Rebecca Lobo Had Blunt Assessment of Caitlin Clark’s Bad First Playoff Game vs. Suns

Kristen Wong | Sep 23, 2024

Mark Smith-Imagn Images

The Indiana Fever didn’t get their postseason off to a great start in Sunday’s 93-69 blowout loss to the Connecticut Sun.

The team’s youth and inexperience showed during the game as the Fever suffered one of their more embarrassing defeats of the year against a well-rounded Sun side, which featured new trade acquisition Marina Mabrey.

Rookie Caitlin Clark, who has been on an absolute tear since the Olympic break, put up a dud of a shooting performance that elicited some blunt comments from ESPN women’s basketball analyst Rebecca Lobo on Monday.

“Keep in mind Connecticut is one of the best defensive teams in the WNBA,” Lobo said. “They threw different defenders at (Clark), they threw different looks at her, but to be honest with you, she just missed a lot of open good looks.

“First of all, she had a pretty smart and good floor game, she took care of the basketball, only two turnovers on the day. But Caitlin even talked in the postgame presser about having open looks and at times, wide open looks that she simply just missed. This is an Indiana team that has been shooting the ball really well from three, especially since the Olympic break. They did not yesterday…You’d be more concerned if she wasn’t getting good looks.”

Caitlin Clark struggled shooting the ball in Game 1 vs Connecticut (4-17 FG, 2-13 3s) but got pretty good looks at the basket. I talked with Randy Scott about her performance this morning on Sportscenter. (Count the number of “looks” you hear here.) pic.twitter.com/K71xWFwCq9

— Rebecca Lobo (@RebeccaLobo) September 23, 2024

Clark shot 4-of-17 from the field and an abysmal 2-of-13 from three, logging 11 points, four rebounds and eight assists in an overall disappointing playoff debut. The rookie guard was well-defended by Sun’s DeWanna Bonner in the first half and just couldn’t get her shots to fall in an uncharacteristically bad offensive outing. However, as Lobo notes, the Fever can still reasonably expect the AP Rookie of the Year to improve her shooting percentages next game.

Clark and the Fever will look to keep their postseason hopes alive in Wednesday’s matchup against the Sun in the best-of-three series.

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