Caitlin Clark made history Thursday, blowing away the previous record for fastest WNBA player to record 300 career points, 100 rebounds and 100 steals by doing so in her 19th game. No player had ever achieved it sooner than 22 games, per ESPN Stats & Information, and if we look at only rookies directly out of college, New York Liberty guard Sabrina Ionescu held the previous record, at 27 games.
Despite the No. 1 draft pick’s record-setting versatility, Clark and the Indiana Fever — who faced a brutal schedule to begin her pro career — have had an uneven start. Just two of Indiana’s first 11 games this season came against teams with records of .500 or worse, while those 11 games were two more than any other WNBA team to that point. It’s no surprise the Fever started 2-9, while Clark had a season-low three points in the last game of that stretch.
Since Indiana’s schedule has evened out, both in terms of opponent quality and allowing the team more practice time to build around Clark’s one-of-a-kind skill set, the Fever have won four consecutive games for the first time since 2015. Eight of the WNBA’s 12 teams advance to the postseason, and Indiana (8-12) would make the playoffs if the 40-game regular season ended today. Clark’s performance has also predictably picked up: She’s averaging 16.8 points, 7.6 assists and 6.3 rebounds over her past nine games.
As she starts the second half of her rookie season Tuesday against the Las Vegas Aces (9:30 p.m. ET, ESPN), let’s take a closer look at what the numbers say about how Clark and Indiana are figuring things out and where she might be able to continue improving the rest of this season and beyond.
Pick-and-roll game coming on
Clark’s ability to generate efficient offense through frequent pick-and-rolls is more important to her development as a WNBA player than anything else. That’s already the case halfway through her rookie season.
According to Second Spectrum analysis of camera-tracking data, Indiana has averaged 0.97 points per direct pick-and-roll when either Clark or the screen setter shoots, goes to the free throw line or turns over the ball, or a Clark pass sets up an immediate shot by another teammate. That ranks second among players who have received at least 200 ball screens, trailing Jackie Young of Las Vegas.
Early on, defenses responded by trapping Clark with both defenders more often than any other player in the league. Per Second Spectrum, defenses have blitzed 89 ball screens, twice as many as the next-highest player, Ionescu with 46. Clark’s passing ability has generally produced good shots in those situations. The Fever have averaged 1.05 points per direct pick-and-roll against blitzes, better than their overall average.
As a result, we’ve seen fewer traps as the season has progressed. Over Indiana’s first 11 games, opponents blitzed 21% of Clark’s ball screens, according to Second Spectrum analysis. During the past nine games, that has dropped by more than half to 10%.
With more practice time, the Fever have found better solutions for trapping defenses, leveraging double-teams on Clark to create open shots for teammates. And more important to Indiana’s long-term outlook, she and 2023 WNBA Rookie of the Year Aliyah Boston have started to develop better chemistry as pick-and-roll partners.
Although pick-and-roll basketball has always been a staple for Clark, that’s not the case for Boston, who was primarily a post scorer in college at South Carolina. When she was drafted, Synergy Sports tracking showed Boston had attempted just nine shots her entire senior season after screening in pick-and-roll. As a WNBA rookie, Boston attempted nearly three times as many shots out of post-ups as pick-and-rolls, per Synergy tracking. She has increased those attempts as a screener more than 40% on a per-game basis this season, slowly developing chemistry with Clark.
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