Kelsey Mitchell Denies Disconnect With Caitlin Clark During Fever Playoff Game
The Indiana Fever didn't look like themselves during Sunday's WNBA playoff game against the Connecticut Sun.
In the final 15 games of the regular season, the Fever were averaging 91.1 points per game, which was the best in the WNBA. Then they scored just 69 points against Connecticut.
A large part of these offensive struggles was because rookie Caitlin Clark couldn't find her shooting stroke. She finished the game with 11 points (she averaged 19.2 points during the regular season) and shot just 4-17 from the field, including 2-13 from three-point range.
While most fans chalked this up to a poor shooting night (which is typical for any sharpshooter but came at a bad time for Clark), at least one person seemed to believe these scoring woes were owed to a disconnect between Clark and Mitchell.
During Indiana's practice on Tuesday, a reporter asked Mitchell how she could be more connected with Clark during their next playoff game when compared to Sunday.
"Oh man, I don't think there was a disconnect," Mitchell replied, per X user @kenswift. "I think that we were learning what it was like to play in a playoff game. And I just think that's the reality."
She then added, "There's no way around that. I've never been here, [Caitlin] has never been here, most of [the Fever] have never been here. And you got to see a disconnection throughout the course of our organization.
"The good thing is that you can look at Wednesday and say, hey, see how much you can learn and take... so I'm proud of that improvement. I'm proud of that growth," Mitchell continued.
"I think that me and C-squared will always be locked in on what we can bring to the table as a group."
Kelsey Mitchell on whether there was a disconnect between her and Caitlin on Sunday that contributed to the loss. #WNBA #FeverRising pic.twitter.com/Pdz3gdou4a
— Ken Swift (@kenswift) September 24, 2024
Clark and Mitchell will need their typical connection to shine through if they're to defeat the Sun on Wednesday.
GRANT YOUNG
Grant Young covers Women’s Basketball, the New York Yankees, and the New York Mets for Sports Illustrated’s ‘On SI’ sites. He holds an MFA degree in creative writing from the University of San Francisco (USF), where he also graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in Marketing and played on USF’s Division I baseball team for five years. However, he now prefers Angel Reese to Angels in the Outfield.