The Indiana Fever are coming off a Commissioner’s Cup championship win against the Minnesota Lynx, and they did so without star guard Caitlin Clark who was sidelined due to injury. Even with the win, the Fever are going to need Clark in the lineup to pose a serious threat the rest of the season. With regular season play resuming for the Fever on Thursday against the Las Vegas Aces, Caitlin Clark remained on the injury report.
Caitlin Clark was officially ruled out on the Fever’s injury report for their upcoming game against the Aces, the team announced. Clark has been dealing with a groin injury that’s kept her sidelined for the past three games including the Commissioner’s Cup championship.
Prior to that, Clark had returned from a quad injury that had caused her to miss five games. After a strong Rookie of the Year season last year, Clark’s second year in the WNBA has been unfortunately hampered by injury. She’s missed about half of the Fever’s games so far.
Clark has appeared in nine games for the Fever this season at a little over 33 minutes per game. She’s averaging 18.2 points, 5.0 rebounds, 8.9 assists and 1.6 steals with splits of 39 percent shooting from the field, 29.5 percent shooting from the three-point line and 81.6 percent shooting from the free-throw line. Her shooting percentages are all down from last season, with the injuries maybe playing a role in that.
Nevertheless, Clark was recently selected as one of the WNBA All-Star captains by virtue of her receiving the most amount of fan votes. She also set a record for the most fan votes in WNBA history, surpassing the previous record which she set last season.
With Clark in and out of the lineup, the Fever have been searching for consistency this season. They are currently .500 with an 8-8 record and eighth place in the league standings.