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Indiana Fever guard Caitlin Clark was out yet again for the team on Friday night, missing Indiana’s first game against the Dallas Wings and Paige Bueckers this regular season. The two clubs will meet again on July 13, so there’s another great opportunity for Bueckers and Clark to duel for the first time since leaving college.
However, the Fever still secured the win over the Wings with (almost) ease. There were some shaky moments down the stretch thanks to some odd lineups thrown out by head coach Stephanie White involving the team’s bench, but ultimately, the team was able to lock up Dallas in the last few moments of the fourth quarter.
With Clark out of the starting lineup, shooting wasn’t an issue. Kelsey Mitchell and Aliyah Boston were white-hot, both finishing up with a combined 53 of the Fever’s 94 points. Natasha Howard, in her return to the Wings since signing with the Fever in the offseason, was also lights out and picked up a double double with ease.
Defensively, the Fever also didn’t skip a beat like how they did against the Los Angeles Sparks. With Aari McDonald in the starting lineup, Indiana managed to get out ahead by a ridiculous margin in the first half with stop after stop.
Clark is obviously a huge piece to the Fever’s offense. She’s their table-setter and one of their highest volume shooters. But, her defense can still use some work in Year 2. Without her essentially being a player the team needed to hide on that front, the Fever were able to put the clamps on Dallas early.
Her absence revealed one slightly uncomfortable truth about the Fever: her presence in the starting lineup will always lead to slightly worse-off defense until she works on that part of her game.
McDonald, who was signed back to the team following Indiana deciding to waive DeWanna Bonner earlier in the week, was a perfect fit next to Lexie Hull in the team’s starting lineup on Friday evening. Both are gritty guards defensively and managed to make all of Dallas’ shot attempts look difficult.
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In addition, White is almost too comfortable relying on Clark in tight games to lock in on both ends of the court, when she can really only aid the Fever on one end. Of course, that’s the benefit of having Hull in the starting lineup – she can clean up for Clark on the defensive end.
But, we saw the benefit of adding a second defensively minded guard in McDonald next to Hull in Friday’s win. What makes the most sense moving forward for Indiana is making sure one of Hull or McDonald is always in the backcourt with Clark.
