The third round between the Chicago Sky and the Indiana Fever kept all its promises: Victory is finally heading towards Angel Reese, after losing in the first two matches. In fact, the young Sky interior won for the first time against Caitlin Clark (88-87) since their simultaneous arrival in the league.
Building on her momentum from an exceptional month of jin, Angel Reese records an eighth double-double in a row to beat her rival. With her 25 points and 16 rebounds, the Sky rookie even joins A'ja Wilson, the only player to have compiled at least 25 points and 15 rebounds in a game during her first season. They are also the only two players this season to have compiled several games with 15 points and 15 rebounds.
“She plays really well in transition,” recognizes Caitlin Clarkabout his “best enemy”. “She got a few baskets with the foul in transition, and she had a very good game. I think they really knew to be physical with us. I think they probably watched our last game and saw that we were making fouls all the time. 32 free throws… Against a team like this, you won't make it. »
Again and again mistakes
However, the Fever led for a long time in the match, and six minutes from the end, Caitlin Clark's teammates still led by 12 points. But the mistakes kept coming and the Sky actually went to the throw line 32 times, finally winning by a small point.
“Our offense was never the problem,” Caitlin Clark analysisauthor of 13 assists, new franchise record. “We scored 87 points and we really didn't execute well in the fourth quarter. We just made mistakes. We should have stopped making mistakes. »
To make matters worse with the 25 fouls conceded, the Fever was no longer able to find Caitlin Clark in a shooting position at the end of the game. Despite her 17 points at 5/11 on shots and 5/9 from distance, the number 1 in Draft only attempted two shots in the last 7 minutes.
“I'm sure there were one or two opportunities to take another shot at the end, but I trust my teammates,” recognizes the Fever player. “Obviously, 13 assists means that my teammates scored on 13 of my passes. It's a very good number, so I'm going to give them the ball and give them the opportunity to score. »
