The Indiana Fever’s first playoff game since 2016 didn’t go exactly as planned.
Caitlin Clark and the rest of her team struggled with shooting Sunday and were defeated by a veteran Connecticut Sun team in Game 1 of the best-of-three first-round series.
Going to Indiana in Game 2 on Wednesday knows it won’t be easy, and recognizes the enormous advantage Connecticut has in postseason experience.
From Cassandra Negley of Yahoo Sports:
Four of the five Fever starters have less than three years of any WNBA experience. They all had deep March Madness runs in college, but came into the first-round series with zero combined games of WNBA playoff experience. That includes seven-year veteran guard Kelsey Mitchell.
Caitlin Clark said the intensity, pressure and win-or-go-home situation Tuesday is similar to college, but even more different as a rookie at the pro level.
“It’s been a learning process for me, too,” Clark said. “Obviously, this is my first playoff. It’s a lot of us in this team’s first playoff. We’re all going through the same phase and learning. You never know what to expect because a lot of us haven’t been here.
The Fever have a chance to survive Wednesday night and extend Clark’s magical freshman season. But they need to shoot better, impose their will on change and meet the intensity of the sun.
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