The Indiana Fever got off to a hot start in Caitlin Clark’s return yesterday, jumping on the Golden State Valkyries early to take a 20-11 first-quarter lead. After that, things went downhill, and the Fever fell below .500 with a dispiriting 19-point home loss to the surprisingly solid expansion team.
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Clark looked a bit rusty after missing five games with a groin strain, shooting just 4-12 from the field while turning it over four times. She wasn’t the only member of the Fever who didn’t have her best day, though, as the entire starting lineup shot well under 50%.
It was an ugly loss for Indiana, but it’s not the end of the world, especially since the game had an unusual tip-off time of 11 a.m. The Fever are now 9-10 on the season, and 5-5 in games that Clark’s played in. (She also missed time earlier this year with a quad strain.)
Is anyone actually saying that the Fever are better without Clark? Other than the voices in Skip Bayless’ head and some online troll accounts, I don’t think so. Skip constructed a straw man in record time after yesterday’s loss, then argued against it on his podcast The Skip Bayless Show.
“Now, I’m sure it will start. I’m sure I will now hear that the Indiana Fever are clearly better without Caitlin Clark,” Skip said. “No, they are not better without Caitlin Clark.”
“They did win the Commissioner’s Cup championship game at Minnesota without Caitlin Clark while she was injured,” Bayless droned on. “That started the drumbeat, and I’m sure it will now crescendo into a cacophony of a drumbeat that, ‘Oh, told you! They’re better without the turnover machine Caitlin Clark.'”
The roster around Clark is better than it was last year, to be sure, but by no means are the Fever better without their superstar.
Adding a healthy Clark to her running mates Aliyah Boston and Kelsey Mitchell, plus new additions Natasha Howard, Sophie Cunningham and Aari McDonald, gives the Fever the best chance to get out of the first round of the playoffs for the first time since they made the WNBA Finals in 2015.
The year before Clark arrived as the No. 1 overall pick, Indiana went 13-27. With Clark, they improved to 20-20. Thanks to their big swings in free agency and new coaching hire Stephanie White, they entered the year as one of the betting favorites to win the whole thing. Injuries have held them down, but if they can stay healthy, they’re absolutely a team to be reckoned with.
Clark is only in her second year as a pro, but she’s already one of the best players in the league, not to mention by far its most popular. We saw how attendance, viewership and ticket prices plummeted when she was out. That alone is enough to ensure that the Fever will never even think of trading her, but her shooting, passing and leadership seal the deal.
The fact that the Fever handed the Lynx one of their three losses on the season to win the Commissioner’s Cup isn’t an indication that they’re better without Clark. It’s proof that the roster around her is good enough to compete on any given night. Add a talent as special as Clark to that mix, and the Fever will be competing for championships for years to come.
The Fever will be fine, but the real winner in this situation is obviously Skip Bayless because he succeeded in getting me to argue with the voices in his head. Well played, sir.
