rough game. Much like the Valkyries, they picked Clark up early with long, physical defenders and held her to six points on 1-7 shooting.Â
The Fire also targeted Clark on the other end of the floor, doing everything they could to get her switched onto Carla Leite and letting the French youngster go to work. Clark struggled with Leite’s speed, which led to several layups and got the Fever star into foul trouble.Â
Stephanie White is facing a new challenge
Stephanie White is known as a defensive coach. Her Connecticut Sun team had the best defensive rating in the WNBA two years ago, but that team didn’t feature many weak defensive links on the perimeter. Alyssa Thomas, DeWanna Bonner, DiJonai Carrington, Ty Harris, Marina Mabrey, and Veronica Burton aren’t players you look at and think of as an easy one-on-one matchup.Â
So, trying to mask defensive weakness like Clark’s isn’t a challenge she had to face much recently—even last year the Fever picked up Aari McDonald and Odyssey Sims, who are solid defenders, to replace Clark when she was injured.Â
One issue is that the Fever switch everything, even if there’s no real screen involved, so that’s an area to play around with. It’s not like White hasn’t tried to protect Clark defensively, though. She always starts on the weakest offensive player on the court. Against the Fire, the Fever also sometimes sent doubles when Clark found herself guarding Leite, but that just led to open looks elsewhere because Leite made the right passes to force rotations.
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