During Game 1 of the 2024 WNBA Playoffs between Indiana Fever and Connecticut Sun on September 22, Fever star Caitlin Clark suffered a poke in the eye from Sun guard DiJonai Carrington while dribbling the basketball.
The incident created a lot of controversy, with Carrington clarifying that the eye poke was not intentional and just happened inadvertently in the heat of battle.
Ahead of Game 2 of the Fever versus Sun series on September 25, Carrington was again asked about the eye poke incident, and whether it was intentional, by USA Today’s Christine Brennan. In response, Carrington said she meant no ill towards the Fever star and that she didn’t even realize her fingers made contact with Clark’s eye.
Knicks star Josh Hart slammed the reporter’s question, deeming it “stupid” via X.
Caitlin Clark’s First Playoffs to End in Loss?
The controversy notwithstanding, Clark herself downplayed the incident after Fever’s Game 1 loss on September 22.
“Obviously, she got me pretty good in the eye,” Clark told reporters. “I don’t think it affected me. I got good shots, they didn’t go down. It’s a tough time for that to happen.”
Clark had a rare off night in her playoff debut, going 4-of-17 from the field including a paltry 2-of-13 from three. Will the Iowa product bounce back in Game 2?
The Fever entered the September 25 game against the Sun as the betting underdogs to lose the best-of-three series by a 0-2 margin. A loss would mean an early end to not only Caitlin Clark’s rookie campaign but the Fever’s season.
Clark, however, remained confident about leveling up the series.
“We know we’re capable of beating this team. We have done it,” Clark told the media, via ESPN. “Obviously, they’re really, really good and we know it’ll be a challenge, but I don’t think it’s anything we’re shying away from. I think you just embrace the challenge.
“We know we didn’t have our best [on September 22] and maybe the final score really seems like we did get blown out, but we had it to six points. We had it to eight points. It was just we could never really get over the hump.”
Fever Have Reason to be Optimistic
Even if their season were to end on September 25, the Fever have ample reason to be optimistic going into the 2025 season, especially with a blossoming Big 3 of Clark, Kelsey Mitchell and Aliyah Boston leading the charge.
In Clark’s debut season, the Fever ended an eight-year postseason drought, the longest among all active teams in the WNBA. As such, Clark and Co. can build off their momentum in the 2024 season and take significant strides in 2025.
In the meantime, Clark and Fever are not ready to go home just yet.
“I don’t want this [season] to end,” Clark said on September 24, via ESPN. “I feel like it’s been a very special year for our organization and our goal is to get to the playoffs, but everybody in our locker room believes we can win this series. This is obviously a must-win for us and we believe we can come in here and win that.”
Clark ended her rookie campaign averaging 19.2 points, 8.4 assists, 5.7 rebounds and 1.3 steals from 40 regular-season games. She was unanimously voted the Rookie of the Year and also finished fourth in the MVP ballot.
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