Indiana Fever top-overall pick Caitlin Clark has become only the fourth rookie in WNBA history

Caitlin Clark has scored 51 points with 17 assists through the Fever’s first three games.

Indiana Fever top-overall pick Caitlin Clark has become only the fourth rookie in WNBA history to have scored 50-plus points and dish out 15-plus assists through their first three career games. Clark joins the premiere company of Candace Parker, Sue Bird and Nikki McCray.

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Clark scored 20 points in the season-opener at the Connecticut Sun May 9, the second-most points by an Indiana rookie in their debut behind Tamika Catchings. In the team’s home opener versus the New York Liberty last Thursday, Clark regressed and scored nine. Yet on Saturday afternoon, playing the Liberty in the back-to-back scheduling, Clark led the Fever with 22 points.

In the rookie’s three-game span, the Fever have lost all games by 68 points combined. Yet her assists game-by-game have only gone up. Clark posted three versus the Sun, six versus the Liberty, and eight Saturday to lead the team. She also had 21 turnovers in total, with eight in the 91-80 loss at New York. The guard somewhat offset that statistic by draining four 3-pointers.

Notably, Caitlin Clark scored 10 points on four made baskets in the first quarter at New York Saturday.

“Just playing with an aggressive mindset,” Clark said afterward. “Our pace, the way we push the ball up the floor — like, that’s just hard to guard. I thought it wore (New York) out a little bit. But it also caused a few matchup problems and we were able to get into a little bit of a flow at the beginning… coming out and playing fast and playing hard is going to be my biggest focus.”

It’s really no surprise that Clark has already joined this elite WNBA company for rookie statistics. While at Iowa in her senior season, Clark became the all-time NCAA Division I scoring leader, set the single-season record for 3-pointers and set the record for points in NCAA Tournament history, among others. Seimone Augustus holds the WNBA rookie-record for points with 744.

Clark is at 51 points right now through three games, an average of 17. If the rookie averaged that number for the next 37 games in the regular season, she’d be 47 shy of tying Augustus’ record. So, if Clark were to average 19 points for the next 37 games, she’d surpass it by 10. Augustus, the 2006 Rookie of the Year for the Minnesota Lynx, averaged 21.9 points across 34 games.