SI:AM | Caitlin Clark Looked Human in Her WNBA Debut

The good: 20 points. The bad: 10 turnovers.

Clark (right) had some growing pains in her WNBA debut. / David Butler II-USA TODAY Sports

Good morning, I’m Dan Gartland. I can’t believe the shorthanded New York Knicks won Game 5 against the Indiana Pacers so handily.

In today’s SI:AM: 

⛹️‍♀️ Caitlin Clark’s debut
🗽 The Knicks win again
📅 NFL schedule tracker

An up-and-down start

Nearly 9,000 fans made the trek to the hinterlands of southeastern Connecticut on Tuesday night to see the season opener between the Connecticut Sun and Indiana Fever. If they wanted to see the home team start its season with a resounding victory, they got exactly what they wanted. But if they came to see the most hyped rookie in WNBA history put on a show, they were sorely disappointed.

Caitlin Clark’s professional debut came with tremendous fanfare. ESPN touted that it would “utilize a WNBA Finals-level production setup” with extra cameras and microphones on players. The sellout crowd at Mohegan Sun Arena was the first for a Sun home opener since the franchise’s first game in Connecticut in 2003.

But after shattering records and torching defenses in college at Iowa, Clark looked, well, like a rookie in her first WNBA game. She finished with a team-high 20 points on 5-of-15 shooting but she also committed a whopping 10 turnovers.

Clark got off to a slow start, being held scoreless in the first quarter before finally notching her first career basket with 5:24 left in the second quarter on a layup in transition after she came up with a steal.

Caitlin Clark's first career points in the @WNBA 🤩 pic.twitter.com/ahD10c123c

— Indiana Fever (@IndianaFever) May 15, 2024

A few minutes later, she came off a screen to hit her first career three-pointer on the wing. But those two baskets and a pair of free throws were the only points she scored in the first half as she shot an uncharacteristic 2-for-7. The second half was marginally better for Clark, as she notched 13 points on 3-of-8 shooting.

The most glaring issue, though, was the large number of turnovers. Clark’s 10 turnovers set a record for the most by a player in their WNBA debut, according to ESPN. Turning the ball over frequently isn’t anything new for Clark, either. She led the NCAA in turnovers in three of her four college seasons. Any player who has the ball in their hands as much as Clark is bound to commit a few turnovers, and it wasn’t as if she was the only one coughing the ball up on Tuesday. The Fever as a team committed 25 turnovers, a mark only one team in the WNBA reached last season (perhaps not coincidentally, also against the Sun).

“She’s a rookie in this league,” Fever coach Christie Sides said. “This is the best league in the world. We’ve got to teach her what these games are gonna look like for her every single night and we’ve got to eliminate some of that pressure for her. That’s on me, that’s on my staff to have to figure out.”

Clark will probably have more games like that as she continues to adjust to the pro level. The defenses she faces are going to be far more talented than the ones she faced in the Big Ten, but if there’s a silver lining it’s that few defenses Clark will face will be as stout as Connecticut’s. The Sun allowed the fewest points in the league last season and forced the second most steals. And while there’s no doubting Clark’s shooting ability, every great shooter has off nights like she did on Tuesday.

“I know the outside world thinks I’m gonna do some amazing things, but that might take some time,” Clark said. “And if things aren’t perfect right away or one game’s not as amazing as I want it to be, give yourself grace, continue to learn, continue to get better from it.”

Brunson exploded for 44 points in the Knicks’ Game 5 win. / Vincent Carchietta-USA TODAY Sports

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The top five…

… things I saw last night:

5. Another bullet home run from MLB swing speed leader Giancarlo Stanton.
4. Two excellent saves by Sergei Bobrovsky in quick succession.
3. Shohei Ohtani’s home run to the deepest part of Oracle Park.
2. Donte DiVincenzo’s confrontation with Myles Turner.
1. Evan Bouchard’s goal in the final minute to give the Oilers the win over the Canucks and tie their series at two games apiece.