The Indiana Fever suffering a blowout 69-93 loss in their series opener against the Connecticut Sun was the talk of the basketball community. Even the NBA Today panel discussed the same as Monica McNutt couldn’t stop raving about Dijonai Carrington and Co.’s defensive performance. However, the ESPN analyst is extremely confident that Caitlin Clark will redeem herself with an impressive offensive outing in Game 2.
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McNutt reminded viewers of the defensive prowess possessed by the Sun, regarding the Connecticut side as a top 3 defensive squad for the majority of the past half-decade.
“… Dijonai Carrington is in the running for Defensive Player of the Year as a guard position and she didn’t even start with the primary assignment. It was DeWanna Bonner with that tremendous length.”
According to McNutt, the Sun’s plan entering the series was to prevent Clark from going on scoring outbursts. After claiming that Stephanie White’s side was successful enough to achieve the same, the 34-year-old issued a stern warning regarding the 2024 Rookie of the Year’s potential resurgence in the upcoming game.
“Stephanie White and those guys cooked up a scheme that was designed to cut the Fever off at their head and their head is Caitlin Clark. Now Caitlin has a track record of when she has low scoring games, which we haven’t seen many of, she bounces back with plus 25 point performance,” McNutt claimed.
.@McNuttMonica says Caitlin Clark will bounce back from her Game 1 offensive struggles.
“Caitlin has a track record of when she has low-scoring games, which we haven’t seen many of, she bounces back with +25 point performances.” pic.twitter.com/J0PttgHbQr
— espnW (@espnW) September 23, 2024
McNutt isn’t inaccurate when claiming that Clark could potentially go off for a high-scoring outing in Game 2. In each of the four matches following her single-digit scoring performance during the regular season, Clark managed to redeem herself. She averaged an impressive 26.3 points per game.
Now that the injury to her eye isn’t as significant as everybody believed it to be, fans are more than likely to witness yet another scoring masterclass by the 22-year-old on Wednesday at 7:30 PM ET.
Clark got poked in the eye early in Game 1 v. the Sun
Caitlin Clark’s 11-point, 23.5% FG performance comes as a huge surprise for those who did not watch the full contest. However, she was poked early on during the encounter which seemed to have an impact on her shooting performance.
During the first quarter of her playoff debut, Dijonai Carrington unintentionally poked Clark’s right eye.
Video evidence suggests Dijonai Carrington may have intentionally hit Caitlin Clark early in the first quarter of the Sun v. Fever playoff game, resulting in a black eye.
No foul was called. The #WNBA needs to investigate immediately. Does this look unintentional to you? pic.twitter.com/ue2Sf03e9O
— The Boston Post (@ABostonPost) September 23, 2024
Even though Clark was evidently disgruntled, she claimed that the black eye had no ill effect on her performance when talking to reporters in the post-game conference.
“Got me pretty good in the eye. I don’t think it affected me, honestly. I felt like I got good shots, they just didn’t go down. Obviously a tough time for that to happen… Obviously it didn’t feel too good when it happened, but it is what it is.”
Considering that the opening round is a best-of-3 games series, Clark and Fever need to improve their performance drastically in Game 2.
