Caitlin Clark Took This Away From Lackluster WNBA Debut

UNCASVILLE, Conn. — Caitlin Clark didn’t have the warmest of welcomes to start her WNBA career.

Clark made her WNBA debut Tuesday night against the Connecticut Sun and they made everything difficult on the superstar guard.

The result was an underwhelming showing from Clark in her first professional game. She finished with 20 points on 5-for-15 shooting but committed an astonishing 10 turnovers in a 92-71 road loss for the Fever. Clark’s turnovers were the most by any player in their WNBA debut, according to Basketball Reference.

She got off to a particularly slow start, too. Clark scored just seven points in the first half and dealt with foul trouble in the first quarter. Clark chalked it all up to a learning experience, which left her with some takeaways once she walked off the floor at Mohegan Sun Arena.

“I thought it was physical,” Clark said. “Obviously, it wasn’t the best start in the first half for myself. Getting into foul trouble and then you got to sit on the bench and try to come back into the game and get into a little bit of a flow. Obviously, too many turnovers. That’s not going to get the job done. … I think just a lot to learn from. It’s the first one. There’s going to be good ones, there’s going to be bad ones and like we said in the locker room, we play on Thursday, you got to learn from it and move on and be ready to go.”

The Sun did a terrific job of pressing up on Clark — DiJonai Carrington played standout defense on her — and didn’t allow the Iowa prospect to get into an offensive rhythm. Clark also took a hard foul late in the first half on a drive to the basket that she was slow to get up from.

It of course wasn’t the way Clark envisioned her debut going. Clark at times look dejected in her postgame press conference, but she said all the right things.

She has a full career still left in front of her and she wasn’t going to get bogged down by one bad performance even if it came as her introduction to the WNBA.

“Obviously I’m disappointed and nobody likes to lose. That’s how it is,” Clark said. “But I don’t think you can beat yourself up too much about one game. I don’t think that’s going to help this team.”