After just two games in her first WNBA season, Caitlin Clark could feel a difference in her physicality.
She noticed that teams were covering her even when the star rookie and first-round pick didn’t have possession of the ball – and possession had since passed to another Fever teammate.
That impression was reinforced when Chennedy Carter beat Clark to the ground just weeks later, and voices from the sport – from former Fever legend Tamika Catchings to Connecticut head coach Geno Auriemma – said the league needed to protect its players and that Clark had been “targeted.”
But after the month-long break due to the Olympics, Clark told reporters she had been training “pretty hard in the weight room” while the Fever had no plans to add extra muscle mass that could serve them well for the rest of the season, as Indiana holds a playoff spot and would boost its chances with a win over the Mercury on Friday.
“I’m small, but I’m trying to compete as best as I can,” Clark told reporters after her 98-89 win at Gainbridge Fieldhouse, in which she scored 29 points and added 10 assists. “…I don’t know, I think I’m discreetly strong. I’m never going to be the strongest person. I know that. I’m trying to put on some weight, and I’ve been working hard in the weight room. Obviously there are some limits here and there to what I can do, obviously the season is going on, but over the course of the last three weeks or so we’ve all been working pretty hard in the weight room.”
When Clark was “playing live” with the Fever ahead of the WNBA season’s resumption, she tried to get teammate Erica Wheeler to back up, and Wheeler, she told Clark, thought, “I wanted to push you out of the way, but you’re a little stronger than I thought.”
“Yeah, don’t mess with me,” Clark replied.
With the win, the Fever continued their turnaround during the season, and Clark’s transition from Iowa to the WNBA has helped – opening up more opportunities for other teammates like Mitchell and Aliyah Boston when the defense focuses on the newcomer.
She leads the WNBA with 8.3 assists per game, and after going through some rough patches earlier this year, Clark has scored over 13 points in the Fever’s last 13 games.
Eight of those games ended in a double-double for Clark, and the month-long break did not hinder that progress, even though Clark did not make the U.S. team’s medal-winning roster.
“I think it will definitely help me down the stretch to have that little extra muscle,” Clark said Friday. “…It’s definitely something I’m going to continue to focus on, but more than anything, I never want to lose my speed. I like to be fast and sprint.”
Clark and the Fever will look to win for the fourth time in their last five games when they host the Storm on Sunday.
