Caitlin Clark puts on assist masterclass in win over Phoenix: ‘It’s so fun getting to pick apart the defense.’

INDIANAPOLIS — Friday night game wasn’t just a win for the Indiana Fever. It was also a masterclass in how Caitlin Clark passes.

She put on a clinic against the shorthanded Phoenix Mercury, threading the needle between defenders and putting the ball in places her teammates weren’t even at yet. There were cross-court lobs to Kelsey Mitchell, bounce passes in the paint to Aliyah Boston, and it seemed like every Fever basket came with the booming Gainbridge Fieldhouse PA voice of “… from Clark!”

“She’s got the ability to draw, you know, several defenders, and she has got a crazy eye for her teammates and where they are, and moving, and she’s able to make passes that some people (can’t),” Christie Sides said. “In the first half, my gosh, she dropped a couple to our post players. I don’t know who could have made that pass. That’s just what she’s capable of.”

At one point, Fever guard Kelsey Mitchell didn’t even wait for the pass from Clark to hit her hands before she left the ground. As Clark bounced the ball to Mitchell from the elbow into the paint, the Fever veteran caught the ball mid-jump, bringing it up to the basket and dropping it in for a wide-open layup.

Clark and Mitchell ran that same play again in the first quarter, leading to another assist and easy layup. At one other point in the first quarter, the rookie lobbed the ball to Mitchell from half court, and she beat out Kahleah Copper for the bucket.

It’s no coincidence Clark had seven assists (a single-quarter Fever franchise record) and Mitchell had 13 points in the first quarter alone. Four of Clark’s assists were to Mitchell.

“One thing I can appreciate about Caitlin is her vision and her ability to get the ball up the floor,” Mitchell said postgame. “You don’t see it a lot, so I can appreciate it because I can utilize something I’m pretty decent at, and that’s running. So if I’m open and I feel like I’m in a position to assist her or her assist me, I feel like we play really good basketball that way.”

Two of those assists in the first quarter went to second-year center Aliyah Boston, as the two continue to build chemistry in the pick-and-roll game. Clark ended up assisting Boston four times in the Fever’s 95-86 win.

Those passes, Boston said, can come from anywhere. Clark can do behind-the-back passes, cross-court lobs, and she can thread the needle into the paint with ease.

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“They come quick,” Boston said of Clark’s passes on June 30. “You just have to be ready. I think sometimes, too, when she’s getting blitzed as much as she does, she’ll find a way to get the passes. So just making sure that we’re in her space and then especially in transition, she’s looking to get the ball out, looking to push, so we just have to keep running.”

Clark finished Friday’s game with her fifth-straight points-assists double-double with 20 points, 13 assists and four rebounds. She’s one more double-digit assist game from Courtney Vandersloot’s WNBA record of six straight.

Clark is first player in WNBA history with at least 15 points and 13 assists in three straight games. Though, she had another six turnovers and leads the league with 133.

“It’s so fungetting to pick apart the defense, especially when we get stops on defense and get to go in transition,” Clark said. ” I just get excited and honestly, a lot of my turnovers, that’s really come from — just trying to play exciting basketball in transition. At times I feel like I can almost overpass because I want to set them up so badly that I almost lose vision on the play or the basket at times or I’m almost thinking to pass the ball and kind of forget about shooting at times. But I think it adds a whole other dimension of what the defense has to scheme for.

Those turnover numbers are inflated, though, from the beginning of the season. Clark turned the ball over much more in her first games as a rookie, including a record-setting 10 turnovers in her first professional game. Her turnover numbers have decreased since then, and her assist-to-turnover ratio is 1.41. And not all the turnovers are on her. As Boston said, you’ve got to be ready for the pass, because it’s coming.

Clark has been on a new level when it comes to her vision in July, averaging 12 assists per game. She is second in assists per game over the entire season with 7.6 per game; Connecticut Sun forward Alyssa Thomas averages 7.9.

Clark’s assist game has been a long time coming; she averaged 8.9 assists per game in her senior season at Iowa. To get to that level in the WNBA, she’s just needed time to adjust to the pace of play and new teammates.

Just halfway through the season, it’s safe to say she’s adjusted.

“I’m going to try to set up my teammates as best I can, but at the same time, I want to be able to score the ball,” Clark said. “So the more I can do that, the better it’s going to be for our team overall.”