{"id":886988,"date":"2026-09-10T14:26:16","date_gmt":"2026-09-10T14:26:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/886988\/"},"modified":"2026-09-10T14:26:16","modified_gmt":"2026-09-10T14:26:16","slug":"angel-reese-and-caitlin-clark-celebrate-their-chemistry-as-usa-advance-to-fiba-world-cup-semis-usa-womens-basketball-team","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/886988\/","title":{"rendered":"Angel Reese and Caitlin Clark celebrate their \u2018chemistry\u2019 as USA advance to Fiba World Cup semis | USA women&#8217;s basketball team"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">Angel Reese and Caitlin Clark\u2019 s interactions are a subplot of the women\u2019s Fiba World Cup, the WNBA season and if you spend enough time on social media, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/sport\/2025\/may\/19\/caitlin-clark-angel-reese-wnba-basketball\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">a divided United States<\/a>. Clark and Reese have shown their relationship on the court is thriving, and they both excelled in USA\u2019s 108-56 quarter-final win over Hungary on Thursday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">In Thursday\u2019s game, the growing chemistry showed. The pair had a nifty pick-and-roll to end the first quarter that ended with a layup by Reese. The Atlanta Dream forward returned the favor hitting Clark on a fastbreak for an easy lay-up later in the game.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">\u201cShe\u2019s got it for me a lot of times so it\u2019s probably finally due for me to get one to her and she easily finished it,\u201d Reese said smiling.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">Napheesa Collier was USA\u2019s top-scorer with 19 points, Clark delivered nine assists and added 10 points, while Reese had six rebounds and nine points in a dominant quarter-final performance. The Americans, who are chasing a fifth consecutive World Cup title, will face either Spain or Australia in the semi-finals on Saturday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">Clark and Reese are intense and animated competitors, and their fan bases\u2019 are fiercely loyal. On much of social media fans are either for Reese or for Clark. But the pair have bonded so far at the World Cup. Clark said many of the stories about their relationship are \u201cfalse takes,\u201d saying she loves the fiery competitiveness that she and Reese share.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">\u201cNo matter what, there\u2019s always going to be people that create those narratives and say whatever they want to say,\u201d Clark said. \u201cThere\u2019s definitely no stopping that and they\u2019re always going to be there. I think for ourselves, like I said, it\u2019s easy for us to just come in here and compete.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">Reese has enjoyed playing with Clark as well as the other young members of the roster, including Paige Bueckers and Aliyah Boston.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">\u201cWe know each other\u2019s game like the back of each other\u2019s hand, she knows my spots,\u201d Reese said of Clark. \u201cWe just continue to build chemistry because we know we\u2019re going to be USA teammates for a while.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">Clark laughed recalling one incident in the tournament between she and Reese that has gotten some attention. When Clark was subbing in during the opener against China and started to step on the court before being officially told to, Reese, who was entering the game at the same time, pulled her back off the court.<\/p>\n<p><a data-ignore=\"global-link-styling\" href=\"#EmailSignup-skip-link-10\" class=\"dcr-76akua\">skip past newsletter promotion<\/a>Free newsletter | Weekly for the 2026 WNBA season<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-vf9hps\">Sign up to WNBA 30<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1r7my33\">A limited run women\u2019s basketball newsletter dedicated to the league\u2019s historic 30th season. <\/p>\n<p><img src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/1789050376_436_wnba_newsletter_(35eacf7cad976602e57c2c59c926a2575e382de6)_(4).jpg\" alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"dcr-xiq31o\"\/><\/p>\n<p id=\"EmailSignup-skip-link-10\" tabindex=\"0\" aria-label=\"after newsletter promotion\" role=\"note\" class=\"dcr-76akua\">after newsletter promotion<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">\u201cWell, the ref had gotten mad at me a couple of times prior, so she was saving me from the ref getting mad at me again,\u201d Clark said, laughing.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">The pair will be back on opposite sides soon enough \u2013 Reese\u2019s Atlanta Dream and Clark\u2019s Indiana Fever are headed for the WNBA playoffs and both have 26-14 records. They could meet in the first round if the current seeds hold.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Angel Reese and Caitlin Clark\u2019 s interactions are a subplot of the women\u2019s Fiba World Cup, the WNBA&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":886989,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[574],"tags":[64,63,726,85],"class_list":["post-886988","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-basketball","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-basketball","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/886988","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=886988"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/886988\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/886989"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=886988"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=886988"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=886988"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}