Now that the Olympics are complete the WNBA is back in full force. Things got off to a great start for 2024 No. 1 overall pick Caitlin Clark. In fact, she might have locked down the WNBA Rookie of the Year award with her latest gem performance.
The former Iowa Hawkeyes sniper led the Indiana Fever to a 98-89 win over the Phoenix Mercury. The win completed a season sweep of the Mercury by the Fever 3-0 and for all intents and purposes ended the Rookie of the Year race between Clark and rival Angel Reese.
Clark went for 29 points (four threes), 10 assists and five rebounds, giving her 29 assists in her last two games. She had a league record 19 assists in the team’s final game before the Olympic break.
The two-game total is just one shy of the league record set by current New York Liberty floor general Courtney Vandersloot in 2020 as a member of the Chicago Sky. Clark’s performance Friday also made her the first rookie to have multiple games of 25 points, 10 rebounds and five dimes, and the first player to ever have at 50 points and 25 assists in a two-game span.
Clark Picks Up Where She Left Off
Prior to the break Clark also had ten assists in the WNBA All-Stars’ 117-109 win over the U.S. national team. That part of Clark’s game was overlooked when she arrived in Indiana, which is odd because all she did was lead the entire nation in both scoring and assists. In the win Clark also became the first rookie to score at least 450 points while dishing out over 200 assists. She’s just the sixth player to do so in WNBA history.
Stats like that scream Rookie of the Year, and when you factor in that the Fever won just 13 games all of last season, and have 12 wins with 13 games left it proves that she’s affected winning more than any other rookie.
Fever Own Mercury
It’s funny how the tables turn. Not long ago Mercury superstar Diana Taurasi told Clark “that reality was coming” as she watched the women’s Final Four. Yup, she wasn’t lying, but the reality she was speaking of wasn’t Clark being 3-0 versus her team and being the best overall player in those wins.
She’s averaged 22 points, 12 assists and 7 rebounds per game in those three wins, with the biggest coming in a 88-82 road win in late June where the Fever overcame a 15-point deficit to win.
Following Friday’s win Clark reiterated what that June victory meant to the Fever going forward.
“One of our biggest wins of the season was our first win at Phoenix,” she said. “That kind of boosted us into how we’re playing basketball right now. We have a lot of respect for how they play the game and how talented they are, and I think that have us confidence.”
It sure has the Fever are now (5-3) since and (11-7) since June 1st. Angel Reese is still a double-double machine, but she has some work to do to keep up with Clark.
