Caitlin Clark’s fantastic rookie year is officially over, and her final game saw much of the same of what she had been experiencing all year.
Clark and the Indiana Fever were eliminated from the playoffs Wednesday with an 87-81 loss to the Connecticut Sun. The Sun earned the 2-0 victory in the best-of-three first-round series and will now move on to the second round to play the Minnesota Lynx.
Much of the storyline of Wednesday’s game against the Fever though was a couple of blatant missed foul calls on the Indiana superstar Clark. During the first quarter, Clark pulled up for a deep three attempt over Connecticut’s DeWanna Bonner. As Clark was coming down, Bonner clearly encroached on her landing space, knocking Clark to the ground.
Take a look.
Caitlin Clark and DeWanna Bonner get into it a little bit after this no-call on a potential landing zone foul pic.twitter.com/DlSxcIodVO
— WNBA Rookie Watch (@WNBARookieWatch) September 25, 2024
While that is normally grounds for a flagrant-1 foul, no foul whatsoever was called on the play.
Then later in the game, Clark was facing full-court pressure from the Sun as she was dribbling up the floor. At the end of her drive, Clark got whacked in the face on her shot attempt by Connecticut’s Marina Mabrey. Once again, no foul was called.
Caitlin Clark getting hammered. W refs do their thing.
Nothing. pic.twitter.com/vZE8VAfQRC
— Heavens! (@HeavensFX) September 26, 2024
The 22-year-old Clark faced very physical defense and overall rough (even arguably dirty) treatment during her entire rookie season. That was the case in Game 1 of the series against the Sun too with Clark getting controversially poked in the eye by Connecticut’s DiJonai Carrington.
The Fever may need to seriously consider signing an enforcer this offseason to have Clark’s back. But at least for this season, all the physical treatment that Clark endured all year only made her historic and record-breaking rookie campaign all the more impressive.
