INDIANAPOLIS — Caitlin Clark comes to the floor with a handshake and a polite smile.
During player introductions, one by one, the Indiana Fever starting five release from the bench, extend low fives and greet the final teammate, Makayla Timpson, who waits at the end of the receiving line to help flesh out their personalities. Myisha Hines-Allen chest-bumps Timpson, Monique Billings strikes model poses as Timpson pretends to take photos, and nine-year pro Kelsey Mitchell crosses her arms as Timpson returns the “Wakanda Forever” salute. But when Clark hears her name announced last, she walks up to Timpson, simply extends her right hand and nods hello. As though the two are meeting for the first time.
The business-like greeting feels like a running gag between teammates. Or maybe this is just Clark’s preferred way to start games now. Because here, in her third season, it does seem as though Clark is reacquainting herself with the game. Saying hello once again to the level of superstar play, and reestablishing her trajectory that temporarily stalled a year ago.
In the first week of WNBA games, Clark looks recovered and improving. During the Fever’s first home win Sunday night — an 89-78 victory against the Seattle Storm — she played less than 24 minutes and yet operated with equal amounts of energy and efficiency: 21 points on 5-of-10 shooting, and a perfect 9-of-9 from the foul line, with 10 assists and seven rebounds. It was the 12th time Clark has produced a 20-point and 10-assist game, a league record.
Earlier in the weekend, she drilled a tying 3-pointer in the closing seconds of regulation and made seven overall. Though the Fever lost to the Washington Mystics in overtime, Clark finished with her second 30-point, 10-assist performance in her pro career — becoming the only player in the WNBA’s 30-year history with multiple such games.
The Caitlin Clark from 2025 didn’t have the juice, nor the time spent on the court, to turn weekends into regular record-setters. She was hobbled, stuck in a shooting slump, and ultimately sidelined. She was done in by a right groin injury and became her team’s most animated fan. No missed call or egregious whistle would get past Clark, whose injury didn’t stop her from jumping from her seat with her arms spread in protest.
Still, no one in Indiana, nor fans around the league, wanted to watch Clark’s passion from the bench. With Clark sidelined, along with so many other Fever players, Indiana valiantly pushed the eventual champion Las Vegas Aces in the semifinals before losing in Game 5.
The Caitlin Clark of 2026 still may cross her legs in a standing figure-four stretch during the action, as a way to loosen up some muscles on the go, and will twist from side to side while sitting to stretch her lower back. However, this current Clark has so much more pop. After the first week, Clark ranks near the top of the league scoring leaders, averaging 24.3 points per game.
“Her burst,” Fever coach Stephanie White told reporters Sunday, explaining what she thinks has come furthest along since Clark’s injury. “I think you can see it, not just in taking off with the ball in her hands, but you can see it in the lift in her shot. You can see, she looks strong. She looks loaded in her actions. I think you can tell by the way she’s getting to the free-throw line, too.”
Foul calls are up across the league in an effort to clean up the physical play that has hindered the WNBA, and consider Clark a fan. On Sunday night, the Storm and Fever combined for 45 fouls, and in real time, the whistles did not feel like a drag on the action. However, recently the Fever played the Los Angeles Sparks, and in the third quarter alone, the teams were called for 19 fouls. The whistles rendered the second half of that game, which the Fever eventually won 87-78, darn near unwatchable. Although New York Liberty star Breanna Stewart suggested that the increased whistles have disrupted the “flow” of the game, and Minnesota Lynx coach Cheryl Reeve quipped that her team can’t be the only one in the league to wonder why “everything is a foul,” Clark has no such qualms.
“I think the refs have done a really good job. I think it makes the game of basketball better, personally, and I know people’s opinions are going to be different across the league, and I understand that,” Clark said Sunday. “I think for our team, defensively, we need to adjust. We foul all the time. And Steph’s told us in the locker room, they’re fouls. And we are fouling, and they’re going to call it. So we need to stop fouling.”
Yes, the player who spent much of last season as a certified ref critic now sounds like an ally of the officials. Even if some of the fouls seem like an overcorrection, Clark, for one, now appreciates the sound of the whistle. Why? It’s simple. If the officiating crews are on the lookout for defenders who impede an offensive player’s freedom of movement, perhaps no one will appreciate that more than Clark.
Throughout Clark’s first two seasons in the W, physical play by defenders and hard fouls consistently butted in as a storyline. As a rookie, she drew 48 shooting fouls and once said, she felt that opponents would “get away with things that probably other people don’t get away with.” On Sunday night, however, Clark saw little pushback from the Storm defense. Before two minutes had passed, Clark drew her first foul. Before the end of the first quarter, she had made her second and final 3-pointer, this one from the shadow of the “F” on the Fever’s home court.
“I’ve been trying to get into my motion a little bit more when I feel people get really, really handsy with me, especially on the drives and stuff,” Clark said. “And I think that’s just been a focus for me — not because I know they’re calling fouls. I want to get downhill. I want to get my feet in the paint because I want to set my teammates up. But also, like, it’s nice that they are calling fouls. It does get a little physical sometimes. So I think there’s a fine balance, and players will figure it out. But overall, I think the refs have done a really good job. So I gotta give credit to them, too.”
On the postgame dais, Sophie Cunningham, sitting next to Clark, high-fived her teammate for her shoutout to the refs.
“That was really nice,” Cunningham said.
“I mean it,” Clark replied, smiling.
Who is this stranger complimenting referees and offering firm handshakes? That’s just Caitlin Clark, reintroducing herself to the game she’s ready to dominate.
This article originally appeared in The Athletic.
Seattle Storm, Indiana Fever, WNBA, Opinion, Indiana Fever
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