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Rebecca Lobo Named One Big Concern for Caitlin Clark, Fever in WNBA Playoffs

Kristen Wong

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As the playoff-bound Indiana Fever wrap up their regular season, it would seem like everyone has an opinion on just how far the former league bottom-dwellers will go in the WNBA postseason.

Among all the good and bad takes about Caitlin Clark and the Fever this year, ESPN analyst Rebecca Lobo, who has been a staunch Clark supporter from the start, gave a cautiously optimistic prediction on Indiana’s playoff success. 

Lobo revealed on NBA Today that she believes Clark and the Fever can get past the first round, but it wouldn’t be all smooth sailing.

“This is a team that I think certainly can [make some noise],” Lobo said. “I think they can win a first-round matchup depending on who they play. Right now, they’re seeded to play the Connecticut Sun, and the last time that these two teams matched up Indiana did win that game.

“But the big concern for Indiana of course—and you heard Caitlin Clark and Aliyah Boston joking about it on the podium—is that they don’t have any playoff experience. Their starting lineup has a combined zero games of playoff experience. Their entire roster has only nine games of playoff experience. So that’s the question is when they get into those moments, how will they handle going against some of those upper teams that have been there a combined 200 times.”

Last week, Clark and the Fever clinched the playoffs for the first time since 2016, becoming the second team in WNBA history to make the playoffs after starting a season 1-8 or worse. Clark, the highly touted Rookie of the Year frontrunner, has been playing at an elite level since the Olympic break but will no doubt need help from her supporting cast if the Fever hope to go far this postseason. 

What the Fever’s starting lineup lacks in playoff experience, they perhaps make up for in chemistry as well as timely form, with Aliyah Boston, Lexie Hull and Kelsey Mitchell all putting up efficient numbers in the final stretch of the WNBA season.

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Kristen Wong

KRISTEN WONG

Kristen Wong is a staff writer on the Breaking and Trending News team at Sports Illustrated. She has been a sports journalist since 2020. Before joining SI in November 2023, Wong covered four NFL teams as an associate editor with the FanSided NFL Network and worked as a staff writer for the brand’s flagship site. Outside of work, she has dreams of running her own sporty dive bar.

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