Final: Indiana Fever 71-92 Connecticut Sun
If you were tuning in to see Caitlin Clark, that was excruciating.
The officiating didn’t help. She picked up a questionable foul early in the game and had at least three plays in which most referees would’ve sent her to the free throw line but this crew did not.
But DiJonai Carrington’s defense on Clark was superb. Somehow, the box score says she only had two steals, but she forced Clark into some bad passes and shots while scoring 16 points of her own.
DeWanna Bonner had 20 points and moved up to fifth on the WNBA’s all-time leading scorer list. Clark had 20 as well despite going 4-of-11 on 3-point attempts and only 1-of-4 from closer range. Maybe she’ll challenge for the top five in her career as well, and surely she’ll have better nights than this.
Thanks for following along this evening.
Updated
Sun 86-69 Fever, 1:35, 4th quarter
Foul on Clark. Missed layup by Clark, who certainly seemed to be fouled.
We can’t say basketball referees always play favorites. But there’s often a perception in basketball – and some other sports – that the stars get special treatment. Michael Jordan was always the prime example – defenders could certainly get away with things while guarding, say, Clyde Drexler that they couldn’t get while they were guarding Jordan.
Plenty of other players through the years in men’s and women’s basketball seem to get the star treatment. Clark … is not. At least not tonight.
But Clark gets her double-double with her 10th turnover.
Timeout Connecticut, because they’re cruel, cruel people. That, or they think the 18-point shot has just been invented.
Sun 81-67 Fever, 3:29, 4th quarter
Carrington is back.
Four seconds into her return, she steals the ball from Clark. Nine turnovers now for the new face of the league.
Banham certainly seems to have fouled Clark, but the refs do nothing. Clark immediately launches the ball and sinks a 3-pointer anyway.
Next possession: Clark drives, and this time, there’s enough contact that the refs can’t ignore. She hits two free throws and is 6-for-6 from the line. All of a sudden, that’s 20 points.
But Alyssa Thomas one-ups Clark on the scoresheet with her 10th rebound of the game. To go with 13 points. And 13 assists. (And seven turnovers.) That’s a triple-double.
Timeout, Connecticut for some reason.
Sun 78-62 Fever, 5:14, 4th quarter
Take a look at the list of the WNBA’s all-time leading scorers before it changes. DeWanna Bonner has moved up to fifth. She adds a basket, a free throw and a big smile.
Clark takes on the whole Connecticut Sun by herself, dribbling under the basket and going back out to the 3-point line, where she hits a shot with ease.
Tyasha Harris keeps stealing the stage. She hits a 3.
TV timeout. The lead is 16.
Sun 72-59 Fever, 7:11, 4th quarter
Indiana’s bench players – Kelsey Mitchell, Temi Fagbenle, Kristy Wallace and Grace Berger – have hit 6 of 8 shots.
Boston, on the other hand, is 2-for-6 and commits a gruesome turnover. Clark goes to the table to check back in.
Sun 69-59 Fever, 7:36, 4th quarter
Potentially massive plot twist here as Carrington goes to the locker room. Looks like a cramp, but not one they’re able to treat easily.
Clark is on the bench.
Thomas hits a jumper for the Sun. Smith barely hits the backboard for the Fever.
Repeat the same sequence. It’s getting away from the Fever now.
Sun 65-57 Fever, end 3rd quarter
The officials call a foul on No. 10 for Indiana. Lexie Hull wears that number, but she’s on the bench and hasn’t played in this game. Refereeing is hard, but that’s not a good look.
Clark drives and draws a foul on Mitchell. She hits the free throws to bring the Fever within six points.
So, of course, Tyasha Harris hits a huge shot for Connecticut just before the buzzer.
Still, Indiana outscored Connecticut in the third quarter 18-15. And Clark is getting in the swing of things. Could we see a comeback?
Updated
Sun 62-55 Fever, 53.1 seconds, 3rd quarter
Clark at last has her second assist, threading the ball to Smith in transition. She had a couple of potential assists wasted in the first quarter, and here goes another one, as Katie Lou Samuelson misses a 3 from the same spot from which she hit one a couple of minutes ago.
Sun 62-51 Fever, 2:30, 3rd quarter
Idiosyncratic opinion: I don’t like the 24-second shot clock. Working the ball around for a good shot used to be an art form. Now it’s all rushed.
Some stats were revised – Clark now has seven turnovers. Now make it eight, as she loses the ball on a drive.
Carrington is limping a bit, and she’ll get a break. Will Clark get some better opportunities while she’s out?
Sun 59-47 Fever, 4:32, 3rd quarter
Clark is called for traveling as she comes to an awkward stop. Make it eight turnovers. She may end up with a double-double that she really doesn’t want.
And then she commits a foul. Or so the refs say. She’s not exactly getting the Michael Jordan treatment from our officials tonight.
Clark swipes a bad pass and draws a foul from Carrington. She then has to rush a long 3 and misses.
DeWanna Bonner scores again. Then Alyssa Thomas takes advantage of a Smith turnover for a transition layup. The lead is back to 12, and Indiana calls timeout.
Sun 55-47 Fever, 5:45, 3rd quarter
Carrington scores inside. She has 16.
But she’s not guarding Clark at the other end, and bang … down goes a 3-pointer. She has 10 now.
Erica Wheeler drives and cuts the lead to six, but Bonner answers.
Clark commits her seventh turnover.
Sun 51-39 Fever, 7:23, 3rd quarter
Boston runs into traffic in the lane.
Clark answers with a steal at the other end. Then she commits her sixth turnover.
Carrington misses, Erica Wheeler hits a 3 for the Fever, and Connecticut calls timeout.
Sun 51-39 Fever, 8:31, 3rd quarter
Some unproductive possessions kick off the quarter.
Clark gets the ball, but Carrington smothers her. A Fever teammate finally comes back to give Clark an outlet.
Bonner hits two free throws for the first points of the half, 89 seconds in.
The story has been DiJonai Carrington, who has limited Caitlin Clark’s shot opportunities and scored 14 points in her own right. Tyasha Harris has 11.
NaLyssa Smith has 11 for the Fever.
Second half is underway.
Halftime stats
Connecticut has hit 50% of its shots, including 5-for-12 from 3-point range. But most of the other numbers favor Indiana – a 16-12 rebounding edge, 4 blocks to the Sun’s 0, 54% shooting percentage.
And that’s despite Caitlin Clark going 2-for-7. NaLyssa Smith is 4-for-7 with 11 points. Aliyah Boston is 2-for-4. The bench players are a combined 5-for-6.
Clark has one steal and one assist, and she should have more assists than that. She has two fouls, one perhaps a bit dodgy.
The crushing stat, though: Clark has five turnovers. The team has 13 to Connecticut’s 5.
Halftime: Sun 49-39 Fever
Clark commits another turnover. Carrington misses a heave at the buzzer.
Give credit where it’s due – this shouldn’t be about Clark and the Fever struggling. The Sun look good.
Updated
Sun 48-39 Fever, 30.1 seconds, 2nd quarter
Temi Fagbenle knocks down a Connecticut defender and scores. I said it in the last game I covered – I’ll never understand why that’s legal.
Indiana inbounds, makes a couple of quick passes, and Clark finally hits a 3. Such a quick release.
Sun 48-33 Fever, 3:46, 2nd quarter
Clark spins past Carrington and gets into the lane, and she gets clobbered. Ouch. She hits both free throws and now has four points.
Bonner scores for Indiana, who just can’t miss now.
Clark fires from the edge of the midcourt circle. Barely hits the rim.
Sun 46-31 Fever, 1:55, 2nd quarter
Kelsey Mitchell hits two free throws for Indiana, but the Sun are … well, hot. Bonner answers quickly.
Smith makes a layup for Indiana. Bonner scores again.
Mitchell hits a jumper. Rachej Bannam hits a 3 for Connecticut.
The streak of successful offensive possession ends with a … Clark turnover. DiJonai Carrington simply strips away the ball and hits a layup.
The crowd has finally realized there are some people not named Caitlin Clark out there who can play, and they’re playing for the home team. They roar to life, and Indiana calls timeout.
Sun 37-25 Fever, 4:16, 2nd quarter
DiJonai Carrington continues her torrid second quarter with two free throws. She’s also guarding Clark, who is still seeking her first non-layup basket.
Katie Lou Samuelson, a WNBA veteran who is returning after having a child, goes to the line for the Fever and answers with two.
Carrington hits a long 3. That’s 12 points for her.
Sun 32-23 Fever, 5:24, 2nd quarter
FINALLY … Clark thinks about pulling up for 3, and more importantly, makes her defender think she’s pulling up for 3. Clark easily drives past for a layup and gets the first points of her WNBA career.
Then Boston picks up her third foul.
Sun 32-21 Fever, 6:37, 2nd quarter
Smith hits two free throws for Indiana. Connecticut misses at the other end, and Carrington – who has dominated the second quarter – fouls Clark in transition.
Boston finds Mitchell making a backdoor cut, and Indiana is within seven.
Jones scores for Connecticut as the shot clock hits zero.
Boston picks up her second foul, joining Clark in foul trouble.
If you’re just tuning in – Clark has 0 points and 2 fouls. And 3 turnovers.
Updated
Sun 28-17 Fever, 7:29, 2nd quarter
Aliyah Boston and Grace Berger spark a 4-0 mini-run for the Fever, and the Sun put up an airball, only to grab the loose ball and score.
Clark has another turnover, and the Sun score in transition.
Berger flings the ball to nobody in particular, and the Sun get the ball back.
Clark finally puts up her fourth shot of the game, a medium-long 3. It clanks off the rim. She’s visibly frustrated now.
Updated
Sun 22-13 Fever, 9:44, 2nd quarter
Clark re-entered the game for the last possession of the first quarter.
ESPN talks with Indiana coach Christie Sides, who shakes her head and laments silly fouls and missed free throws. While they chat, DiJonai Carrington makes a layup for Connecticut and is fouled. She makes the free throw, and the lead is nine.
Sun 19-13 Fever, end 1st quarter
Kelsey Mitchell makes a good cut to the basket and takes a feed from Boston, drawing the foul. She hits one of two free throws.
A sputtering sequence of free throws and bad shots brings us to the end of the first quarter. Not what the league would want to see while everyone’s paying attention.
Updated
Sun 17-12 Fever, 1:26, 1st quarter
The crowd’s energy has waned considerably. Have we mentioned that the Sun are the home team?
Indiana has a great defensive sequence, forcing the Sun into a layup that Boston swats away. Kristy Wallace hits a 3, but Tyasha Harris hits her third of the first quarter to put the Sun’s lead at five.
Updated
Sun 13-9 Fever, 3:46, 1st quarter
Clark sits on the bench after the timeout. Smith scores for Indiana, but Harris hits a three for the Sun.
Updated
Sun 10-7 Fever, 4:51, 1st quarter
Clark now has two fouls and no points. She does have one assist and could easily have three if her teammates had done a bit better with her passes.
Now a turnover from Clark, and we’ll go into the TV timeout.
Updated
Sun 10-7 Fever, 5:39, 1st quarter
Beautiful pass from Clark – but the finish isn’t there.
NaLyssa Smith hits a 3 on the next Indiana possession, though. DeWanna Bonner scores for Connecticut.
Clark goes behind the back to Boston … who is called for traveling.
Tyasha Harris gives the Sun the lead. Bonner extends it.
Updated
Sun 3-4 Fever, 8:00, 1st quarter
Clark’s first shot is one of those wild layups she sometimes tried at Iowa. And sometimes hit. But not this time. On the next possession, she misses another one.
Alyssa Thomas gets the Sun’s first three points – two on a layup, and then one of two free throws on the next possession.
Clark gets an open look from the 3-point line and … misses. She’s 0-for-3.
Updated
Sun 0-2 Fever, 9:21, 1st quarter
The tipoff is somehow botched. They try again, the tip goes straight to … Caitlin Clark.
She gets her first WNBA assist on a nifty bounce pass to Boston.
This will surely shock no one: Caitlin Clark is in the starting lineup.
Tipoff any moment now.
Tipoff in … 3-4 minutes?
Also on ESPN2 or Disney+ or whichever branch of the Disney family you’re choosing to watch – the second game tonight will feature the Phoenix Mercury (Brittney Griner, Diana Taurasi) against the two-time defending champs and heavy favorite for the threepeat, the Las Vegas Aces, featuring national team stalwarts A’ja Wilson, Kelsey Plum and Chelsea Gray.
Unfortunately, Griner’s out with a toe injury. Still a game to watch.
Tonight’s matchup
While the Fever are on the way up, perhaps there wasn’t much farther down they could go from two years ago, what about the Sun?
Connecticut has always been a pretty good place for women’s basketball. Being a proud Duke graduate, that’s all I will concede on the matter.
While most WNBA teams are associated with NBA teams, the Sun are owned by the Mohegan tribe. The name derives from the Mohegan Sun casino, where the team plays. (Well, in an arena adjoining it. They don’t run a zone defense amid the slot machines.)
They were finalists in 2019, losing to Washington, and 2022, losing to Las Vegas in an all-casino matchup. Last year, they lost in the conference finals to the New York Liberty, who are led by the last women’s college phenom to break into the public consciousness, Sabrina Ionescu.
Leading scorer Alyssa Thomas returns for her 11th WNBA season. An intriguing addition is Queen Egbo, the 2022 WNBA rookie of the year … for Indiana. She spent part of last season with Washington before moving to Connecticut.
They do not have a highly touted rookie, to put it mildly. Their first-round draft pick, Leila Lacan, decided to remain in Europe.
Caitlin the champion?
For those who don’t know how US pro sports work – Clark did not offer her services to the highest bidder or the best club as she would in Europe. Teams that don’t make the playoffs in the WNBA (as in the NBA) are placed in a weighted lottery. The winner this year – the Indiana Fever.
How’d they do last year? They were 13-27. That was an improvement over the 5-31 record the year before.
But the Fever have some good young players. After 27-year-old veteran Kelsey Mitchell, the next two leading scorers last year were 6-foot-5 rookie center (from South Carolina) Aliyah Boston and NaLyssa Smith, who was in her second year.
Still, will that be enough to get the Fever into the playoffs, let alone a deep run in the postseason? Our Guardian panel says no:
Anyone remember the ABL? No?
The American Basketball League launched in 1996, before the WNBA. The ABL offered players more money. The WNBA offered more marketing and a schedule that didn’t go head-to-head with the NBA and college basketball.
Now, almost 30 years later, the spotlight is on Caitlin Clark. But it’s also on the league itself, just as the spotlight was on MLS when it signed David Beckham – or even on the NBA itself when Magic Johnson and Larry Bird stepped into the league after seizing center stage in the 1979 NCAA final.
Can the league capitalize on the star power of Clark – and other talented players working their way into a league that doesn’t have much space for rookies?
We won’t get any answers tonight. We’ll just have a fun basketball game to watch. Enjoy.
Our writers on the season ahead for Caitlin Clark
Caitlin Clark is …
A phenomenon, who must be given the grace to adjust. The Indiana Fever will have to acclimate to utilising the space Clark creates, rather than relying solely on her to orchestrate plays. Players such as NaLyssa Smith, Temi Fagbenle and Aliyah Boston will play pivotal roles in transitioning the ball for Clark, and can boost their own individual statistics as opponents focus on containing Clark’s offensive threat. Yara El-Shaboury
Under a glare like no player before her. The all-time scoring leader in major college basketball history is the bandleader of a sensational rookie class that has recalibrated all expectations for how women’s sports can be covered, commercialized and consumed. It also ensures a precipitous learning curve in a cutthroat league where veterans have been famously unsparing on newcomers. Clark will be facing the best efforts on a nightly basis from opponents looking to draft off her unprecedented reach. Bryan Graham
A rising tide that lifts all boats, but she’s also in for an adjustment. I don’t only mean the regular transitions rookies go through stepping into competition against seasoned pros, and the rhythms of a W season, but the stardom that’s going to shape her world. She had a glimpse of it at Iowa, but college was a bubble for her. This stage is going to be so much different and I hope the Fever have a good buffer plan in place. Katie Heidl
Making herself right at home, putting up threes with much the same abandon she did at Iowa. It’ll be interesting to see if she’ll be able to pick her spots at will once the games count and the competition stiffens. But I expect her to raise the standard in Indiana in much the same way as New York’s Sabrina Ionescu did in her 2020 debut. Andrew Lawrence
How to watch Caitlin Clark's WNBA debut with the Indiana Fever
Beau will be here shortly. In the meantime, here’s more information on tonight’s game:
Start time: Caitlin Clark’s WNBA debut for the Indiana Fever will start at 7.30pm ET against the Connecticut Sun at Mohegan Sun Arena.
Where to watch: The game can be seen on ESPN2, ESPN+ and Disney+
There has also been widespread discussion of the relatively low wage Clark will earn as an WNBA player, particularly compared to her NBA counterparts. Andrew Lawrence broke down the earning – and the arguments – for us this week:
You can also get our full WNBA season predictions here:
