The Indiana Fever suffered their tenth loss on Monday night at the Mohegan Sun Arena against the Connecticut Sun, who took a lead of 28 points at one point in the game, making it hard for the former to chase. In the middle of the game, the Fever coach, Christie Sides, made a bold decision to bench the team’s budding star Caitlin Clark, and some of her teammates, citing their lack of effort as the reason to which the point guard reacted.
Talking to a reporter in a post-game interview, Clark said, “This is a [Sun] team you can’t come out and be lackadaisical against. They’re just that good, they’re gonna punch you in the mouth and I don’t think we had it from the jump… Effort is not something they can coach.”
This came up after the HC stated her reason for benching the players in the post-game presser, “You can’t at this level coach effort. I felt like we were just asking them to keep playing hard… you can’t play in this league if you have to coach effort.”
The Sun established their dominance from the opening quarter, giving the Fever little to no chance to catch up. Though the latter outscored the Sun in the final quarter, it wasn’t enough to cut the 17-point deficit that was created, and the game ended with an 89-72 win for the home team.
Clark was allowed to play for 22 minutes, during which she managed to add 10 points and 2 assists to her name. However, the Mohegan Sun crowd was not thrilled to see the 22-year-old leave the court.
Caitlin Clark Chants Break Out During Fever vs Sun
There’s no doubt that Caitlin Clark brought with her a massive fan base into the WNBA, but it’s a rare sight to watch the home-court fans demanding to see an opponent player for a longer time on the hardwood.
After she was sidelined from the game in the third quarter, the chant “We want Caitlin!” erupted among the unhappy fans who longed to be entertained by Clark and her exceptional basketball skills.
The decision to bench Clark was made following her foul trouble in the second half. To the crowd’s disappointment, she didn’t return to the court after that.
The Indiana Fever will be facing one of the stronger opponents, the Atlanta Dream, who have a current record of 5-4, on Thursday for their 14th game. To move up the Eastern table, Caitlin Clark and her team need to put in a lot of effort to beat the 3rd-seeded team as they’re in dire need of making a statement.
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Source: Los Angeles Times (edited)
