The Indiana Fever (6-6) get back on the court for a matchup with the Las Vegas Aces on Sunday following an 88-77 loss to the Golden State Valkyries (6-6) on Thursday in San Francisco.
Golden State held Caitlin Clark to 11 points on 3-of-14-shooting — including 0-for-5 on 3-pointers, which is only the second time in her early WNBA career that she hasn’t a shot from behind the arc. The Fever star had two points at halftime, checked tightly by Tiffany Hayes with Kayla Thornton and Veronica Burton also taking turns defending her.
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Thursday’s game matched the lowest point total by Clark this season, which came against the Atlanta Dream on May 22. Perhaps not coincidentally, that was the only other game in which Clark hadn’t hit a 3-pointer.
However, the 11-point effort was not the lowest-scoring performance by Clark during her WNBA career. Last season, she scored three points in a 104-68 loss to the New York Liberty. But during her rookie campaign, Clark didn’t reach double figures in only five of her 40 games.
Struggling against the eventual WNBA champions perhaps shouldn’t be a surprise. But the Valkyries are an expansion team, so holding Clark to 11 points seems notable. Following the game, Hayes and her teammates credited head coach Natalie Nakase for coming up with the effective game plan against Clark.
“Coach gave us a great gameplan,” Hayes told the San Francisco Chronicle’s Marisa Ingemi. “We knew we had to stay up on her. We knew she’s a three-level scorer. I think it was a great team defensive game today, everybody was locked in making sure she didn’t get any easy looks.”
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Nakase is in her first year as a head coach after three years as an assistant with the Aces and three years with the Los Angeles Clippers and their G League affiliate. She explained some of the defensive scheme against Clark before and after the game, saying that defenders had to pick Clark up higher on the court since she can knock down 3s from the logo.
“She shoots from a logo you can’t pick her up at a logo just because, that’s a super comfortable shot,” Nakase said, via ClutchPoints’ Kenzo Fukuda. “It’s almost like a layup to her. Need to get her going to her left.”
More importantly was to not let Clark get into any sort of rhythm.
“We were being disruptive, we know she doesn’t like physicality,” Nakase said after the game. “And we know she wants to get back to that left stepback. I watched her at Iowa; she loves that left step-back.
“So again,” she added, “just making sure that she wasn’t getting into a rhythm and making sure she was seeing multiple bodies.”
Caitlin Clark was held to 11 points against the Golden State Valkyries, facing double-teams, multiple defenders and pressure up the court. (Photo by Eakin Howard/Getty Images)
(Eakin Howard via Getty Images)
Part of combating multiple defenders is to get the ball to her teammates and Clark finished Thursday’s game with nine assists. So at least to some extent, she was taking what the Valkyries’ defense was giving her. And perhaps the easiest explanation is that the Valkyries have Hayes to defend Clark and other WNBA teams don’t.
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However, it’s now on Clark and the Fever coaching staff to make adjustments against what Nakase might have established as a blueprint to keep her in check. Acting head coach Austin Kelly, filling in for Stephanie White, indicated what Indiana would have to do to combat double-teams and pressure earlier in the possession.
“I think the lack of ball movement allowed them to really beat her up,” Kelly told Ingemi. “When we move it, a lot of good things happen, we are able to punch it, we get to our sprays, and it gets back to her. That’s when she is going to get the good looks. But they did a good job of being physical and making it tough for her.”
Clark’s response could be immediately apparent with Sunday’s matchup versus the Aces. The Valkyries also return to the court on Sunday, facing the Connecticut Sun (2-11).