The Indiana Fever suffered a major blow last week when star guard Caitlin Clark announced she would miss the rest of the season due to injury.
Clark dealt with multiple injury issues during her second season in the WNBA, and Fever head coach Stephanie White remarked that the team ran out of time to get her ready to where she could return safely this year. During a recent episode of Candace Parker’s show, ‘Post Moves with Candace Parker and Aliyah Boston,’ co-hosted with Caitlin Clark’s Fever teammate Aliyah Boston, Parker explained why she was proud of Clark amid the injury.
“She had never missed a game in her collegiate career,” Parker said, “I’m proud of this generation for taking the time they need, looking at the bigger picture and making sure they get healthy.”
Last season, Clark played in all 40 games as a rookie. This season, she was limited to only 13 games. Clark was selected to her second consecutive WNBA All-Star appearance, but was unable to play due to injury. While it was a groin injury that kept Clark sidelined for the remainder of the season, she also dealt with a quad injury earlier in the year.
In the games Clark did play in, her numbers were mostly down from last season. She was averaging 16.5 points, 5.0 rebounds, 8.8 assists and 1.6 steals with splits of 36.7 percent shooting from the field, 27.9 percent shooting from the three-point line and 82 percent shooting from the free-throw line.
Clark was not the only major injury the Fever dealt with this season. In addition to Clark, the team lost four other players to season-ending injuries, including Sydney Colson, Sophie Cunningham, Aari McDonald and Chloe Bibby. McDonald and Bibby were even hardship contract players to help mitigate the team’s growing number of absences.
But the Fever still managed to clinch a playoff berth this year in their first season with White at the helm as head coach.
