Caitlin Clark leads Fever against upstart Valkyries

Caitlin Clark makes her first appearance in San Francisco when the Indiana Fever tip off a three-game Western swing with a matchup against the expansion Golden State Valkyries on Thursday night.

The second-year superstar begins the trip in fine form.

In her first two games back since returning from a strained left quad injury, Clark contributed 32 points, nine assists and eight rebounds in a 102-88 win over the New York Liberty and followed up with 20 points, six assists and two steals in an 88-71 victory over the Connecticut Sun.

Clark has shot 11-for-20 on 3-pointers since her return, improving her season numbers to 22 threes and 40 percent accuracy beyond the arc in her six games.

In the Valkyries, Clark and the Fever encounter a team that has allowed just 34.1 percent shooting from deep and just 9.0 3-pointers per game. In winning its last two home games, Golden State limited the Liberty and Seattle Storm to a total of 14-for-51 (27.5 percent) on 3-pointers.

With Clark going 4-for-6, the Fever drained 11 of 26 from downtown on Tuesday in their testy home win over the Sun. Clark got nailed with a technical foul and teammate Sophie Cunningham was later ejected for a flagrant foul in a game marred by multiple incidents.

Afterward, Indiana coach Stephanie White insisted: “Everybody (in the WNBA) is getting better, except the officials.”

“I started talking to the officials in the first quarter,” White said. “We knew this was going to happen. You could tell it was going to happen. So they’ve got to get control of it. They’ve got to be better.”

While the Fever were surviving a rough win over the Sun, the Valkyries were watching a three-game winning streak come to an end in an 80-71 road loss to the Dallas Wings. Reigning WNBA Western Conference Player of the Week Kayla Thornton had 17 points in the defeat.

Golden State was without four players who have left the team temporarily to play in the EuroBasket tournament. The Valkyries have signed free agents to fill roster spots, including Wednesday’s addition of Bree Hall, a two-time NCAA champion at South Carolina who began the season in the Fever’s training camp.

Valkyries coach Natalie Nakase played just eight women in the loss at Dallas. She came away thinking her team had worn down in a tight game.

“The epitome of who we are is literally a defensive-minded team that loves to be physical, disrupt, pressure, take away the top scorers,” she said. “But if you don’t have any effort, then that kind of becomes irrelevant. You can have an amazing game plan, but if we’re not committed to the effort and the physicality … we’re not going to win games that way.”

–Field Level Media