Caitlin Clark averaged a career-best 22.3 points per game in the regular season for the Indiana Fever but struggled to score in the team’s season finale against the Minnesota Lynx on Thursday.
The Fever hope her next game doesn’t look like her last.
Clark was held to two points on 1-of-12 shooting from the field in an 86-66 road loss but talked in the postgame about moving on as the No. 6 Fever prepare to open a first-round best-of-three series on the road against the No. 3 Las Vegas Aces on Sunday afternoon.
Indiana also lost Aliyah Boston (leg) and Tyasha Harris (ankle) to injuries in the loss to the Lynx. Their game status for Sunday is uncertain.
“I feel like at this point everybody’s record is 0-0. They are going into the playoffs,” Clark said. “If we sit and sulk about what happened … Yeah, it (stinks). It is what it is. We came out and got punched in the mouth.”
But the Fever hope to bounce back against the Aces, whom they are 2-1 against this year.
“If you can’t get up for the playoffs, then you probably shouldn’t be on this team,” Clark said. “The great thing is, you look at one to eight in this league right now, it’s anybody’s to take. We have to take the mentality into the playoffs of let’s go steal the first one.”
The Aces enter the postseason on a seven-game winning streak, scoring more than 90 points five times, including a 100-82 win at Phoenix on Thursday to close out the regular season.
Las Vegas (31-13) is averaging 91.5 points per contest, ranking it second in that category, but it faces an Indiana team (28-16) that is putting up a league-leading 96 points per outing. Aces head coach Becky Hammon knows her team has its hands full.
“Obviously they have a high-powered offense, so that’s job No. 1, is slowing them up a little bit. Easier said than done,” Hammon said. “It’s going to be a tall task for us, but coming in we know defense is a game changer, and we are going to need a lot of it against them.”
A’ja Wilson leads the Aces in scoring at 26.2 points per outing, to go along with a team-best 9.4 rebounds per game. Kelsey Mitchell scored a franchise-record 24.7 points per game for the Fever.
In the three games between the teams in the regular season, Indiana dominated the first two in Las Vegas by scores of 84-68 and 109-75. The Aces edged the Fever 86-84 in overtime in Indianapolis on Aug. 6.
–Field Level Media
