Why Caitlin Clark had 8 assists, not 10, after WNBA stats took away double-double originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
Caitlin Clark had 10 passes that set her teammates up directly for hoops during Friday’s Indiana Fever overtime loss to the Washington Mystics.
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The third-year superstar was only credited with 8 assists, though.
For fans who wanted Clark to get a double-double, whether for betting reasons or otherwise, it was an odd, annoying occurrence.
The clips of the two plays has been circulating social media on Saturday morning, and it’s clear why some people are upset:
These are both worth breaking down a little further.
Why didn’t Caitlin Clark get these 2 assists?
These are slightly different plays, and while both look to be assists, let’s go one by one.
The first in the clip above, the dump-off or hand-off to Kelsey Mitchell, has to be an assist. The scorer apparently didn’t grant it because it was less of a pass and more of just a pitch back to Mitchell — but that’s still a pass, and she shot it and made it right away.
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The second one seemingly has to do with a slight deflection of the ball after Clark released it. The pass still got where it was intended, but if the scoring rules say a deflected pass can’t be an assist, that’s what happened there.
The WNBA could still issue stat corrections on one or both of these plays. It seems like the Mitchell one, at minimum, should be credited as an assist for Clark.
Given her high-profile status, there was always going to be some confusion over these rulings, and after watching the footage, it’s still confusing.
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