‘Quote-unquote fouls’: Caitlin Clark can’t believe her coach went there

Credit: X via Tony East

After a disappointing loss in front of its home crowd in its season opener, the Indiana Fever went on the road and secured its first victory of the season against the Los Angeles Sparks on Wednesday night.

It was another frustrating outing from three for Fever superstar Caitlin Clark, going just 1-for-7 from deep, but she still found ways to contribute, scoring 24 points and dishing out nine assists in the contest.

However, one of the Fever’s other stars, Aaliyah Boston, had a much rougher go of things. Boston finished her day scoring just four points in 23 minutes, failing to score a single field goal. After the game, Fever head coach Stephanie White was asked about Boston’s struggles and hinted that she thought the game officials were more responsible for the pedestrian performance than anything the Sparks’ defenders did.

“I think it was foul trouble. She didn’t get a chance, really. It’s hard to get into a flow when you’re getting called for all those quote-unquote fouls,” White said.

Clark’s face showed palpable surprise at her coach’s blunt honesty.

White also expressed her concerns with Indiana’s defense.

“That’s the nature of the beast. You know, again, we gave up 11 fast break points,” White said, via The Mirror. “You know, transition defense, and it’s hard.

“You know, sometimes, like, turning the ball over or quick shots leads to transition opportunities, but our transition defense has to get better. I think our ball screen defense early wasn’t really good.We got better in certain situations. And then we became hackers in the second half, evidently. So, you know, I just think that there’s a certain mentality that it takes to will yourself to defend every possession.

“And we are on our growth process to get there. We have the capabilities, there’s no doubt about it. But there are going to be days where we don’t shoot the ball particularly well. There are going to be days where things don’t go great offensively. We’ve got to be able to rely on our defense. So we were better today than we were in game one. And that’s what it’s going to take. It’s getting better every day.”