Caitlin Clark and the Indiana Fever suffered an ugly 89-72 loss to the Connecticut Sun on Monday night to fall to 3-10 on the season. Clark finished with only 10 points on 3-of-8 shooting in what was one of her worst games of her young WNBA career.
Clark got into some foul trouble and sat for a long time in the second half, which led to something you’re not used to hearing in the arena of an opposing team—fans started chanting “We want Caitlin!” with hopes that the No. 1 pick in the WNBA draft could get back out on the court.
Here are those scenes:
The Fever will be back in action Thursday night when they host the Atlanta Dream.
Over the last two years, the friendly rivalry between Indiana Fever guard Caitlin Clark and Chicago Sky forward Angel Reese has elevated two games—women's college basketball and the WNBA—to never-before-seen heights.
Like all truly great sports rivalries, however, Clark and Reese's rivalry is built on mutual respect. On Saturday morning, Clark demonstrated that by praising both Reese and Sky center Kamilla Cardoso before the Fever played Chicago in the afternoon.
"The thing about (Reese), she's been so dominant at what she does ever since we played in high school," Clark said via Julia Poe of The Chicago Tribune. "She's always had a knack for being able to rebound the ball and that's just translated immediately to the WNBA."
Reese entered Saturday averaging 8.2 rebounds per game, ninth in the WNBA.
"Kamilla caused us a lot of problems in the national championship," Clark said of Cardoso. "Kamilla is just scratching the surface of her potential... it's been a lot of fun to watch those two kind of evolve over their college careers."
Each of the trio had a role to play in Indiana's eventual 71–70 win. Clark scored 11 points, pulled down eight rebounds and gave out eight assists; Reese scored eight points and pulled down 13 rebounds; Cardoso scored 11 points and had six rebounds.
Caitlin Clark was back in New York on Sunday night for the Indiana Fever's showdown against the New York Liberty at the Barclays Center, and she treated a group of young basketball fans to an awesome moment after they asked her to snap a photo before the game.
Clark was warming up ahead of tip-off on Sunday when she happily obliged a group of Fever fans who wanted to take a photo with her.
In a moment captured by sports reporter Aliyah Funschelle, the group of kids could be seen beaming after Clark walked over and greeted them with some high fives, and they hopped up and gathered around in order to take the photo.
Indiana has gotten off to a slow start to the season, but they picked up a much-needed win on Saturday against the Chicago Sky in order to improve to 2–8. There was some physical play in that game, including a controversial moment between Clark and Sky's Chennedy Carter, but the 22-year-old didn't let any lingering frustrations stand in the way of a heartwarming moment between herself and some of her biggest fans.
Across 10 games in the WNBA, Clark is averaging 16.9 points, 6.5 assists and 5.4 rebounds.
Caitlin Clark is a supporter of all women's sports, not just the WNBA.
Prior to Clark's game with the Indiana Fever on Friday night, an 85-83 Fever win over the winless Washington Mystics, the rookie was asked if she had tuned into Game 1 of the NBA Finals between the Boston Celtics and the Dallas Mavericks, which had tipped off Thursday night.
Clark's response was perfect.
"To be honest, I had the women’s college softball world series on instead," Clark said. "It was a little bit better of a game, but when I flipped back to the NBA... Yeah I was flipping back and forth."
"There’s a girl that pitches for Texas who’s a freshman that actually lived a couple streets over from me growing up, so I was rooting for the Texas Longhorns, unfortunately, they couldn't get it done. I think that's even just a great display of women's sports and where it's going. I've always been a big fan of women's softball and women's sports across the board, so I was moreso watching that."
Clark did acknowledge that she's watching the finals, though she also admitted that the Indiana Pacers, who lost to the Boston Celtics in the conference finals, not making it affected her interest levels a bit.
But the bigger point here is Clark's unwavering support for women's sports across the board. As arguably the biggest driver of interest in the WNBA at the moment, Clark has the ability to help lift up nearly any other women's sport she supports or has an interest in.
Clark was doing just that by bringing attention to the women's college softball world series.