In a closely contested affair, Angel Reese led her Chicago Sky past Caitlin Clark’s Indiana Fever 88-87 to erase the hurt of the previous two losses against her former NCAA rival. While Clark did make a couple of three-pointers at the beginning of the fourth quarter, she attempted just one shot during the last seven minutes of the game. Meanwhile, Reese made a bunch of decisive two-way plays to close the deal for her squad in crunch time. Her clutch performances made a deep impression on Skip Bayless, who recently had a rather harsh verdict.
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The FS1 analyst declared that Reese lays it all out on the floor during games while Clark is yet to develop such a killer mentality. Bayless referred to Angel Reese’s post-game comments, where she alluded to “having that dog” in her, trying to substantiate his hypothesis.
The veteran journalist co-signed Reese’s comments and stated that despite being highly talented, Clark lacks such an edge compared to her rival. On a recent edition of UNDISPUTED, Bayless expressed his views on the Clark-Reese showdown at Wintrust Arena in Chicago,
“I’m going to hold women’s basketball to the same standards I’d hold men’s basketball. Caitlin, I don’t know if she has that dog in her. I know she has got talent, she has got distance shooting talent. I know she definitely has a gift for passing the basketball, but I don’t know if she has that dog in her.“
.@RealSkipBayless says Angel Reese “has that dog in her” after clutch win vs. Fever: pic.twitter.com/pHK5Frao2b
— UNDISPUTED (@undisputed) June 24, 2024
To bring his point home, the 72-year-old analyst pointed out that Fever was up by double digits until the fourth quarter. They were expected to seal the deal but ended up fumbling the bag.
Fever lacked the will to land the decisive blow, as per Bayless, and all this was a result of Clark’s lack of killer instinct in the death. Then he highlighted an important stat in the fourth quarter. While Reese had 10 points and 5 rebounds in the final seven minutes or so, Clark couldn’t even score a single point in that span, only tallying two rebounds and zero assists.
Bayless was underwhelmed because Clark disappeared when her squad needed her the most in a rivalry game. He also explained that this late-game meltdown was unacceptable because the Sky aren’t an elite team like the New York Liberty or the Connecticut Sun, and they shouldn’t be allowed to come back after being down by 10+ points in the fourth quarter.
He recalled how this disappearing act was similar to the 2024 NCAA Finals game against South Carolina when Clark was red-hot during the first quarter but then didn’t have a significant impact in the following three quarters. In other words, Skip Bayless needs more out of Caitlin Clark when she is under pressure during a big game.
