Caitlin Clark is one of the greatest offensive players on the planet, with a case to be the best college basketball player of all time and a game of long-range shooting and pinpoint passing that has translated beautifully to the WNBA. In just her third season, she finished Top 5 in MVP voting.
What Clark did not do, however, was lead her team to the WNBA Finals. The Indiana Fever lost in the first round to the Las Vegas Aces. In two of the Fever's three games in this year's playoffs, Clark shot less than 36 percent from the field, shooting 6-for-22 from 3-point range in those two losses.
What Clark was unable to do was balance out her poor shooting. A uniquely powerful offensive force, her defense is not merely her weaker side, but rather a colossal weakness overall. If her offense is not working, she is not going to make up for it on the defensive end.
Not like Rhyne Howard.
Rhyne Howard brings it on both ends
The Atlanta Dream's headlines might be dominated by Angel Reese at the moment after her absolutely dominant Game 2, but she is hardly the Dream's only star. Allisha Gray is battling back from a hand injury, and All-Defense point guard Jordin Canada has been everywhere.
The Dream's second All-Star this season, Rhyne Howard, has struggled to find her shot in the defensive slugfest that is a playoff series against the Golden State Valkyries. In Game 1, Howard shot only 3-for-14 from the field. In Game 2, she dialed back the volume but shot a similarly frigid 2-for-7. In total, Howard has made three triples in the series compared to 11 misses.
For Clark, that would be it. All she wrote. If Clark isn't the best player on the court offensively, she's not helping her team win. For Howard, she can merely transform into a defensive hawk.
The Dream's third member of an All-Defense Team this season, Howard has been a defensive menace terrorizing the Valkyries all series long. Howard may not have been hitting shots in Game 2, but she tallied a whopping six steals -- in one game! The Valkyries had no answer for her swarming defense on the perimeter.
Howard can be playing poorly on any given night, unable to knock down shots that she usually makes in her sleep. At that point, however, the solution is to ratchet up the defense and make herself incredibly useful.
The Dream will need more from Howard offensively to win the entire series. Angel Reese won't have another 30 points; it's up to Howard and, to a lesser extent, Allisha Gray to get everyone in position and rolling forward.
Until the shot comes around, however, she can merely stay locked in on defense. She may not be the shooter and passer that Clark is, but she is incredibly well-balanced and highly competent. And in a Finals showdown where it's truly anyone's game, the surprising could certainly be happening.
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