Caitlin Clark started slow, but finished strong on Tuesday as the Indiana Fever secured an 85-77 win over the Connecticut Sun.
She then sat the game’s final seconds in clear discomfort in her fourth game back from a groin injury. Clark left the game with 39.6 seconds remaining and the Fever holding an 84-77 lead. After the game, Fever head coach Stephanie White told reporters that Clark “felt a little something in her groin.”
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She’ll undergo further evaluation for the apparent injury. No further details were provided after the game.
The injury scare takes place days out from the All-Star weekend in Indianapolis, where Clark is slated to participate in the 3-point contest and captain her All-Star team in front of her home crowd. The 3-point contest is scheduled for Friday and the All-Star Game on Saturday.
Clark’s status for the events was not clear in the immediate aftermath of the game.
Clark sits late after apparent injury
Clark clutched her right thigh after a pass in the game’s final minute and walked to the bench with a grimace on her face. She did not return.
She remained on the bench with the Fever in control of the game. She appeared to be in pain after taking her seat on the bench.
Another poor shooting night for Clark before strong finish
Prior to her injury, Clark struggled from the field but finished strong to help close out the win.
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She faced off against an aggressive Sun defense in her fourth game back from a five-game absence due to her groin injury. She missed her first five field goals of the second half and didn’t score in the half until a jumper midway in the fourth quarter.
She also missed her first five 3-point attempts before hitting a late deep ball to extend Indiana’s lead to 80-71. She finished 4 of 14 from the field and 1 of 7 from 3. The effort marked Clark’s fourth straight game since her return from injury in which she shot 33.3% from the field or worse.
But Clark scored nine straight Fever points late in the game to help put the Sun away. And she contributed outside of the scoring column as she finished with 14 points, 8 rebounds and a game-high 7 assists. She turned the ball over five times.
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Fellow Fever All-Star Aliyah Boston was also limited in an 11-point effort while shooting 2 of 6 from the floor. She didn’t score her first field goal until the third quarter.
But Natasha Howard (18 points) and Kelsey Mitchell (20 points) picked up the slack to spoil the Sun showcase in front of a sold-out TD Garden crowd of more than 19,000 fans in the home of the Boston Celtics.
No repeat of tension from previous Sun-Fever tilt
The previous Sun-Fever meeting on June 17 resulted in multiple scuffles and three late-game ejections after Indiana’s Sophie Cunningham committed a hard foul on Connecticut’s Jacy Sheldon. That foul led to a tussle under the basket and Cunningham, Sheldon and Connecticut’s Lindsay Allen getting tossed.
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By then, the outcome of the game was squarely in favor of the Fever. Cunningham’s foul of Sheldon appeared to be in retaliation for an eye-poke of Clark in the first-half that sparked another scuffle that resulted in Marina Mabrey shoving Clark to the court. Mabrey wasn’t ejected, but the WNBA upgraded her shove of Clark to a flagrant 2 after the game.
The game prompted criticism of the officials for letting the physical play get out of hand. There was no such drama Tuesday night, and the attention immediately shifted to Clark’s health when it was over.
The Fever improved to 12-10 with the win, good for the fifth-best record in the league and three games behind the first-place New York Liberty in the Eastern Conference. They’ll face the Liberty on Wednesday in their last game before the All-Star break. It appears they’ll do so without the services of Clark.
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