Caitlin Clark, Fever bounce back from tough opening-night loss to beat Sparks
The Indiana Fever bounced back from their season-opening loss with a comfortable 87-78 road win over the Los Angeles Sparks Wednesday night. Led by Caitlin Clark’s 24 points and nine assists and Kelsey Mitchell’s 23 points, the Fever, who lost their opener to the Dallas Wings, avoided an 0-2 start to the season before returning to Indianapolis for a four-game homestand. Los Angeles cut the margin to single digits in the fourth quarter but never truly threatened to change the outcome despite Kelsey Plum’s 25 points.
Indiana even survived a night when Aliyah Boston failed to hit a field goal for the first time in her career. Here is what we learned from the Fever’s win. Caitlin Clark moving well Clark spoke pregame about the confidence she gained from the first game of the season when her back tightened up, but she was able to return and play eight more minutes.
“It’s going to take me a little bit to really get over this mental hurdle of trusting my body,” Clark said after playing 30 minutes and running 4. 6 miles against Dallas, per her team’s tracking metrics. Clark looked plenty comfortable on the court against the Sparks, despite wearing a wrap around her back during starting lineup introductions.
She was getting to the basket easily to start, leading to a couple of runners to get her on the board. Her footwork was clean in the post, and she had a nice crossover past Rae Burrell. “I feel like my speed and my burst is back, and that helps me get downhill,” Clark said postgame.
L. A. tried to target her on the other end, but she held up pretty well in isolation and was able to pick off a couple of passes to create transition scores.