The Indiana Fever will play their fifth straight game without Caitlin Clark when they travel to face the host Atlanta Dream on Tuesday.
Clark, who leads the Fever with 19.0 points and 9.3 assists per game in four appearances this year, was ruled out Monday by head coach Stephanie White. The Fever (4-4) have gone 2-2 while Clark recovers from her left quad strain.
“She’s been allowed to do some practicing,” White said. “Not everything. And we’re going to be smart. We’re going to be cautious and we’re going to play the long game and work her back in very intentionally.”
With Clark watching from the bench Saturday at the United Center in Chicago, Kelsey Mitchell led the way with 17 points while the Fever used a 27-point third quarter to pull away from the Sky for a 79-52 victory.
“This team did a great job for 40 minutes of executing the game plan,” said Indiana assistant coach Austin Kelly, who was filling in for White as she attended to a family matter. “I thought when we had lulls, the communication was really good and they picked each other up when it was needed. It was a great win for us.”
Atlanta (5-3) dropped an 84-76 decision to the Connecticut Sun on Friday to end its four-game winning streak. The Dream entered the fourth trailing by one, but they mustered just three points in the first five-plus minutes of the final quarter. They finished 4 of 15 from the floor in the fourth.
“I give Connecticut a lot of credit. They competed and outplayed us for a lot of this game and they deserved to win,” said Atlanta head coach Karl Smesko. “I don’t think we got the quality of shot that we had been getting the last four games and the Sun made the plays down the stretch to win the game.”
Allisha Gray leads the Dream and ranks sixth in the WNBA with 20.1 points per game. Rhyne Howard adds 17.6 points, 5.4 rebounds, 5.1 assists and 1.8 steals per game.
–Field Level Media
