Caitlin Clark is wasting no time racking up the awards during her rookie season, and she took home another piece of hardware this week. The Indiana Fever star was named WNBA Eastern Conference Player of the Week for the second consecutive week this week after averaging 24.3 points and nine assists per game in four wins.
The former Iowa star also has two Rookie of the Month awards, and is poised to add a third when the August awards are announced. She also is heading for some end-of-season awards in a few weeks as well. By all accounts, Clark has Rookie of the Year locked up and has the inside track to one of the coveted All-WNBA spots.
Clark has been the driving force behind the Fever’s four-game win streak, which included a win over the powerhouse Connecticut Sun. Indiana has won six of seven since coming back from the Olympic break and eight of their last 10 overall as they rapidly rise through the WNBA standings and look to secure a playoff berth.
Diving into the Fever’s second half success
Indiana’s season started off as a disjointed mess. The Fever were a measly 2-9 at the end of May, sitting in the cellar of the WNBA standings. Since then, they’re a very strong 15-7 and look like a team that nobody wants to face come playoff time. So what changed?
The first difference is the pace of play. Turn on a Fever game now, and it resembles what Caitlin Clark had mastered back at Iowa: push the pace, get high percentage looks on the fast break, and ramp up the possession count. At the start of the season, Indiana was playing much slower and consistently bogging down in the half court.
Another main difference is that they have leaned into playing their shooters on the wing more around Clark, Aliyah Boston and Kelsey Mitchell. We’re seeing much less Kristy Wallace and more Lexie Hull and Katie Lou Samuelson, and the Fever stars are benefitting from playing in more space.
The biggest shift has been that Clark has adjusted to the league, and Clark’s teammates have adjusted to her. The tempo certainly helps, but Clark struggled to pick her spots at times early in the season. She was too aggressive some nights and not aggressive enough on others. Now, she knows when to go and when to give it up, and the Fever offense has been incredibly efficient lately as a result.
Her teammates have also adjusted to the passing from all angles and spots on the floor. There are significantly less dropped passes by Fever players now than there were at the start of the season as they have gotten used to Clark’s passing style, and that has led to less wasted possessions. All in all, when this team is humming, they’re already one of the toughest offenses to stop in the WNBA.
Leave a Reply