Inside the numbers: Caitlin Clark, Angel Reese and the WNBA rookie of the year race

WNBA award voters, regardless of who they pick, will be able to say the following when it comes time to choose between Indiana’s Caitlin Clark and Chicago’s Angel Reese in this season’s rookie of the year balloting:

“She did things the league has never seen before.”

The latest examples of that came Friday night, when Clark and Reese went head to head for the fourth and final time in this regular season. The game, and the individual race, were both one-sided: Indiana won 100-81, Clark leading the way with 31 points and 12 assists — the first such game in WNBA history.

Clark has said she doesn’t fixate on individual awards, but her game Friday night certainly suggested that she’s the runaway favorite for rookie of the year; BetMGM Sportsbook recently listed her odds of winning the award at minus-5,000, which means oddsmakers consider her a virtual lock.

Indiana went 3-1 against Chicago this season, with Clark (20.5 points, 10 assists per game) having the stats edge over Reese (13.5 points, 13.3 rebounds per game) in those meetings. And the Fever are now 16-16, while the Sky are 11-20.

A look inside the numbers:

For Clark, a WNBA season like none other

Clark’s averages for the season to this point: 18.4 points, 5.7 rebounds, 8.3 assists per game.

That’s never been done over a full WNBA season. By anyone, rookie or otherwise.

For context, only two other players — Sabrina Ionescu (twice) and Alyssa Thomas — have averaged 15 points, five rebounds and five assists over a full season. Candace Parker had averages of 19.4 points, 10.1 rebounds and 6.3 assists in 2015 but appeared in only 16 games.

Clark also has the WNBA record for 3-pointers made by a rookie, 93 and counting, and has a shot at the league’s single-season record of 128 by Ionescu in 2023. Only six players in WNBA history have made 100 3s in a season; at her current pace, Clark is two or three games from hitting that milestone.

Clark also has 14 games of 20 or more points this season. Everyone else in the rookie class, combined, had nine entering Saturday.

A record rebound pace for Reese

Yes, much gets made about how Reese has a penchant for rebounding her own misses; it happened an almost-unbelievable four times in one possession against Las Vegas on Aug. 25.

Regardless, she’s grabbing more boards per game than anyone in WNBA history.

At 12.9 per game, she’s in position to break the WNBA record for rebounds per contest. Sylvia Fowles grabbed 11.9 per game in 2018.

That’s a significant margin statistically. Reese is so far ahead of the record pace that she could average “only” nine rebounds per game the rest of the way and still set the league mark.

Assists setting Clark apart

If Clark keeps up her league-leading pace of eight assists per game, she’ll become only the third player in WNBA history to finish a season with that sort of average.

Courtney Vandersloot did it six times, the first of those coming when she was 28. Ticha Penicheiro did it once, when she was 27. Clark is in position to join them — at 22.

Also well within reach: the single-season record for total assists. Clark has 264 already. The WNBA mark is 316, set by Thomas last season. And Clark already has the WNBA single-game record for assists, with 19 against Dallas.

Here’s another unprecedented mark for Clark: She’s had three games with at least 23 points and 12 assists already this season. No other WNBA player has done that in an entire career.

Reese’s double-doubles, and more records

Reese is the first rookie with 23 double-doubles in a season, getting her last five points in the final minutes Friday night to finish off another game of at least 10 points and 10 rebounds.

Reese broke the rookie record of 22 set by Tina Charles in 2010. The regular season was shorter then — 34 games as opposed to the current 40-game slate — but Reese passed her in 31 games regardless.

And Reese had 15 consecutive double-doubles earlier this season, three games longer than any previous streak in WNBA history.

Next up: the overall WNBA record of 28, set by Thomas last season. Reese would need six double-doubles in her final nine games to pass Thomas’ mark.

The bad stat for Clark: a record number of turnovers

This is the stat that Clark’s detractors seem to point to most: Nobody in WNBA history, until now, had more than 137 turnovers in a season.

Clark is already up to 174, with eight games left.

It’s up for debate how much this matters.

Point guards tend to have more turnovers than anyone else, because they have the ball in their hands more than anyone else. The top six single-season totals in NBA history belong to James Harden, then Russell Westbrook, then Harden, then Westbrook, then Harden, then Artis Gilmore.

All six of those turnover-filled seasons were All-Star seasons for those players. Gilmore is in the Hall of Fame. Harden and Westbrook surely will be headed there as well.

The bad stat for Reese: her shooting percentage

Let’s be clear: Averaging 13.2 points and 12.9 rebounds per game is exceptional. Only four NBA players have finished a season with those averages in the last four seasons — Rudy Gobert did it three times, and Nikola Jokic, Domantas Sabonis and Clint Capela all did it once.

But Reese’s shooting percentage is clearly going to be something that voters will consider.

Reese is shooting 38.6% from the field this season and has shot 31% or worse in 14 of her 31 games. And that’s with almost all of her shots coming from inside the paint; only 12 of her 376 field-goal attempts have been from beyond the 3-point line.

Among the 30 players with at least 300 shot attempts this season entering Saturday, Reese ranks 28th in field-goal percentage.

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AP WNBA: https://apnews.com/hub/wnba-basketball