INDIANAPOLIS— For three quarters of Friday’s game against the Mystics, Caitlin Clark was barely able to take a shot. In the last quarter he could hardly fail.
Clark scored 17 of her 32 points, including five 3-pointers, in a wild final frame of regulation and dragged the Fever back into a game against the Mystics they appeared on the verge of losing. His fifth triple was the most important of the night, as it forced overtime in the final seconds.
Although Clark’s heroics wouldn’t be enough when the Fever fell to Washington in the extra session in one of the best finishes to the young WNBA season, it still highlighted how quickly things can change with Clark on the court.
“I felt like I could have done like five others [threes]”Clark said after the game. “They’re all there and obviously it’s cool to break through and get some guys down.”
Clark hit a pair of 3-pointers on successive possessions midway through the first quarter. If that happened, those would be his only two marks in the first three periods.
Clark was an ice-cold 2-15 from the field and 2-7 from three heading into the fourth, reflecting the Fever’s offensive struggles as a team as they were shooting just 32.8% from the field in that span.
But Clark’s back-to-back 3-pointers in the first 90 seconds of the quarter were a precursor to what was to come in the final 10 minutes.
Clark scored or assisted on 11 of the first 12 points of the period. The only point it didn’t directly create was a Monique Billings free throw…which came after a foul after a pass from Clark. She would go on to assist or score 18 of the first 21 points for the Fever as they got back into the game.
Her third three gave the Fever a brief 70-69 lead. When he hit his fourth three-pointer, the Fever trailed by four with just over 90 seconds left. That deficit grew to eight with 51 seconds left, leaving Indiana in need of a miracle.
After a Myisha Hines-Allen layup, a Mystics turnover led to a Kelsey Mitchell three-pointer, cutting the deficit to just three. The two teams exchanged free throws, leaving the Fever down by three points with 5.1 seconds left.
Some great play design by Indiana head coach Stephanie White created just enough space for Clark to make a shot while going out of bounds. It was all the space he would need when the shot found the nylon, tying the game with 1.7 seconds left.
“That’s the hardest thing for a basketball player when you’re not making shots to really stay in place,” Clark said. “So I’m certainly proud of myself. I really, really fought.”
The Fever received one more scare in the wild fourth quarter when Sonia Citron’s half-court shot sailed through the net, but came after the buzzer, sending the teams into overtime.
Unfortunately, all those heroics to force the extra session were for naught as the Mystics responded again, building a multi-possession lead in the final minutes. However, they once again left the door open when missed free throws and a timely 3-pointer by Lexie Hull gave Indiana a chance in the final seconds.
However, a desperation shot by Mitchell fell short at the buzzer, allowing Washington to escape with a dramatic victory.
For the Fever, as much as they can get from their fight in the quarter and overtime, it was the middle quarters that were the most costly. Indiana shot 10-42 in the second and third periods, including 3-19 from distance.
“If we don’t have a clunky three-quarters, we’re not going to force ourselves to do basketball heroics,” Clark said. “We don’t want to play that way. I know it’s exciting for the crowd, but we should have been in a position, especially after the first quarter, to control this game and we really didn’t.”
Friday was the second time in three games that the Fever eclipsed 100 points. Ironically, they have lost both games, a sign of how good this team can be offensively and how much work they still have left on the other end.
“We put a lot of pressure on our offense to be perfect when we don’t defend consistently,” head coach Stephanie White said. “Again, this is on us as coaches. This is our responsibility. We have to be disciplined throughout the game. We have to be disciplined in every possession. We are taking risks. We are taking fouls that are about to take difficult shots. We have breakdowns in coverages. We have to find combinations of players and rotations that just efficiency can be good.
“We can’t wait to play defense in situations where we feel good and we’re making shots. It seems like we’re making shots and everything is flowing and we have energy on the defensive end, and when we don’t have it, we don’t have it. It has to be the other way around. The energy has to be dictated on that side of the court and that’s a mentality.”
As dramatic and exciting as Friday’s fourth quarter was, the game as a whole highlighted where the fever must be rising. No team wants to have to rely on “basketball heroics” to potentially win a game.
But it was also a sign of how special Clark can be and how quickly he can perform those heroic acts to try to save Fever from defeat.
