Indiana Fever star Caitlin Clark made her long-awaited WNBA debut on Tuesday night. And unfortunately, it was largely more of a night for Clark to forget than anything she will look back on fondly.
Clark struggled heavily in several aspects of the game, shooting just 5-15 from the field for a team-high 20 points. But perhaps even more worrying was the fact that Clark turned the ball over ten times, which is a new WNBA record for the most turnovers from a debuting player in league history.
The Fever as a team also didn’t play all that well, losing in blowout fashion to the hands of the Connecticut Sun.
Obviously, Clark’s performance didn’t live up to the hype. And she acknowledged just as much in her post-game press conference on Tuesday night.
“I thought it was physical,” said Clark of her first WNBA regular season game. “Obviously it wasn’t the best start for me in the first half, getting into foul trouble and having to sit on the bench and then come back into the game and get into a flow. Obviously too many turnovers, that’s not gonna get the job done. I didn’t think we played well. We really did not play a good game. But we were right there and then it kinda got away from us at the end of the third and fourth quarter. I think there is a lot to learn from. We play on Thursday, you gotta learn from it and move on and be ready to go.”
As you can tell, Clark realizes that she needs to play better individually moving forward. Given how much pressure has been on her from outside factors, it’s understandable that she didn’t play her best in her debut.
About Reice Shipley
Reice Shipley is a staff writer for Comeback Media that graduated from Ithaca College with a degree in Sports Media. He previously worked at Barrett Sports Media and is a fan of all things Syracuse sports.