The Indiana Fever’s first playoff game since 2016 didn’t exactly go as planned.
Caitlin Clark and the rest of her team struggled Sunday with their shooting and were routed by a veteran Connecticut Sun squad in Game 1 of their best-of-three first-round series.
Visiting Indiana knows the task at hand in Wednesday’s Game 2 won’t be easy and recognizes the immense advantage Connecticut has in postseason experience.
From Yahoo Sports’ Cassandra Negley:
Four of the five Fever starters have fewer than three years of any WNBA experience. They all made deep March Madness runs in college, but came into the first-round series with zero combined games of WNBA playoff experience. That includes seven-year veteran guard Kelsey Mitchell.
Caitlin Clark, who is coming off back-to-back Final Fours, said Tuesday the intensity, pressure and win-or-go-home situation are similar to college, but still different as a rookie at the pro level.
“It’s a learning process for me, too,” Clark said. “Obviously, this is my first playoff. It’s a lot of us on this team’s first playoff. We’re all kind of going through it at the same point and learning. You don’t always know what to expect, because a lot of us have never been here.”
The Fever have a chance Wednesday night to survive and extend Clark’s magical rookie season. But they will have to shoot better, impose their will in transition and meet the Sun’s intensity.
Live1 update
Source Agencies
