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Caitlin Clark’s WNBA career started with a lopsided loss against the Connecticut Sun. After taking her lumps early on, she helped rally the woebegone Indiana Fever to their first playoff berth since 2016, winning Rookie of the Year along the way.

On Sunday, Clark’s WNBA postseason career started in a familiar way: a big loss against the Sun. Clark and the Fever will try to extend their season by winning Game 2 of a first-round series on Wednesday in Uncasville, Conn.

If the third-seeded Sun win again, they’ll complete a 2-0 sweep and sail into the semifinals. Should sixth-seeded Indiana get even, the winner-take-all Game 3 will be played Friday in Indianapolis.

The Sun and coach Stephanie White, who previously coached Indiana, worked their plan to perfection in Sunday’s 93-69 win. Connecticut shot 49.3 percent and facilitated the offense through point forward Alyssa Thomas, who notched the fourth playoff triple-double of her career (12 points, 10 rebounds, 13 assists), extending her own record.

At the other end, DeWanna Bonner was Clark’s primary defender and kept her off the mark all night. Clark scored 11 points and had eight assists in her playoff debut, but she shot 4-for-17 overall and 2-for-13 from beyond the 3-point arc.

“My shot felt right there,” Clark told reporters afterward. “That’s why it’s so frustrating as a shooter, when it feels so good, but it won’t go down for you. That’s what sucks about it.”

The Fever will have to find a way to get Clark open looks away from Bonner or DiJonai Carrington, who poked Clark in the eye in the opening minutes of Game 1 in an apparent accident.

“(It) feels good. It looks OK, too, so I’m glad,” Clark told reporters Tuesday.

But Indiana also has to improve defensively. The Fever allowed 92, 88 and 89 points in their three regular-season losses to Connecticut and 80 on Aug. 28 in their only win over the Sun.

“Us 12 should be aggressive to start the game,” said Fever leading scorer Kelsey Mitchell (21 points on Sunday). “Great players are gonna make tough shots, but I think that we could be better in those areas of just mucking it up and making it a little bit uglier when they do take tough shots. … That’s our big step, to make them take tough shots all game.”

Marina Mabrey, Connecticut’s key midseason acquisition, poured in 27 points, the most by a player off the bench in WNBA playoff history.

She provided a crucial boost for the Sun in place of starting guard Tyasha Harris, who went down with an ankle injury four minutes into the game. White told reporters Tuesday that Harris is “day-to-day.”

“She was huge for us, and she’s going to continue to be huge for us,” White said of Mabrey. “The opportunity for us to bring her on was one we took because we thought she could get us over the hump.”

–Field Level Media