Caitlin Clark didn’t disguise her frustrations during or after Wednesday’s loss to the last-place Dallas Wings.
She may have set a WNBA record with 19 assists in the game, but in Clark’s mind, she made the mistake that dropped her Indiana Fever to 11-15.
‘The late turnover definitely kills, for sure,’ Clark said of her costly mistake in the 101-93 loss.
Trailing by five with 45 seconds remaining and the Wings using a full-court press, Clark pushed the ball up court, where she ran into a Dallas trap and ultimately had the ball poked away by Odyssey Sims, who quickly called a time out.
Clark fumed after the whistle. After initially slapping the hardwood in frustration, she returned to the bench, where she received bottle from a water boy and promptly spiked it along the sideline.
Afterwards she opened about the frustrating loss – and her new record.
‘It’s a fine line of they were up pressuring me, so I kind of got behind them and was able to attack and then I tried to pull it out and then kind of lost my handle while being poked from behind,’ said Clark, who is now averaging a ghastly 5.6 turnovers a game.
‘That one definitely killed. … That one’s really costly, you can’t have it.’
As for the assist record, Clark seemed to stumble on it by accident. In fact, she’s admittedly self-conscious of over passing in certain situations.
‘I just try to set my teammates up for success,’ Clark said. ‘I think at times I can almost overpass.
‘There probably could have been a few times where instead of passing that leads to a turnover that I may have, I can probably shoot the ball. Especially with [Aliyah Boston]. I’m just looking to set her up so much. My eyes are almost always on our post players.’
Clark finished with 24 points on 10-of-19 shooting. She enters the All-Star breaking averaging 17.1 points, 8.2 assists and a surprising 5.8 rebounds a game.
The WNBA will now go on a month-long break encompassing the upcoming Paris Olympics.
