Caitlin Clark has met every expectation as her first playoff journey begins

UNCASVILLE, Conn. — Erica Wheeler always knew Caitlin Clark joining the Indiana Fever would change things around the franchise, even if she wasn’t sure what that might entail or the ultimate result. She simply knew the young superstar would make whatever they had going on better.

“But did I think it would be this? No,” Wheeler said. “I think all of us are just still, like, nah, we’re not even supposed to be here. But we’re here.”

“Here” is Mohegan Sun, where the franchise’s first playoff appearance since 2016 tips off on Sunday (3 p.m. ET, ABC) against the No. 3 Connecticut Sun. The Fever are underdog darlings and expected to have a shot to pull off an upset in the best-of-three first-round format despite starting the season here with a blowout loss that began a 1-9 start.

The two timeline entries couldn’t be further from each other for Clark, Wheeler and the Fever.

“It feels like a completely different season, honestly, since when we were here from the very first time we played,” Clark said.

Clark will re-enter the arena as an MVP candidate, All-WNBA first-team contender and presumptive Rookie of the Year after a subdued premiere to her pro career. Realistically, those accomplishments are a stretch for any rookie in any league and certainly a No. 1 pick playing for a franchise rebuilding after decades of missteps.

Yet, here are Clark and the Fever meeting expectations and maybe even exceeding them. No other offense in the league has been hotter than the Fever’s since the All-Star/Olympic break and few others players as prolific as Clark during that span.

“You saw glimpses of it early,” Fever head coach Christie Sides said. “We just couldn’t put it together that fast. But now with the work and practice and the Olympic break, it’s just kind of now we’re just trying to just keep those good habits going. Because it’s the work, that’s what it was. That’s why we’re here, because of the work they put in.”

Clark’s scoring output improved incrementally every month since the disastrous start in May to 19.2 points per game overall, good for seventh in the league. Her numbers are up across the board since the break, and she led the W in assists at 8.4 per game. That number is as much a credit to Clark, who is adept at making those around her look good, as to the team’s improvement as a collective.

“We knew that they were going to continue to get better,” Sun head coach Stephanie White said. “We knew that they were going to get better in their reads. We knew that they had all the pieces. And so for us, it’s just their reads have been cleaner, their shots have been open, and since the break, they’ve been tough shot-makers.”

Every game against the Fever was a different, improved version of them, White said. Kelsey Mitchell, long the Fever’s only offensive weapon, developed into a dangerous backcourt foil who didn’t have to be the one carrying the load every night. Lexie Hull is draining 3s at a league-best rate while taking the same average attempts as last season. And Aliyah Boston, last season’s Rookie of the Year, is seeing the most one-on-one coverage she’s seen “since maybe middle school,” White joked.

Week after week — sometimes game after game — records fell in Clark’s name. There were the long-standing ones (season assists, season scoring) and the veteran ones, too. She holds the WNBA record for assists in a game as well as assists in the season. She’s tied for fourth on the triple-double list already. Her 12 triple-doubles are the most in a season all time.

Record numbers around the country watched. Gainbridge Fieldhouse averaged a league-record 17,035 fans, per Across the Timeline. The season finale on the road in Washington, D.C., broke the regular-season attendance record. TV viewership is averaging in the millions. The WNBA historically struggled to carry collegiate fans into its game. But Clark is different.

“As far as Caitlin goes, that what she do. She breaks records,” Wheeler said. “I don’t think she hunts for it, I just think the nature of the game just allows her to. And the style of play we play, it just allows her to do a lot of great things.”

That style brings the outside expectation of an upset to reach the semifinals. The Fever rank first in pace among playoff teams (second in the regular season), a style Sun veteran DeWanna Bonner marveled at after practice. It’s a focus of Connecticut’s game plan to pick up players (i.e. Clark) early, disrupt them in transition and slow down the ball.

“It’s not going to be easy, that’s for sure. And we know that,” Bonner said.

The Sun dwarf the Fever in playoff experience and playoff minutes, a stat Sides dryly pointed toward as her favorite to compare. The Sun starters have played 4,912 minutes of playoff basketball. The Fever starters have zero.

Sides isn’t sure that’s such a bad thing. The Fever are walking into a casino with house money.

“It’s a great opportunity for us to come in here and show what we’re made of,” Clark said. “I think we’re a completely different team than the first couple times we were here. So I think that’s what’s exciting about it, is we’ve changed so much. We’ve proved so much. Our confidence has grown a lot.”

As have the expectations Clark has lived with all year. She’s met them each time, from Iowa to Indiana.