Caitlin Clark and the Indiana Fever seem to have used their month off from the Olympic break wisely, as they’ve come out and won their first two games in impressive fashion. After beating the Mercury 98-89 on Friday, the Fever turned right back around and thumped the Storm in a 92-75 rout that saw them runaway in the fourth quarter, led by Lexie Hull’s red-hot shooting game.
A night after putting up a 29-point, 10-assist, 5-rebound performance against Phoenix, Clark had another big game in the win over Seattle, boasting 23 points, nine assists, and five rebounds in the win. While Indiana eventually pulled away for a lopsided win (they hit 11-of-12 shots, including 8-of-9 from three, in the fourth), things were tense in the third quarter, as the two teams went back-and-forth. Early in the third, Clark missed a three and slapped the stanchion in frustration with herself and got T’d up for it (video here). It was a soft T, as you usually only see one handed out if someone throws a ball off the stanchion, not slaps it with their hand.
After the game, Clark was asked about the T and said the referee told her she got it for “being disrespectful to the game of basketball.”
“I got a technical for basically being mad at myself, because I missed a three and then went and hit the backboard. And he told me it was ‘disrespectful to the game of basketball,’” Clark said. So, I don’t know, it reminded me of the technical I got in college where I said ‘dammit,’ where it’s like a personal frustration. Had nothing to do with my team, had nothing to do with the refs, had nothing to do with the other team, it’s just because I’m a competitor, and I felt like I should be making more shots. But I think he fired me up to continue to play a lot harder. I thought we got a lot better after he did that, so I want to thank him for that.”
We’ll see if the league upholds Clark’s T upon review, but it certainly seems like one that could’ve been ignored. However, it might’ve given Clark a little extra juice, as she noted she played a lot better after that, so perhaps it wasn’t all bad.