Caitlin Clark screams at her own coach in furious on-court meltdown during Indiana Fever game
Caitlin Clark wasn’t happy with the Indiana Fever’s defensive rotations during Sunday’s 93-77 loss to the Washington Mystics in Indianapolis.
But rather than waiting for a timeout to discuss the issue with Fever head coach Stephanie White, Clark instead voiced her disapproval from the court as the clock ticked under a minute remaining in the first quarter.
‘Everyone needs to rotate so it’s not everyone for themselves,’ Clark was heard yelling, as quoted by HITC’s Ishaan Bhattacharya. ‘F***!’
Other sources provided similar descriptions of the Clark quote.
As furious as Clark appeared with the Fever trailing the visiting Mystics 31-17, White was unmoved – literally. The Indiana native and former Purdue guard remained leaning with one arm against the scorer’s table and one foot crossed over the other as Clark exclaimed from the opposite side of the court.
Clark didn’t hold back during post-game media availability, telling reporters that the Fever played a ‘sloppy’ and ‘pitiful’ game when they sorely needed a win. Although currently in fifth place, Indiana is mere percentage points away from eighth and a first-round playoff matchup with the red-hot Minnesota Lynx or Golden State Valkyries.
Caitlin Clark wasn’t happy with the Indiana Fever’s defensive rotations during Sunday’s 93-77 loss to the Washington Mystics in Indianapolis, where she was seen yelling at her coach
Stephanie White’s Fever are in danger of falling in the standings ahead of the postseason
‘Yeah, I mean, I think when you give a team that type of confidence early in the game, you’re just digging yourself a huge hole, and a hole we could never climb out of,’ Clark told reporters. ‘And I thought we were just sloppy, sloppy in everything we were trying to execute, and I don’t know, our defense was just pitiful and it was frustrating.’
For her part, White had similar criticisms, although hers were directed at Indiana’s offense.
‘… I thought that there were too many moments where we stood around and watched Caitlin and Kelsey [Mitchell] just dribble,’ White said. ‘We didn’t move the ball. We weren’t moving without the ball.’
Clark finished with 25 points on just 6-of-20 shooting to go with a game-low -14 plus-minus rating.
Meanwhile, Washington’s Kiki Irafen had 21 points and 14 boards in just 28 minutes, while Sonia Citron added nine assists to go with 16 points.
Indiana has two more games left this season, both of which come against the first-place Lynx. And should the Fever drop both, they could find themselves playing Minnesota in the first round of the WNBA playoffs.
