{"id":13412,"date":"2025-07-16T05:17:05","date_gmt":"2025-07-16T05:17:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/13412\/"},"modified":"2025-07-16T05:17:05","modified_gmt":"2025-07-16T05:17:05","slug":"sun-handle-caitlin-clark-but-cant-break-fever-at-td-garden","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/13412\/","title":{"rendered":"Sun handle Caitlin Clark, but can\u2019t break Fever at TD Garden"},"content":{"rendered":"

For the second straight summer, the Sun pulled off a sellout showcase of the WNBA in Boston, the product of two years of planning.<\/p>\n

Last year, as a team with title hopes, they beat the Los Angeles Sparks<\/a> in a matchup that went down to the wire. This year, as a team at the bottom of the league rebuilding after breaking up their core, they fell to the Indiana Fever, 85-77.<\/p>\n

In a season measured on the court by gradual progress, the Sun continued to make strides, holding the Fever\u2019s supernova Caitlin Clark to 14 points on 4 of 14 shooting and 1 for 7 from 3-point range, where she\u2019s most lethal.<\/p>\n

But in the grand scheme, with the WNBA enjoying an era of expansion and growth, the night was an indicator of how successful women\u2019s professional basketball could be in Boston.<\/p>\n

The Hub isn\u2019t among the five cities that will join the league between now and 2030<\/a>, but Engelbert was optimistic about the chances of the city one day having its own franchise.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a major city that is a huge sports city and we know has a ton of fandom,\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019ve said we ran a process that culminated in the three named teams and there was not a bid from a Boston team. So we\u2019re open obviously to Boston. I think it would be a great market for us at the right time. <\/p>\n

\u201cBut now, we\u2019ve named these three through the end of the decade to get us to 18 because scale is important in sports, too. Having more teams puts us in more media markets, increases the value of everything we do to have more fandom in more markets. And Boston\u2019s certainly a city at the top of the list.\u201d<\/p>\n

As the Sun celebrated women\u2019s basketball on the parquet, the possibility of Boston one day being the home of a WNBA franchise also raised the question of what the future holds for basketball in Connecticut. The Mohegan Tribe is evaluating its options as owners of the team, while the potential ownership group led by Michael Carter-Williams and Donnie Wahlberg<\/a> waits.<\/p>\n

\u201cSince I came into the league other than this year, the Connecticut Sun have thrived both on the business side and the basketball side,\u201d Engelbert said. \u201cThis year\u2019s a little tougher because of losing the starting five, but I\u2019m sure they\u2019ll build that back. Look no further than the NBA with [Oklahoma City] winning the NBA championship<\/a> that small markets can thrive. So I think it\u2019s good to have a mix, but I do think because of the player experience that we\u2019ve been talking about, it\u2019s important to have state-of-the-art facilities and other player experience items in order to attract free agents and build a roster.\u201d<\/p>\n

Instead of seeing Clark put on a shooting clinic Tuesday, a crowd of 19,156 saw her spend the night trying to solve a defense that didn\u2019t give her much room to bring the ball up court, let alone fire up a shot from long range.<\/p>\n

Clark came into the game second in the league in assists, and the Sun made her double-down on being a playmaker.<\/p>\n

They showed her full-court pressure from start to finish. If it wasn\u2019t Saniya Rivers hounding her, it was Jacy Sheldon or Le\u00efla Lacan.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe\u2019s a great player,\u201d Rivers said. \u201cCaitlin\u2019s going to be Caitlin Clark. She\u2019s going to hit some big shots. She\u2019s going to create for her teammates. So big shoutout to her. I\u2019m just blessed to have the opportunity to guard her.\u201d<\/p>\n

Clark\u2019s second season in the league has been a challenge. A left quad injury in May forced her to miss four games, then a groin injury in June cost her five more. Late in the fourth quarter, she appeared to reaggravate the groin injury and ultimately left with 39 seconds left.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust felt a little something in her groin, so we\u2019ll get it evaluated and see what happens from there,\u201d said Fever coach Stephanie White.<\/p>\n

\"FeverFever coaches and trainers surround guard Caitlin Clark as she reacts to a possible injury during the fourth quarter.Danielle Parhizkaran\/Globe Staff<\/p>\n

A 5-for-25 shooting night from 3 undermined the Sun\u2019s edge on the boards (40 rebounds) and a stout defensive effort against a Fever team that hung 102 points on Dallas and 99 points on Atlanta in their two previous games.<\/p>\n

\u201cHonestly, I think our defense has been pretty good the past four games,\u201d Rivers said. \u201cI think it\u2019s been translating well. I think for us. We\u2019ve got to figure out how to put four quarters together. I think we\u2019ve been playing amazing one through three, but that fourth quarter is where it\u2019s really been killing us and it killed us tonight.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rivers was involved in an incident in the second quarter that resulted in a fan being ejected from the game. She didn\u2019t want the exchange to mar an otherwise successful night.<\/p>\n

\u201cI won\u2019t get into what he said, but if you know me I won\u2019t take any type of disrespect,\u201d she said. \u201cSo if it\u2019s a form of a threat or whatever it is, you\u2019re out of there. So I think for me I just knew I could use my power in that moment because I wouldn\u2019t take any disrespect.<\/p>\n

\u201cI won\u2019t get into any details, but it just sucks because he wasted a lot of money on a courtside ticket.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Fever head to New York for their final game before the All-Star break, while the Sun wrapped up the first half with the worst record in the league, three games behind Dallas.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Engelbert left with the same sense as many in Boston that the city has an appetite for the league. How Connecticut and the Sun fit in the equation was a larger question.<\/p>\n

\"FansFans applaud with Blaze, the Connecticut Sun mascot, during the third quarter.Danielle Parhizkaran\/Globe Staff\"ForFor some on Tuesday, the WNBA itself was the biggest star.Danielle Parhizkaran\/Globe Staff<\/p>\n

Julian Benbow can be reached at julian.benbow@globe.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For the second straight summer, the Sun pulled off a sellout showcase of the WNBA in Boston, the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":13413,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[13034,99,434],"class_list":["post-13412","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wnba","tag-celtics","tag-sports","tag-wnba"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13412","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13412"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13412\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13413"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13412"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13412"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13412"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}