Clark’s Progress Answers Questions About WNBA Transition

Anyone who watched (and yes, millions of fans continue to watch) can see the difference.

After a stumbling start — the Fever opened this season with nine games in 16 days, losing eight of them — as Clark scrambled to learn the playbook and how to adjust. Her turnovers outnumbered her assists. And there were more questions than answers as the frustration seemed to spread.

Since then, Indiana has rebounded to go 12-7, cementing its playoff position, and all the fear has been replaced by smiles and high fives.

It is not a coincidence.

Clark challenged during Olympic break

A compressed schedule between the end of Clark’s college season and the start of the WNBA season didn’t give Indiana much time to practice — or for the players to learn each other’s nuances. So during the month-long Olympic break, coach Christie Sides changed up the training routine and challenged Clark.

“There were a lot of times in practice where they were running certain moves and I was telling (Clark), and only her, so she had to tell the players what we were running or where to go,” Sides said. “I was throwing some stuff in there, some sets that we hadn’t run yet, so she had to think about it and put people in the right position.”

Clark has responded and her teammates seem to understand this as well.

In their first two games since the break, Indiana looked impressive in wins over Phoenix and Seattle, with the Fever outscoring the Storm 33-17 in the final 10 minutes.

Mitchell is 11 of 21 on 3s and has 55 points since the restart, while Lexi Hull had a season-high 22 points and went 6 of 7 on 3s in her last game. Forward Aliyah Boston, the 2023 Rookie of the Year, also had nine assists against the Storm after outscoring Olympic gold medalist Brittney Griner on Friday. Indiana plays at Minnesota on Saturday.

“You have to adjust,” Mitchell said, describing the learning curve with Clark. “She had to make the transition to being a pro, and we had to give her what she needed, be a resource and fill in those gaps. She’s one of those players where her (basketball) IQ is going to take us a lot of places, so you have to figure out where you fit, know how to read her and adjust.”

Clark leads WNBA rookies in scoring

Since Clark’s dubious record-breaking debut with 10 turnovers, her assist-to-turnover ratio has jumped from 1.23-to-1 in May and June to 2.19-to-1 in eight games since July 1. Records seem to fall every week:

— She broke the WNBA single-season assists record for rookies on Sunday, reaching 232, ending Ticha Penicheiro’s 26-year run as the record holder.

— In her final game before the break, Clark broke the league single-game record with 19 assists, ending a streak of six games with double-digit assists in a seven-game span.

— If Clark continues to average 8.3 assists per game, she could break Alyssa Thomas’ single-season record of 316 from last season.

She needs eight 3-pointers to break Rhyne Howard’s rookie record of 85 set in 2022. With 22 3-pointers in the last 12 games, she would become the seventh WNBA player to make 100 in a season.

In addition to the assists, Clark is the league’s highest scoring rookie with 17.8 points per game.

Clark and Fever most watched in WNBA

Her performance hasn’t quieted the social media controversy, the jokes about her treatment by opponents or whether she should have made the U.S. Olympic team. And she remains a fan favorite. The Fever leads the league in both home (16,956) and away attendance (15,306).

Clark is still a must-see TV series.

The game Friday night on ION drew 1.21 million viewers, nearly three times as many as the Connecticut-Dallas game on the same network that night.

Sunday’s Fever game on ABC drew 2.23 million viewers, up significantly from two games in a rare CBS broadcast on Saturday: New York-Las Vegas drew 874,000 viewers, while Minnesota-Washington had 577,000.

Only Washington and Dallas have fewer wins than Indiana (13-15) among the teams televised last weekend.

Scary for opponents, Clark and her teammates are still getting to know each other. But as she fuels Indiana’s playoff push, her growth and versatility make playing together that much easier.

“I think it’s just the chemistry with my teammates that they can see and be on the same page,” Clark said of the turnaround. “Now you see people making fast breaks or Kelsey making a backdoor cut. It’s that chemistry that’s unspoken, like I’m not telling them to do it, but they can just read my eyes and understand it.”

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