Saturday’s highly anticipated reunion between Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese — this time on the WNBA stage — delivered as the Indiana Fever beat the Chicago Sky 70-71.
Indiana’s Clark finished with 11 points and eight rebounds, while Chicago’s Reese put up eight points with 12 rebounds. Reese was relentless on the offensive glass with eight offensive rebounds, the most by a rookie in franchise history.
Clark and Reese last met in the Elite Eight in April, with Clark and Iowa beating Reese and LSU 94-87 to advance in the NCAA Tournament. Iowa went on to reach the national championship, where it lost to South Carolina.
Saturday’s game provided another reunion for Clark as she faced Kamilla Cardoso, a member of the Gamecocks championship team and now a Sky rookie. Cardoso, who missed the start of the season with a shoulder injury, made her WNBA debut Saturday and put up 11 points with six rebounds off the bench.
Cardoso also faced her former college teammate, Aliyah Boston. With 1:19 remaining in the game, Indiana’s Boston made a huge and-1 layup over Cardoso, giving the Fever a 70-67 lead.
GAMECOCK ON GAMECOCK 👀
Aliyah Boston with the huge bucket for the Fever on ESPN
WNBA Commissioner’s Cup presented by @coinbase pic.twitter.com/j6uSNpwIOy
— WNBA (@WNBA) June 1, 2024
The game’s most exciting moment came earlier in the fourth quarter when Chicago’s Elizabeth Williams missed a short jumper. Clark got the rebound and threw it ahead to Erica Wheeler, who threw a lob to Kelsey Mitchell. Mitchell finished the fast break with an alley-oop and-1 layup that put Indiana up 63-57.
In the third quarter, Clark was knocked down by Chicago’s Chennedy Carter after Carter hit a two-point shot along the baseline with 15.1 seconds remaining. Carter began trash-talking and slammed her shoulder into Clark, who was looking for an inbound pass, causing Clark to fall to the ground. Carter was whistled for a foul.
“I wasn’t expecting that,” Clark said after the game. “But it’s just like, ‘Respond, calm down and let your play do the talking.’ It is what it is … Go make the FT and then execute on offense.”
For more on the Sky-Fever game, follow The Athletic’s live blog.
Indiana’s defense finally showed up
The Fever entered Saturday’s contest with the worst defense in the WNBA and by a significant margin. Their defensive rating of 112.2 points allowed per 100 possessions was the highest in the league by nearly six points and was on pace for the worst such rating in league history.
Indiana finally put together a competent defensive showing against the Sky, limiting Chicago to 40.6 percent shooting and 11 fast-break points for the leading transition team in the WNBA. The Sky’s points in the paint were also six below their season average. Boston was a strong presence in the middle, her four blocks anchoring the Fever’s rim protection. Williams and Reese combined for 3 of 16 shooting for Chicago, almost exclusively at or near the restricted area, a testament to Boston and Indiana’s help defense.
The Sky were active, as expected, on the offensive glass, with Reese’s eight offensive rebounds nearly equaling the Fever’s total of nine as a team, leading to 13 second-chance points. — Sabreena Merchant, WNBA staff writer
Search for Fever’s fifth closer continues
The theory entering the season was that Indiana had a core four of Clark, Mitchell, NaLyssa Smith and Boston, but the identity of the fifth player in the starting and closing lineups was still unknown. Katie Lou Samuelson was the opening night starter, but in her return from maternity leave, she resembled a 4 more than a wing. Kristy Wallace took over Samuelson’s spot in the starters for more defense and ball-handling, but her inability to hit shots early — she missed her first two wide-open 3-pointers as well as an uncontested layup — left her out of Sides’ rotation late.
Wheeler ended up earning the nod for the Fever against Chicago down the stretch, the veteran point guard allowing Clark to play off the ball for much of the fourth quarter. Wheeler committed a bad foul with 6.6 seconds left and Indiana in the bonus, giving Marina Mabrey a chance to tie the game at the foul line. However, she was able to redeem herself by evading an intentional foul on the final possession, as Indiana secured its first home win of the season.
Wheeler’s play wasn’t commanding enough to end this discussion. Perhaps the Fever will play bigger once Temi Fagbenle comes back from injury, as Smith has been excellent since her return to the starting lineup. She had 17 points and a team-high nine rebounds in the victory while being the primary defender on Reese. Her ability to stretch out for 3-pointers — she and Clark each had two in the game — makes Smith a potential wing option if necessary. — Merchant
The future is now for Chicago
Reese has gotten off to a hot start for the Sky as the league leader in offensive rebounds and the lone rookie to score double digits in her first five games. But she was arguably the least impressive member of Chicago’s young core in the one-point defeat.
As was the case for three seasons at South Carolina, even when she came off the bench, Cardoso’s on-court impact jumped off the screen. She led both teams in plus-minus, despite the losing effort, as the Sky were plus-11 in her 18 minutes. Although it was Cardoso’s professional debut, she was already comfortable around the basket, catching the ball high and hitting 5-of-7 shots. Her partnership with Chennedy Carter was especially effective, as Carter knew exactly how and where to find Cardoso for easy dump-offs.
Carter ➡️ Cardoso#skytown pic.twitter.com/uniwwkbCcz
— Chicago Sky (@chicagosky) June 1, 2024
Carter is no longer on a rookie contract, having signed with Chicago on a veteran minimum deal after a year away from the WNBA. But at age 25, she is at the perfect age to grow with the frontcourt duo of Reese and Cardoso. She had a game-high 19 points and a team-best six assists, routinely blowing by her defender to get into the paint and either score or distribute from there. She is making 81 percent of her shots in the restricted area, converting another 3 of 4 Saturday, and continuously pushing the pace for the Sky.
Decision-making remains an issue for Carter. In a one-point game, the margin of victory essentially came down to the Chicago guard committing an away-from-the-play foul to end the third quarter after Carter and Clark engaged in trash-talking on the previous possession. If Carter can clean up those unforced errors, she’ll become an indispensable piece of the Sky’s future.
Required reading
(Photo: Andy Lyons / Getty Images)
