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Caitlin Clark and the Indiana Fever came up short against the two-time reigning WNBA champion Las Vegas Aces, losing 86-75 at home on Friday.
Aces star A’ja Wilson has been a model consistency all year with a third MVP Award all sewn up at this point. She had her fourth double-double (27 points and 12 rebounds) in five games.
Alysha Clark and Tiffany Hayes played important roles off the bench for Vegas, combining for 26 points.
Kelsey Mitchell finished as the Fever’s leading scorer (24 points).
Clark, who has turned a corner in the second half of the season, reverted to her earlier self as she scored 16 points but was an inefficient 6-of-22 from the field. She hit just one of her 10 three-point attempts.
The criticism toward the 2024 No. 1 overall pick has died down for the most part thanks to her on-court improvement. On this night, the reaction on social media was rather unforgiving.
Dalton Hill @DaltonHill_4
Clark can’t go 1/10 from 3, & Clark and Boston can’t shoot a combined 9/32 and expect to win. <br><br>Aces can manage a game when A’ja shoots 11/30 and still win if their opponent is shooting equally as awful. <br><br>Good news for the Fever is that’s the worst game they’ve played 2nd half.
Nothinburger @Nothinburger12
Fever got outplayed by a team that’s a one woman show, our defense continues to look bad, we got out coached and we looked like it was Cc or bust when she didn’t have it tonight. Why wasn’t the offense ran through Kelsey? We can’t adjust mid game smh. This was bad tonight smh
Las Vegas certainly flexed its defensive muscle, holding Indiana to 39.7 percent shooting from the floor and forcing 14 turnovers. It was an impressive performance against what has become one of the league’s best offenses..
The Fever won’t have to wait long to avenge their defeat. They host the Aces again on Friday night.
The regular season is quickly drawing to a close, so Indiana is running out of time to improve its playoff position having already secured a postseason berth. With four games to play, it has no margin for error to potentially catch the Seattle Storm and move up into fifth place.