Michael Vaupel
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- Michael Vaupel is a senior writer covering the WNBA, women’s college basketball and other college sports. Voepel began covering women’s basketball in 1984 and has been with ESPN since 1996.
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LOS ANGELES — Indiana Fever guard Caitlin Clark was unhappy with the outcome of Wednesday night’s 106-92 loss to the Los Angeles Sparks, but said after her first game in two weeks that her body “feels great.”
Clark missed two games with a back problem that flared up during the Fever’s 111-109 loss to Phoenix on June 24. She played 16 minutes Wednesday, scoring nine points on 4-of-12 shooting, four rebounds, three assists and four turnovers.
“It’s going to take some time to build endurance,” Fever coach Stephanie White said of Clark. “She didn’t really have a chance to train much either. They exert pressure at 94 feet, so you have to be sure you can handle it. It’s never easy when you reintegrate after trauma. She will continue to get better.”
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Clarke played in turns for about three minutes at a time and then left the bench frequently to keep her back relaxed.
“It’s very, very difficult to get into flow,” Clark said. “For the most part I looked good. Some of them came up, some didn’t.
“I didn’t get to feel the game like I usually do. But overall my body feels great. So that’s the positive thing you take from today. It’s a shame we didn’t play very well as a team, but I feel really good. So we’ll see how I feel tomorrow. But I can definitely get a win there.”
Clark entered the game averaging 21.2 points and 8.2 assists and was named an All-Star last week. She has said in the past that she doesn’t like minute limits, an opinion she still holds. But Fever’s medical staff had the final say.
“When you haven’t played for two, two and a half weeks, the gaming environment is a lot different than anything we can replicate,” Clark said. “Even though my training was tough and I responded well to it, you just don’t know when you get into a game environment.”
Fever guard Caitlin Clark, who missed two games with a back problem, was limited to 16 minutes on the court Wednesday night and finished with nine points, four rebounds, three assists and four turnovers. Photo by Caitlin Mulcahy/Getty Images
Earlier Wednesday, White told the media that Clark would rest Thursday in Phoenix. Center Aliyah Boston (foot), who did not play against the Sparks, will play against the Mercury, White said.
White said these are precautionary measures so the two All-Stars, who are dealing with serious injuries, won’t have to play on consecutive nights. Boston has appeared in 19 of the Fever’s 21 games, and Clark has played in 18. The Fever dropped Boston, which is averaging 17.1 points and 8.6 rebounds, on Wednesday.
Guard Kelsey Mitchell led Indiana with 29 points, but she said she was unhappy with the Fever defense, which allowed the Sparks to shoot 51% and score 100 points. Indiana’s offense also looked disjointed.
“I think anything you want to do offensively, you can’t do if you don’t protect the ball,” Mitchell said. “Defensively it was just terrible.”
The Fever will be hoping for a better performance on Thursday night in their final meeting of the season against the Mercury. Their previous meeting on June 24 in Indianapolis was controversial, with Clark leaving early with back problems and Phoenix forward Alyssa Thomas being fined the next day by the league, giving her a flagrant 2 foul for putting her fist on Clark’s neck. Thomas was suspended for one game.
White was asked if this incident had anything to do with Fever’s decision to put Clark against Mercury instead of Sparks.
“No, it was a conversation with the medical staff and where we were in terms of when the injuries flared up and we started to come back,” White said.
Playing Wednesday instead of Thursday also gives Clark more time to recover before the Fever’s final four-game trip Sunday to Las Vegas. On July 5, the Fever beat the Aces 84–68 without Clark.
Clarke said she hopes she can play more on Sunday, but knows it will depend on the Fever’s medical staff.
“Right now I’m feeling really positive about hopefully being able to get it up to 25 (minutes) compared to Vegas,” she said. “But I don’t make these decisions. I’m such a competitor, I think I can play more, but sometimes it can get you in trouble.”