Caitlin Clark breaks another record in the WNBA despite Indiana Fever defeat

Caitlin Clark has re-entered the WNBA record books despite failing to lead the Indiana Fever to victory on Saturday night.

At 22 years old, Clark is the fastest player in women’s professional basketball history to reach 500 points and 200 assists, doing so in just three months into her WNBA career.

The Fever were unable to celebrate Clark’s personal milestone with a win, however, as they lost 10 (90-80) to the Minnesota Lynx. Clark had 23 points and eight assists in that game.

The No. 1 draft pick entered the league out of Iowa known for her record-breaking NCAA scoring — and particularly those long 3-pointers. Now she holds the assists record.

“I’ve always been able to see something happening before it happens,” Clark said after the Fever defeated Phoenix on Aug. 16 to complete their first regular-season win over a team since 2020. “I think (Kelsey Mitchell) can sense now when I want her to go back, when I want her to cut the ball or whatever. It’s that chemistry that you get when you’re used to playing with each other.”

“It took time, but I think we’re really starting to do it now.”

Anyone who has seen the series (and yes, there are still millions of fans) can see the difference.

After a stumbling start — the Fever began this season with nine games in 16 days, losing eight of them — as Clark scrambled to learn the playbook and how to adjust. Her turnovers outnumbered her assists. And there were more questions than answers as the frustration seemed to spread.

Since then, Indiana has rebounded to go 12-7, cementing its playoff position, and all the fear has been replaced by smiles and high fives.

It is not a coincidence.

A compressed schedule between the end of Clark’s college season and the start of the WNBA season didn’t give Indiana much time to practice — or for the players to learn each other’s nuances. So during the month-long Olympic break, coach Christie Sides changed up the training routine and challenged Clark.

“There were a lot of times in practice where they were running certain moves and I was telling (Clark), and only her, so she had to tell the players what we were running or where to go,” Sides said. “I was throwing some stuff in there, some sets that we hadn’t run yet, so she had to think about it and put people in the right position.”

Clark has responded and her teammates seem to understand this as well.

In their first two games since the break, Indiana looked impressive in wins over Phoenix and Seattle, with the Fever outscoring the Storm 33-17 in the final 10 minutes.

Mitchell is 11 of 21 on 3s and has 55 points since the restart, while Lexi Hull had a season-high 22 points and went 6 of 7 on 3s in her last game. Forward Aliyah Boston, the 2023 Rookie of the Year, also had nine assists against the Storm after outscoring Olympic gold medalist Brittney Griner on Friday. Indiana plays at Minnesota on Saturday.

“You have to adjust,” Mitchell said, describing the learning curve with Clark. “She had to make the transition to being a pro, and we had to give her what she needed, be a resource and fill in those gaps. She’s one of those players where her (basketball) IQ is going to take us a lot of places, so you have to figure out where you fit, know how to read her and adjust.”

Since Clark’s dubious record-breaking debut with 10 turnovers, her assist-to-turnover ratio has jumped from 1.23-to-1 in May and June to 2.19-to-1 in eight games since July 1. Records seem to fall every week:

– She broke the WNBA record for single-season assists for a rookie on Sunday, reaching 232, ending Ticha Penicheiro’s 26-year run as the record holder.

– In her final game before the break, Clark broke the league record for a single game with 19 assists, ending a streak of six games with double-digit assists in a seven-game span.

– If Clark continues to average 8.3 assists per game, she could break Alyssa Thomas’ single-season record of 316 from last season.

She needs eight 3-pointers to break Rhyne Howard’s rookie record of 85 set in 2022. With 22 3-pointers in the last 12 games, she would become the seventh WNBA player to make 100 in a season.

In addition to the assists, Clark is the league’s highest scoring rookie with 17.8 points per game.