INDIANAPOLIS — Tyrese Haliburton couldn’t contain himself. Sitting on the sidelines at Gainbridge Fieldhouse on Friday, the Indiana Pacers star wasn’t just watching basketball. He was watching art.
And Caitlin Clark painted a masterpiece.
With each pinpoint pass from the Indiana Fever’s No. 1 overall pick, Haliburton edged closer to the edge of his seat until he finally popped out. Haliburton knows what a great pass looks like. Last year, he led the NBA in assists. But this full-court dart from Clark to Kelsey Mitchell for a fast-break layup had him reacting like he’d just witnessed a magic trick.
First his hands went up in the air. Then they went to his head in disbelief.
“I hope you all see what 22 is doing at Gainbridge,” Haliburton shared via X.
What Ty is referring to… Elite Vision of #IndianaFeverIt’s Caitlin Clark. photo.twitter.com/dinxT2XACJ
— James Boyd (@RomeovilleKid) August 17, 2024
Clark’s second-quarter dime to Mitchell was one of many highlights in the Fever’s 98-89 win over the Phoenix Mercury. The resounding victory, against a team featuring a trio of newly crowned Olympic gold medalists, marked Indiana’s first regular-season sweep of an opponent since 2020 and the franchise’s first regular-season sweep of the Mercury since 2015.
Clark was 13 at the time, and the Fever was in the WNBA Finals. The team has made just one playoff appearance since then, and after a month-long break for the Olympics, it’s fighting for another. Friday was just the first of 14 remaining regular-season battles, and Clark came out swinging.
The 22-year-old scored or assisted 17 points in the first quarter, one more than the Mercury scored as a team. Clark did what she wanted to do: sink deep 3s, convert and-1 layups and pass like she has a sixth sense.
“I think it’s just a matter of getting to know my teammates and playing with them, it’s just an ease,” Clark said. “It would take me a while to get used to it. It was hard to get used to, and once I got used to it, I think we just kept getting better.”
Clark finished with 29 points, 10 assists and five rebounds. She has reached the 25-point, 10-assist threshold twice in her last five games. Every other rookie in WNBA history combined has done it just once, according to Stat Mamba.
Mitchell has been one of the biggest beneficiaries of Clark’s growing control of Indiana’s offense. The All-Star guard scored a season-high 28 points against the Mercury, including 10 on passes from Clark. Eight of those points came in the fourth quarter and helped stave off a furious Phoenix comeback.
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“Basketball is a language,” Mitchell said. “You have to be on the same page with your opponents. I think C-Squared and I like to play a certain way and that’s fast and uptempo, so I’ll always work (with her) based on how she plays and how the game is going.”
Fever coach Christie Sides said she challenged Clark during the break to “empower” her teammates even more when the season restarted. That message resonated with Clark, as evidenced by how she trusted her colleagues as Phoenix rallied from a 28-point deficit in the second quarter to briefly take a 62-61 lead late in the third.
Instead of getting frustrated, as Clark clearly showed earlier in the season, she stayed calm and kept the ball moving. Lexie Hull hit a 3-pointer to put the Fever back ahead, and late in the period, when Clark could have made a 3-pointer that everyone in the crowd was hoping she would make, she passed the ball to Katie Lou Samuelson.
The veteran forward hadn’t attempted a shot yet, but she made a 3-pointer at the buzzer, her only points of the night.
“She was wide open,” Clark said with a smile. “She was almost like at Open.”
There were moments Friday, particularly in the third quarter, when it looked like the Fever might fizzle out. It had been a theme early in the season: build a big lead only to be bullied into a brutal loss. The Mercury tried that approach, coming on as the aggressor behind All-Star Kahleah Copper, who finished with a game-high 32 points, and fought her way back into the game.
But Clark didn’t panic, and neither did her teammates. After Mitchell took offense to Phoenix’s Natasha Cloud’s defense in the third quarter, Mitchell shoved Cloud in the chest and was called for an offensive foul. The two came face to face and were given technical fouls.
“Sometimes passion for the game can lift your team up and make them play well,” Mitchell said. “I’ve had a moment like that myself. … But I think it helped us. The determination and the play in those third quarters and when teams make runs, that’s how you win a game in the WNBA. You just have to be determined. You have to be able to get a little bit gully.”
There’s a big difference, though, between being “trenchy” and being in the trenches. The latter is where the Fever have largely been since Hall of Famer Tamika Catchings retired after the 2016 season. This year, with Clark holding the paintbrush, it could be a different picture.
“I always say C-Squared is one of those players that her IQ is going to take us a lot of places,” Mitchell said. “So you really have to fill in where you fit in as far as knowing how to read her and adjust. And once you make that adjustment, I think it’s obviously really good basketball.”
(Photo: Darron Cummings / Associated Press)
