Caitlin Clark’s Indiana Fever fall to Connecticut Sun in Game 1 of WNBA playoffs (2024)

The Connecticut Sun have beaten the Indiana Fever 93-69 in Game 1 of their first-round WNBA playoff series.

Star rookie Caitlin Clark was limited to 11 points on 4-for-17 shooting in her WNBA playoff debut.

The Sun will host Game 2 on Wednesday with a chance to clinch the best-of-three series and advance to the semifinals.

Connecticut was the more composed, veteran team, and executed as such in an 93-69 win over Caitlin Clark and the Indiana Fever in Game 1 of the first-round WNBA playoffs series. The Sun’s defense — along with some odd clock issues in the first half — prevented Indiana from establishing an offensive flow, as they swarmed the passing lanes and used their length to deter shots. The Fever didn’t succumb to turnovers as they did earlier in the season, but holding on to the ball didn’t help them generate good looks, as they shot under 40 percent for only the seventh time this year.

Meanwhile, Connecticut had its usual balanced attack from the floor. Just as she did in the two teams’ first meeting, Alyssa Thomas had a triple-double with 12 points, 10 rebounds, and 13 assists. She now owns four of the six triple-doubles in WNBA playoff history and collected her latest on the day that she finished fifth in league MVP voting, one spot behind Clark. Marina Mabrey made all four of her 3-point shots for a game-high 27 points, while DeWanna Bonner added 22 points for the Sun.

Kelsey Mitchell led the Fever with 21 points, and Clark finished with 11 points on 4-of-17 shooting, including going just 2 of 13 on 3-pointers.

The Sun can move on to the semifinals with a clinching win on Wednesday in the best-of-three series. If the Fever win on the road, that will force the series to be decided in Game 3 in Indianapolis.

This game was 34-34 with just less than four minutes to play in the first half, but the Sun closed out strong with a 12-4 run (including a 9-0 spurt) and locking down on defense to give the Sun a 46-38 halftime lead. In her halftime interview, DeWanna Bonner cited her own experience (she's the second-most experienced WNBA player in the league). Connecticut certainly looked like the team with more playoff poise and experience under their belts, whereas the majority of this Fever roster is playing in its first playoff game.

Caitlin Clark is 1-of-9 shooting for 3 points, while Kelsey Mitchell leads the way for the Fever with 11 points. Bonner has controlled the game with 16 points.

There have been multiple clock issues Sunday at Mohegan Sun Arena. After that last shot clock issue (it was set to 14 seconds instead of 24 while Indiana was looking to push in transition), Caitlin Clark was visibly frustrated ... and understandably so. Those small clock errors, which all require stoppages, impact the flow and momentum.

Sideline reporter Holly Rowe said on the broadcast that there's an issue with the referees' whistle packs. Whistle packs are the small pouches that officials wear on their waistbands, which are electronically connected to the whistles so that when the whistle is the blown the clock stops automatically. (The idea is that games don't lose time based on human reaction time.) But apparently there's some miscommunication happening in that technology and that's what has been causing the clock stoppages.

The Sun hold a narrow edge on the Fever in Game 1 after the first quarter with a 23-20 lead.

That's significant for the Fever, who haven't gotten much out of Caitlin Clark. She's just 1-of-5 shooting, missing all three 3-point shots, and even whiffing on a free throw. She's got three points, as the Fever are led by Damiris Dantas and Aliyah Boston, who each have 6 points.

DeWanna Bonner leads the Sun with 10 points.

Ty Harris flew at Lexie Hull to contest a 3-pointer in the corner. Not only did Harris fall into Hull's landing zone to concede a 3-shot foul, but she clutched her ankle immediately and was down for a couple minutes before being helped up by members of the Sun staff. Harris couldn't put any weight on her leg and was carried back to the locker room.

Replays show her landing on Hull's foot.

On Sunday, Caitlin Clark was named as the unanimous AP Rookie of the Year, receiving every vote from a 15-person media panel. Clark led all rookies in scoring (19.2 points per game), field goals made (242), 3-point field goals made (122), assists (8.4 per game), steals (1.3 per game) and minutes (35.4 per game).

She set numerous records throughout her debut season. Among official WNBA awards, only MVP (A'ja Wilson) has been released so far. It is expected, however, that Clark will also take home top rookie honors once the league’s 67-person voting body has its results revealed later this playoffs.

The Fever enter this game with 19 games of playoff experience (none within their current starting lineup, including Caitlin Clark), while Connecticut has 222. Even though the newbies don't know what to expect, Indiana is raring to go.

"I'm excited, I feel like the the energy about our group is really good," Clark said before the game. "This is playoff basketball. If you can't get up for this, then you've got a problem"

If you are a sports viewership nerd, today is a very interesting day. The Fever-Sun tip runs into both the early and later afternoon NFL schedule. The early window featured a Fox broadcast of the Eagles-Saints that kicked off at 1 p.m. (ET) and should draw a considerable viewership number. Then there is a really big viewership late-afternoon game — the Ravens and Cowboys airing in most of the country and has a 4:25 p.m. (ET) kickoff. Obviously, the NFL will draw many more millions than the WNBA but the interesting Q is what the Fever-Sun do on an over-the-air network (ABC) against the NFL.

ESPN’s WNBA regular season was its most-watched ever for games across ESPN Networks airwaves (including ABC). Games averaged 1.2 million viewers, a massive jump over last year’s games (440,000 viewers). The league had 22 regular-season games that averaged more than 1 million viewers — the first time since 2008 that a WNBA game topped 1 million viewers. If you add in the WNBA All-Star Game and the WNBA Draft, it makes 24 programming events during the 2024 calendar year that topped 1 million viewers. (Caitlin Clark was part of all but three of these windows, per Sports Media Watch).

What would constitute a good number against the NFL? Good question. We’ve never seen a WNBA TV draw such as Clark but the NFL also destroys everything it goes against. I think if the league hits 1.6 million viewers or above, it’s a big win.

Sun in two.

The Sun won the season series over Indiana 3-1, but all three of their wins came within the first five weeks of the season when Indiana was still figuring itself out. What pace the series is played at will go a long way in determining the winner of this matchup. Indiana could be the first lower seed to upset a higher seed in the new format, but it’s also hard to bet against the Sun’s playoff experience.