It’s been a tough few games for the Indiana Fever. They lost a close game to the Golden State Valkyries. Then they suffered a blowout loss to the Portland Fire, which raised some uncomfortable questions about Caitlin Clark’s defense and her relationship with Stephanie White. Their meeting with the Atlanta Dream, who currently sit in second place in the standings behind the Minnesota Lynx, had the potential to add to that. Instead, it was a bounce-back game. The team responded to the adversity just like you would imagine a potential championship contender to react.
The Fever’s defense looked much better than in previous games, and the big three all scored between 17 and 25 points. The Dream shot only 34% from the floor and 29% from three and lost the rebounding battle.
Clark, whose defense will be under a microscope for the rest of the season, held her own on that end of the floor and flirted with a triple-double with 17 points, 7 rebounds, and 8 assists. But, ever the competitor, she still cited an area of improvement in the media availability after the 83-71 win.
“I would have loved to shoot the ball a little bit better,” Clark said. “Even if a couple more could go down—not that I shot it horribly—but other than that, I feel like this was probably one of the best floor games I played in a really long time. I thought I guarded really well, was aggressive on defense, got us into what we wanted to get into on offense, found my teammates in sports to make them successful.”
Clark’s 17 points were hard-earned. She converted four of her nine two-point attempts and went 3-4 from the free-throw line, but she shot just 2-8 from behind the arc and 6-17 ( 35%) overall.
This game wasn’t an outlier. Clark is off to a rather inefficient start, but, as long as she doesn’t allow it to become a trend for the whole season, she will be completely fine.
Inefficient shooting has been an issue to start the season
Clark has struggled to find the bottom of the net efficiently over the first eight games of the season, shooting 38.7% from the field and 32.3% from three. She has only shot over 40% from the field three times—three of the Fevers’ five wins—and even found herself shooting below 30% twice.
Clark currently ranks fifth in points per game across the WNBA. Only one player in the top ten in that category is shooting a lower field-goal percentage than her. Kahleah Copper is averaging 18.2 points per game to start the season, but making just 33.3% of her field goals amid the Mercury’s disastrous start. Brittney Sykes is the only other player in the top ten to shoot below 40% from the field at 39.1%.
The Fever star also ranks third in 3-point attempts per game, but is once again shooting one of the worst averages among the top ten players in that category. Kahleah Copper and Leila Lacan are the only players to shoot a worse percentage. Lacan has only played two games, though, so if we don’t count her, Jewell Loyd slides into the top ten, and she is also shooting a worse percentage than Clark.
Since it’s still so early in the season, Clark has plenty of time to improve her efficiency.
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