This feels like the season that Fever G Caitlin Clark “has to show that she can play not just at a high level, but an MVP level,” according to Matt Calkins of the SEATTLE TIMES. It is Clark’s “time to show that she cannot just be the best player on a playoff team, but the top dawg on a championship contender.” Clark has brought more eyeballs to the WNBA than anyone in history, and she “still has fans hypnotized for the moment” but if she “isn’t elite in Year 3, her popularity is at risk.” Last year, her points per game dropped from 19.2 to 16.5 PPG. That “didn’t seem to affect ticket sales.” Fans in Indiana and beyond “continued to fill arenas to their brim.” But Clark was “clearly experiencing a sophomore slump,” and when she went down with a season-ending groin injury after just 13 games, one could “feel pixie dust start to wear off.” Clark’s WNBA career has “sparked storylines beyond her productivity.” She had been the recipient of a “barrage of hard fouls that many felt was the result of resentment from players jealous of her popularity.” Calkins added Clark “is going to be fine.” Calkins: “Her handle and passing ability is still among the best, if not the best in the WNBA. At this point, it’s a matter of her rediscovering her long-distance touch … which seems more likely to happen than not” (SEATTLE TIMES, 5/17).
FOUL CALL: THE ATHLETIC’s Candace Buckner wrote this current Clark has “so much more pop.” After the first week of the WNBA season, Clark ranks near the top of the league scoring leaders, averaging 24.3 PPG. Foul calls are “up across the league in an effort to clean up the physical play that has hindered the WNBA, and consider Clark a fan.” Although Liberty F Breanna Stewart suggested that the increased whistles have “disrupted the ‘flow’ of the game.” Lynx coach Cheryl Reeve quipped that her team “can’t be the only one in the league to wonder why ‘everything is a foul,’” but Clark has “no such qualms.” Clark said Sunday the “refs have done a really good job.” The player who spent much of last season as a “certified ref critic now sounds like an ally of the officials” (THE ATHLETIC, 5/18).
STAT CHANGE: In Indianapolis, Brian Haenchen noted the WNBA announced that Clark has been “awarded two additional assists” from Friday’s overtime loss to the Mystics, making her the first player in league history to “finish multiple games with 30 or more points and 10 or more assists.” The stat change was “made following a request from the Fever” to the WNBA league office to review the film. Beyond the trivia surrounding the timing, Clark said that this record “isn’t especially meaningful or significant to her” (INDIANAPOLIS STAR, 5/17).
