missed last weekend\u2019s All-Star<\/a> festivities in Indianapolis and is likely to sit out Tuesday night when the Fever again play the Liberty. It\u2019s all creating uncertainty about Clark and Indiana\u2019s championship aspirations.<\/p>\n\u201cThese soft tissue injuries sometimes nag until you can actually have time to really allow them to heal in the offseason,\u201d Indiana coach Stephanie White said after Sunday\u2019s practice. \u201cSo we\u2019ll just take it one day at a time and we\u2019ll continue, as a group, to progress together.\u201d<\/p>\n
Neither White nor Clark have provided a timetable for Clark\u2019s return.<\/p>\n
As a rookie, Clark helped the Fever snap a six-year playoff drought and during the three-game winning streak before her latest injury, she had 40 points, 29 assists, six steals and 10 turnovers in 79 minutes.<\/p>\n
Her name and that of the league\u2019s other superstars have packed arenas and been the focal point of broadcast deals.<\/p>\n
Amid a rash of injuries, the WNBA needs its top players on the court more than ever. According to The Next, which tracks injuries in the league, there have been more than 140 injuries so far this season.<\/p>\n
Those numbers fed into last weekend\u2019s debate over whether league officials should consider extending the season next year now that teams are playing 44 games instead of 40.<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel there\u2019s been quite a few injuries over the course of the beginning of this season for quite a few people,\u201d Clark said Saturday, noting some injuries created minutes restrictions for other All-Star selections. \u201cA lot of people have been in the same boat as myself.\u201d<\/p>\n
Simply extending the season creates yet another problem \u2014 competing against the NFL and college football telecasts deeper into September. That\u2019s something that could be resolved in a new collective bargaining agreement.<\/p>\n
Until then, though, Indiana must learn to deal with Clark\u2019s third absence this season, so far resulting in 10 missed games. Clark did not miss a single game in college or her rookie season with the Fever.<\/p>\n
Indiana has maintained a winning record (12-11) and playoff positioning despite the injuries. The Fever were also able to win the Commissioner\u2019s Cup over Minnesota with a 74-59 win without Clark.<\/p>\n
The team also overcame the departure of DeWanna Bonner, who lost her starting job after three games and played in only nine before being waived and returning to Phoenix.<\/p>\n
And, of course, it took time for everyone to get on the same page following a massive offseason overhaul that included the hiring of a new general manager, Amber Cox; the return of White \u2014 Indiana\u2019s original No. 22; and the addition of other players with title-winning experience.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it\u2019s been a rollercoaster ride with peaks and valleys, injuries, switching lineups,\u201d three-time All-Star guard Kelsey Mitchell said. \u201cI think that\u2019s part of being a professional athlete. But I think you need to go through things like this to be one of the teams they talk about at the end of the season.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Fever believes it still can be one of those teams.<\/p>\n
With Mitchell leading Indiana in scoring at 19.1 points per game and All-Star center Aliyah Boston showcasing a niftier passing game to go along with averages of 15.8 points and 7.6 rebounds, Indiana still has two of its foundational pillars on the court.<\/p>\n
Indiana also has more options such as forward Natasha Howard and backup guard Sophie Cunningham to help fill in the gaps until Clark returns.<\/p>\n
\u201cConsistency, attention to detail, making sure defensively we\u2019re a beast unit,\u201d Cunningham said as she identified other needed fixes. \u201cI think it all starts on the defensive end with our intensity and our aggressiveness. When we do that, we tend to win those ballgames. You\u2019re going to have a little bit of slippage every now and then, but you can\u2019t have landslides.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ultimately, though, the lingering question is whether Clark can stay healthy long enough to push Indiana into championship position.<\/p>\n
\u201cWorking your way back into it is really difficult,\u201d White said. \u201cShe has to give herself some grace. She\u2019s coming back from an injury.\u201d<\/p>\n
___<\/p>\n
AP WNBA: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/wnba-basketball<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"INDIANAPOLIS (AP) \u2014 The Indiana Fever thought Caitlin Clark\u2019s return might solve their wild first-half ride. They were…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":13395,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[2648,24661,1760,11649,13015,8262,2652,2839,2653,13014,4806,12814,2005,4805,99,4803,434],"class_list":["post-29068","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wnba","tag-aliyah-boston","tag-amber-cox","tag-caitlin-clark","tag-dewanna-bonner","tag-ia-state-wire","tag-in-state-wire","tag-indiana","tag-indiana-fever","tag-indianapolis","tag-iowa","tag-kelsey-mitchell","tag-natasha-howard","tag-new-york","tag-sophie-cunningham","tag-sports","tag-stephanie-white","tag-wnba"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29068","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=29068"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29068\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13395"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29068"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29068"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29068"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}