Caitlin Clark Makes Unwanted WNBA History as Fever Fall to Mystics
The Fever star may have one small blemish on her record-breaking rookie season.
Caitlin Clark Makes Unwanted WNBA History as Fever Fall to Mystics
- Thread starter NorthernHawkeye
- Start date
She had a double double with 29pts and 13 assists.
I get it OP, nothing worse than a successful woman who doesn't know her place. Amirite?
Half of her turnovers this season have been perfect passes that bounced off her teammates’ hands because they weren’t expecting it. This will improve as they become more accustomed to playing with her.
You have to acknowledge, that's a ton of turnovers. On pace to break the single season record for turnovers half way through the season.
From the article:
The rookie committed five turnovers in the Fever’s 89–84 loss to the Washington Mystics, setting a new record for most turnovers in a rookie season in WNBA history (127). Clark surpassed late Mystics star Nikki McCray’s record of 126, which McCray set in 1998.
Clark also jumped up to fourth place on the WNBA’s single-season turnover leaders list, trailing Alyssa Thomas (137), Ticha Penicheiro (135) and Angel McCoughtry (134). She is currently on pace to break Thomas’s record before the All-Star break.
From the article:
The rookie committed five turnovers in the Fever’s 89–84 loss to the Washington Mystics, setting a new record for most turnovers in a rookie season in WNBA history (127). Clark surpassed late Mystics star Nikki McCray’s record of 126, which McCray set in 1998.
Clark also jumped up to fourth place on the WNBA’s single-season turnover leaders list, trailing Alyssa Thomas (137), Ticha Penicheiro (135) and Angel McCoughtry (134). She is currently on pace to break Thomas’s record before the All-Star break.
It's not half. Would be interesting to see someone anaylze it to come up with the actual number though.
Wait until SI sees what Angel Reese did at the end of yesterday’s game to secure her double double.
It is pretty close to half in the games I watch. Half of the balls are great passes that her teammates either flat out don’t even see or don’t catch. But when they do catch them, they are often electric plays. Her assist game is a bit like a big home run hitter who also has a high strike out rate.
There needs to be so many asterisks on that. So many of the turnovers happened in the first 11 games played in 20 days, with minimal time for her teammates to acclimate to her passing. As noted a huge chunk of her turnovers would not have been at Iowa with players who are used to receiving a spicy pass at all times that almost no other female on the planet could whip their way. Indiana players have vastly improved now on those passes. Also the schedule didn’t allow for practice and coaching up to counter the unprecedented full court physical guarding with unprecedented blitzing and double teaming. It was a concerted effort by the players and coaches to try to humble Clark and steal her shine (not take back, because they never had it before). Combine that with the passing issues above, and her high usage rate, and there you have it. She for sure has made a bunch of turnovers on her own, but these numbers are massively inflated.
This. 2 of those happened in the short time I saw the game yesterday.
I have noticed she sometimes tries to fit a ball into a hole that's too small. With quicker hands of defenders, she'll adjust and that will improve too.
I feel like she has improved on those decisions. She still has one or two a game that are on her, but you can’t take those away from her though because when her teammates get in sync they are what make her so spectacular, along with her range.
Clark gets a lot of credit for her turnovers…but a lot of them are like dropped passes in football…the qb gets credit for an incompletion, that’s it.
Yesterday, #22 had a really bad 1st quarter… but the team sucked too. She’s one helluva ball player. Be nice to she how she comes back after the Olympic break. Indiana is a lot better team now than they were a few weeks ago.
Yesterday, #22 had a really bad 1st quarter… but the team sucked too. She’s one helluva ball player. Be nice to she how she comes back after the Olympic break. Indiana is a lot better team now than they were a few weeks ago.
I just saw the clip on ESPN’s website. That was a classic “It’s all about me” moment.
She must have attended a Ricky Davis basketball camp!
It unreal that both teams were in on it.
For those who didn’t see it. The Sky were up by 7 with 11 seconds left. Angel has 9 points. The Sky guard is just going to dribble out the clock but Angel posts up to score and they throw her the ball. She gets fouled with 6 seconds left.
The opposing player that fouled her was clapping when she made the free throw.
Unreal .
Half her turnovers are from teammates fumbling passes...just sayin.
Reese was literally screaming for the ball with 10 seconds left and a 7 point lead. It would have been hilarious if she had missed the free throws.
This. Especially true earlier in the year when her teammates weren't used to her passes. They are getting better with each game.
I was glad that the color commentator acknowledged the beauty of that pass.
As someone said, I’d love a breakdown on her turnovers where they’re on her or the teammate. Even at Iowa, it often felt like one or two of her turnovers per game was because someone wasn’t ready for it.
And of course, her ball usage is also higher than most WNBA players in general.
The thing that makes it beautiful is that no one is expecting it including her teammates sometimes. She does try to squeeze the ball through tight windows that result in turnovers, but often it's just the other Fever players aren't expecting it. They have really improved in the last month or so though.
She does have a lot of TOs, but as others have mentioned it's a combo of early season lack of chemistry during a brutal stretch and also teammates not being able to handle or not expecting the pass. Bet she'd have 1/3 the TOs (maybe even 1/2) if circumstances were different. She's done a better job as have her teammates in recent weeks so they are both adjusting. He usage is also very high... I'd guess maybe the highest in the league and they like to push the ball often which has also led to TOs. So, between usage rate and early season chemistry/adjustments they are high, but she's also going to smash the assist record so she's doing just fine.
Reese’s double-double streak came to an end this afternoon as she once again demonstrated almost comically selfish behavior on a meaningless end-of-game possession.
This time the Sky trailed the Liberty, 81-67. They had the ball with less than 20 seconds left, the shot clock turned off, and the outcome already decided. But Reese kept fighting for a final basket that would have given her 10 points. She was quickly surrounded by defenders and was forced to pass the ball away. The ball ended up in teammate Lindsay Allen's hands and Reese continued fighting to get open as the rest of her teammates just stood in place. When she realized that Allen was content to simply let the clock run out, Reese threw her arms down in disgust and started walking toward the sideline as the final seconds ticked away. She appeared to be more upset about losing her double-double streak than she was about losing the game.
Last edited:
The last I saw, it was 38%. Someone in a Twitter thread had a link to an advanced analytics site that determined turnover-worthy plays and all that stuff.
By comparison the rest of the team in that game had 16 turnovers and 5 assists. CC had 5 TOs to her 13 assists. Mitchell was 0-8 and CC hit her for wide open 3s about 4 times...
Clark just set the new single game assist record with 19 tonight. Also 24 points.
Should have 30 assists
I'd really like an analytics breakdown of how many were actually her fault vs teammates dropping passes/missing shots/not ready for the pass.
- Sep 13, 2002
- 95,961
- 196,765
- 113
I think everyone on that team has oven mitts for hands, lol.
Never seen anything like it. She could actually be averaging like 12 assists a game if they could catch and make layups at a normal rate.
Well, she doesn’t seem to be a coke fiend, if that’s what you mean.
