INDIANAPOLIS — Gainbridge Fieldhouse collectively held its breath as Caitlin Clark got up limping after a foul in the third quarter of the Indiana Fever’s preseason game against Dallas on Thursday night.
It came after Dallas forward Alanna Smith impeded Clark’s landing space while trying to guard a 3-point attempt. Clark landed on her foot, sending both sprawling to the ground, and Clark walked away with a noticeable limp.
Turns out, thankfully for the Fever, that it was just a scare.
“I feel good,” Clark when asked how she felt postgame. “… just landed on my kneecap really hard.”
She walked around the court as officials reviewed the foul for an upgrade, the limp quickly disappearing. Officials quickly called a flagrant 1 landing space foul, giving Clark 3 free throws and the Fever possession.
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Clark stayed in the game to shoot those free-throws, making two out of three, before checking out of the game. She was briefly attended to by trainers at the end of the bench, and stayed out with the Fever for the rest of the game.
Those types of fouls impeding a player’s landing space have not been consistently called in the past couple years. Fouls that looked the same on video were not upgraded at the same rate because of arbitrary criteria that it did or did not meet at the moment.
Now, seemingly, the referees have found consistency in those calls.
“I thought the refs did a really good job tonight, actually, and that’s kind of been their focus going into this season,” Clark said. “I know there’s a committee of people that really wanted them to start calling things, and I thought they did a great job of that … I thought they did a good job both ways.”
She didn’t return to the game, but that wasn’t a surprise. It was midway through the third quarter of a preseason game, and no starter played more than 22 minutes. Clark herself played 16, scoring 21 points on 4 of 6 shooting in the 96-80 loss.
When asked if Clark needed extra evaluation after the scare, Fever coach Stephanie White responded with, “No, I don’t think so.”
“We had planned for her to come out around that time anyway,” White added. “It was just extra precaution, I think, getting her out in that moment, but the plan was for her to start the third quarter then get her out quickly.”
It was a sigh of relief for a team that has had a lot of unluckiness with injuries. Clark only played 13 games last season because of various soft tissue injuries, including left quad, left groin, right groin and ankle.
And White could tell, in the moment, that the limp wouldn’t be a big scare for Clark.
“You can kind of see in her face, sometimes,” White said. “It was like, ‘Alright, she took one.’ And sometimes, when you come back from injury, depending on what the injury is, you got to feel that a little bit first, right? Like, you got to be like,’ OK, yeah, I can shake that one off. Let’s go up there and shake down some free throws.’”
Neither White nor Clark said postgame if she would play in the Fever’s third and final preseason game against the Nigerian National Team on Saturday. If she is held out, however, it would likely be as a precaution to make sure she is ready for the regular-season opener against the Wings on May 9.
Chloe Peterson is the Indiana Fever beat reporter for IndyStar. Reach her at chloe.peterson@indystar.com or follow her on X at @chloepeterson67. Get IndyStar’s Indiana Fever and Caitlin Clark coverage sent directly to your inbox with our Caitlin Clark Fever newsletter. Subscribe to IndyStar TV: Fever for in-depth analysis, behind-the-scenes coverage and more.
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Why Caitlin Clark thought refs ‘did a really good job’ after injury scare in Fever loss to Wings
Reporting by Chloe Peterson, Indianapolis Star / Indianapolis Star
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