Caitlin Clark of the Indiana Fever has had a roller-coaster of a rookie season, struggling early before finding her groove and helping rally her team into the playoffs.

The WNBA playoffs are upon us, with all four first-round series opening Sunday, complete with league-wide anxiety over being sent home too soon. There’s a palpable desperation to the best-of-three format, and after a season of sellout crowds and record-breaking television ratings, it seems decidedly rushed.

Simply put: Are you good with Caitlin Clark and her Indiana Fever vanishing from the scene if they lose the first two games to the Connecticut Sun on the road? The oddsmakers like Las Vegas over Seattle, New York over Atlanta and Minnesota over Phoenix, all of which seems logical. But there’s no easy way to predict Fever-Sun. Everything we know about Clark comes into play over the next few days: the historic rookie season, the endearing personality and the opposition’s blend of respect, jealousy and aggression.

This series will be a “grind” for Indiana, in the words of guard Kelsey Mitchell, and that’s putting it mildly. Without a minute of playoff experience in their rotation, they’ll be up against a tough-minded group led by Olympian Alyssa Thomas, longtime star DeWanna Bonner, long-range shooter Marina Mabrey and perhaps the league’s best backcourt defender, DiJonai Carrington, forever intent on messing with Clark’s mind.

Carrington, a Stanford alum, is all about energy, contact (her father is former NFL safety Darren Carrington) and some well-timed taunts. One after another, the league’s best shooters — Jewell Loyd, Arike Ogunbowale, Sabrina Ionescu — have had their toughest nights when contested by Carrington.

Clark has been a bit more successful than most, and she has a way of bypassing all roadblocks with a torrent of 3-pointers, hard drives to the basket and brilliant passes. She’ll need all of that against the Sun, because Thomas, Bonner and Mabrey will be more than willing to help defensively.

Clark also could use a slight attitude adjustment. She’s starting to remind people of NBA guard Luka Doncic, constantly waving her arms in disgust on her way down the court after a “foul” that wasn’t called. There’s a bit of Draymond Green in her excessive badgering of referees, and when she appeared on the verge of drawing her seventh technical foul of the season — meaning a one-game suspension — three teammates combined to physically escort her away from the breaking point.

After a recent loss to Minnesota, Clark told reporters she “could do a little bit better job controlling my emotions. I think there’s a line, and sometimes your passion, your emotion can get to you. But that’s something I would never change.”

Which is fine, but don’t channel whining Luka out there. Don’t be Draymond. Think more along the lines of Stephen Curry, who spends every season in the throes of injustice. Nobody draws more obvious, uncalled fouls than Curry, who tends to pick himself off the floor and get on with his business. (Six technicals for Clark in 40 games? Try 28 for Curry in 15 years.)

The beauty of this postseason is its extraordinary depth of talent, allowing casual fans to realize the WNBA is so much more than Clark. A few players to watch:

Kelsey Mitchell, Indiana: There might not be a quicker player in the league, and Mitchell has no problem creating feathery outside shots on her own. It’s Mitchell, not Clark, leading Indiana in scoring at 19.2 points per game, and she appears to be OK after tweaking her ankle in Thursday night’s season finale.

A’ja Wilson, Las Vegas Aces: She’s not just the clear-cut MVP, but one of the best teammates in all of sports. Brought quickly to tears at the mention of the Aces’ togetherness, she’s all about their support and how it facilitates her game. She’s an elite rebounder, ballhandler and shotmaker, recently earning widespread praise as the greatest female player of all time.

At the very least, she joins the likes of Cheryl Miller, Candace Parker and Diana Taurasi in that discussion, not to mention Maya Moore, Sheryl Swoopes and several others — although Swoopes is rapidly tarnishing her legacy through her relentless, implausible degrading of Clark. Loose with the facts, ignoring truths and spouting nonsense (such as her hinting at dissension in the Indiana locker room), Swoopes is coming off basically as a delusional fool. The major media outlets have tuned her out, and she’s putting herself in the way of people who want to acknowledge her great career.

Tina Charles, Atlanta Dream: One of the all-time greats appeared to have retired two years ago after a tempestuous stay with Phoenix ended in a mutual midseason agreement to terminate her contract. She finished out the season in Seattle and sat out all of 2023, but has resurrected her career at 35 — establishing WNBA career records in rebounds (4,014) and double-doubles (194) along the way.

Allisha Gray, Atlanta: In winning both the Skills and 3-point-shooting contests at All-Star weekend, she also earned fans’ admiration with her disarmingly humble nature. Gray and UCLA alum Jordin Canada are a formidable two-way backcourt combination and the main reason Haley Jones, from Archbishop Mitty High and Stanford, lost her starting job in mid-August.

Kayla McBride, Minnesota Lynx: Uncanny with her 3-point shooting, and she can get off shots in a crowd.

Courtney Williams, Minnesota: Is there an NBA player with a sweeter shooting touch from mid-range, or who scores more effectively with that shot? Doubtful.

Gabby Williams, Seattle Storm: It wasn’t the crowd-pleasing Marine Johannes but Williams, a force all over the court, who nearly led the French team past the U.S. at the Olympics. Johannes has prioritized France throughout the season (she’s likely to rejoin the WNBA next year) but Williams signed a rest-of-the-season deal with the Storm, with great results.

Nneka Ogwumike, Seattle: There must be some weird type of conspiracy if she hasn’t played in the Olympics, but here she is at 34, the same steady anchor she was at Stanford, averaging 16.7 points and 7.6 rebounds in one of her finest seasons.

Sydney Colson, Las Vegas: Stanford fans will never forget Colson’s powerful influence for Texas A&M at the 2011 Women’s Final Four in Indianapolis, knocking off Tara VanDerveer’s team in the semifinals en route to the championship. Little more than a bit player last season, but a spiritual presence, she has done meaningful damage on both ends of the floor in high-pressure situations.

Natasha Cloud, Phoenix Mercury: Looking for the complete package as a role model? Cloud is a classy, well-spoken leader with All-Star talent and an up-front activist in pursuit of social justice off the court. It would be a blessing to see her join the Bay Area’s WNBA expansion team at some point.