I didn't want to believe that she was so instrumental to the operation of this basketball team but if the past 2 games have been any indication of exactly how crucial Caitlin is to Indiana having a shot at winning games, this is a bad sign for the Fever.
They started the season out with WLW, which is pretty common and the games taht they did lose were close ones and there was a lot of talk about the games, which were lost by just 1 and 2 points respectively, being left too much in the hands of of the officials.
Ever since those games though, things have gone from bad to worse for Indiana as they just lost a game about an hour ago to what is largely considered to be the worst team in the WNBA.
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Tonight's game vs Connecticut was an embarassement and has a lot of people wondering if Indiana is in fact a one-trick pony. They have other weapons on their team but without CC being constantly double-teamed, those weapons don't seem so formidable anymore. Also, Caitlin's subs in Sydney Colson and Brianna Turner (among others) just not slotting in properly as it seems that this entire offense is built around one player, which I guess is understandable because Clark really is THAT good.
It is a shame to see how dependent they are on her though and this is going to no doubt have Indiana as well as the entire league a bit worried about the future of this team as well as the overall viewrship.
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Just as I predicted, the media is likely not allowed to comment about how much of a drop in viewership has happened since Clark has been sidelined, but I would imagine it is quite a lot, a very large amount probably and that is why we are not hearing about it. The games that Clark plays in get over 2 million live viewers according to reports, whereas the rest of the league averages just over 300k per game.
Losing a game was expected without Caitlin on the court, but losing to arguably the worst team in the league is kind of next level.
One thing that was really noticeable to me was the fact that Aliyah Boston isn't getting fed shots like she is when Caitlin is playing and the team depends on her for entirely too much since the defense just collapses on her. Standout forward Lexie Hull just isn't as much of a force on 3's without Caitlin in the rotation because she has difficulty finding the space necessary to even attempt a 3 ball. Lexie put up good numbers as far as percentages are concerned making both of here mere 2 attempts at 3-pointers, and going 5-8 in overall shots. Not too bad but contributing just 12 points to the score just isn't going to cut it.
In the end the "worst team in the WNBA" lead the Fever by as many as 16 points during this really tragic night for the home-town fans who likely paid a premium for these tickets months before the actual game. It will be interesting to see how the attendance numbers are for the upcoming games in Indiana on Tuesday vs Washington goes, and even more interesting to see how the attendance is in Chicago - who has become Indiana's rival in the past 2 seasons. I don't know if they have changed this yet or not, but the game in Chicago was meant to be played in the Bulls' stadium due to an expectation of immense interest in another showdown between Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese. As it stands now Caitlin is still scheduled to be sitting that game out as well and Fever management has no real reason to put her out there if she is not ready.
So for any Fever fans out there, this is a bit of a wake up call to let you know how completely dependent the team is on the presence of Caitlin. Without her, they kind of look exactly like what they were like before she arrived - just a run of the mill team that isn't really in contention for any real awards.
I honestly don't think that this can be changed given their current roster either. They have already exhausted all of the available options from the bench and none of them seem to really be working in any sort of real way. DeWanna Bonner put up reasonable numbers and good percentages in her 22 minutes but Sydney Colson played for 9 minutes and had more turnovers than she did points.
All Indiana can really do at this point is pray for a speedy recovery of Clark, because these last two games have been honestly, quite pathetic. When Caitlin is on the court, even when she as a sub-par performance, the Fever look like a potential championship team. Without her, the Fever look like a speed-bump for other, much better teams.
I think many sports teams rely too heavily on one or two players and it is very noticeable when they are not around as the results change. Rather have a team of good players who try and not a one star or two star team with average players.
Probably true, in basketball I think it is more noticeable because of salary caps though. In the case of WNBA though, we are talking about almost no money in the teams anyway. When I think to the past about legacy basketball teams they had one really good player that was the center of things, but there were other people on the team that were weapons as well and they could still operate without the star in there. Think Magic Johnson or Larry Bird... they still had a very good supporting cast. With Caitlin Clark it seems as though the other members of the team shine because she is a playmaker, she gets them the space needed to make a shot, she gets them the ball in advantageous positions. Without her on the court none of this seems to be happening. It's not a good look!