New-and-improved Caitlin Clark reintroducing herself to the game she’s ready to dominate

INDIANAPOLIS — Caitlin Clark comes to the ground with a handshake and a well mannered smile.

During participant introductions, one after the other, the Indiana Fever beginning 5 launch from the bench, lengthen low fives and greet the last teammate, Makayla Timpson, who waits at the finish of the receiving line to assist flesh out their personalities. Myisha Hines-Allen chest-bumps Timpson, Monique Billings strikes mannequin poses as Timpson intends to take images, and nine-year professional Kelsey Mitchell crosses her arms as Timpson returns the “Wakanda Forever” salute. But when clark hears her title introduced final, she walks up to Timpson, merely extends her proper hand and nods howdy. As although the two are assembly for the first time.

The business-like greeting looks like a operating gag between teammates. Or possibly that is simply Clark’s most well-liked means to begin video games now. Because right here, in her third season, it does appear as if Clark is reacting to herself with the game. Saying howdy as soon as once more to the degree of famous person play, and reestablishing her trajectory that briefly stalled a 12 months in the past.

In the first week of WNBA video games, Clark seems to be recovered and enhancing. During the Fever’s first house win Sunday night time — an 89-78 victory towards the Seattle Storm — she performed lower than 24 minutes and nonetheless operated with equal quantities of power and effectivity: 21 factors on 5-of-10 taking pictures, and an ideal 9-of-9 from the foul line, with 10 assists and 7 rebounds. It was the twelfth time Clark has produced a 20-point and 10-assist game, a league file.

Earlier in the weekend, she drilled a tying 3-pointer in the closing seconds of regulation and made seven overalls. Though the Fever misplaced to the Washington Mystics in extra time, Clark completed together with her second 30-point, 10-assist efficiency in her professional profession — changing into the solely participant in the WNBA’s 30-year historical past with a number of such video games.

The Caitlin Clark from 2025 did not have the juice, nor the time spent on the courtroom, to flip weekends into common record-setters. She was hobbled, caught in a taking pictures droop, and in the end sidelined. She was performed in by a proper groin damage and have become her staff’s most animated fan. No missed name or egregious whistle would get previous Clark, whose damage did not cease her from leaping from her seat together with her arms unfold in protest.

Still, nobody in Indiana, nor followers round the league, needed to watch Clark’s ardour from the bench. With Clark sidelined, together with so many different Fever gamers, Indiana valiantly pushed the eventual champion Las Vegas Aces into the semifinals earlier than dropping in Game 5.

The Caitlin Clark of 2026 should cross her legs in a standing figure-four stretch throughout the motion, as a means to loosen up some muscle tissues on the go, and can twist from aspect to aspect whereas sitting to stretch her decrease again. However, this present Clark has a lot extra pop. After the first week, Clark ranks close to the prime of the league scoring leaders, averaging 24.3 factors per game.

“Her burst,” Fever coach Stephanie White instructed reporters Sunday, explaining what she thinks has come furthest alongside since Clark’s damage. “I think you can see it, not just in taking off with the ball in her hands, but you can see it in the lift in her shot. You can see, she looks strong. She looks loaded in her actions. I think you can tell by the way she’s getting to the free-throw line, too.”

Foul calls are up throughout the league in an effort to clear up the bodily play that has hindered the WNBA, and Clark considers a fan. On Sunday night time, the Storm and Fever mixed for 45 fouls, and in actual time, the whistles didn’t really feel like a drag on the motion. However, just lately the Fever performed the Los Angeles Sparks, and in the third quarter alone, the groups have been known as for 19 fouls. The whistles rendered the second half of that game, which the Fever ultimately received 87-78, darn close to unwatchable. Although New York Liberty star Breanna Stewart steered that the elevated whistles have disrupted the “flow” of the game, and Minnesota Lynx coach Cheryl Reeve quipped that her staff cannot be the just one in the league to surprise why “everything is a foul,” Clark has no such {qualifications}.

“I think the refs have done a really good job. I think it makes the game of basketball better, personally, and I know people’s opinions are going to be different across the league, and I understand that,” Clark mentioned Sunday. “I think for our team, defensively, we need to adjust. We foul all the time. And Steph’s told us in the locker room, they’re fouling. And we are fouling, and they’re going to call it. So we need to stop fouling.”

Yes, the participant who spent a lot of the final season as a licensed ref critic now appears like an ally of the officers. Even if a few of the fouls look like an overcorrection, Clark, for one, now appreciates the sound of the whistle. Why? It’s easy. If the officiating crews are on the lookout for defenders who impede an offensive participant’s freedom of motion, maybe nobody will respect that greater than Clark.

Throughout Clark’s first two seasons in the W, bodily play by defenders and arduous fouls constantly butted in as a storyline. As a rookie, she drew 48 taking pictures fouls and as soon as mentioned, she felt that opponents would “get away with things that probably other people don’t get away with.” On Sunday night time, nonetheless, Clark noticed little pushback from the Storm protection. Before two minutes had handed, Clark drew his first foul. Before the finish of the first quarter, she had made her second and last 3-pointer, this one from the shadow of the “F” on the Fever’s house courtroom.

“I’ve been trying to get into my motion a little bit more when I feel people get really, really handsy with me, especially on the drives and stuff,” Clark mentioned. “And I feel that is simply been a spotlight for me — not as a result of I do know they’re calling fouls. I need to get downhill. I need to get my toes in the paint as a result of I need to set my teammates up. But additionally, like, it is good that they’re calling fouls. It does get just a little bodily generally. So I feel there is a nice stability, and gamers will determine it out. But general, I feel the refs have performed a very good job. So I gotta give credit score to them, too.”

In the postgame dais, Sophie Cunningham, sitting subsequent to Clark, high-fived her teammate for her shoutout to the refs.

“That was really nice,” Cunningham mentioned.

“I mean it,” Clark replied, smiling.

Who is that this stranger complimenting referees and providing agency handshakes? That’s simply Caitlin Clark, reintroducing herself to the game she’s ready to dominate.