When Caitlin Clark entered the WNBA this season after being selected number-one overall by the Indiana Fever at the 2024 WNBA Draft back in April, she was instantly the biggest star the league ever had. She had built a fanbase during her four stellar years at Iowa that rivaled any athlete in America.
You’d think that the WNBA, a league that has struggled with viewership since its inception in 1997, would do what it could within reason to set up the Indiana Fever and Caitlin Clark for success without blatantly aligning things in their favor. But, with the Fever off to a 2-9 start, the schedule suggests they set up the Fever for failure, instead.
After winning on Saturday against the Chicago Sky, 71-70 to improve to 2-8, Caitlin Clark and the Fever took on the high-powered defending Eastern Conference champions, the New York Liberty. But, they looked completely exhausted as well as outmatched talent-wise en route to a humiliating 104-68 loss in a game that was never close.
Clark was just 1/10 from the floor for 3 points in the loss.
Not only were they playing on back-to-back, but it was the Fever’s 11th game in 20 days since the start of the season, In comparison, the defending champion Las Vegas Aces have only played six games in that time span. No wonder the Fever look lethargic out there!
It’ss especially weighing on Clark, who just finished off a grueling 39-game season with the Iowa Hawkeyes where she became the NCAA’s all-time leading scorer. When you couple in an incredible amount of press she had to do in that time with a short ramp-up in preseason, and it’s no wonder her play is starting to suffer a little bit.
I understand that the WNBA wanted to take advantage of the huge popularity the Caitlin Clark and the women’s game had coming off the NCAA Tournament. But, the solution cannot be to have Clark and her teammates play more than any other team in the league when Clark probably needs the rest more than anyone.
Hopefully the Fever can get their legs back underneath them with a four day break before their next game against the Washington Mystics on Friday. The WNBA better hope so, because it needs Caitlin Clark at her best.
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