Caitlin Clark’s Coach and Teammates Ruin Fever’s Chances to Beat the Chicago Sky

Caitlin Clark had a tremendous game on Sunday. Her teammates? Not so much.

With a chance to secure a three-game sweep of their archrival and secure a spot in the upcoming WNBA playoffs, Caitlin Clark put on a virtuoso performance where she scored 17 points and collected 13 assists. However, the Fever lost by one point, 88-87, mainly due to her teammate’s inability to receive her pinpoint passes.

Let’s go to the tape.

There’s no other way to put this: It was ugly.

Exhibit A is this ugly sequence in which Clark fires a perfect pass down the floor to find a streaking Kelsey Mitchell, only to have Mitchell lose all sense of where she was and fire the ball into the bottom of the backboard.

If you were making a meme to show how bad the WNBA is, it would be hard to be worse than what we just saw there. Caitlin Clark is a better person than I am. I’m not sure I could hold it together after that.

Sadly, this was far from the only embarrassment. In this video, Mitchell appears to suddenly forget what a basketball is, and it looks like she is seized with fear over what this orange orb could be.

Seriously, what’s going on there?

In this sequence, Mithell appears to recognize what the basketball is and seems vaguely aware of her responsibility to catch it. However, she appears to lose all control of her hands at the most critical time.

Even the ever-patient Clark couldn’t hide her frustration after that one. Some will say These are just three plays in an entire game! You can’t put it all on Kelsey Mitchell!

True. Kelsey Mitchell had 24 points in this game. Not everything she did was bad. However, again, at least two of these plays would have resulted in points if she hadn’t taken leave of her senses, and this was a game decided by one point.

There’s no other way to say it: Caitlin Clark will not be a champion in this league until she gets a competent coach, a real big, and teammates who can reliably handle the basic responsibilities of catching her passes.

As for Clark’s coach, Christie Sides, calling the final shot for NaLyssa Smith, who was thoroughly dominated the entire game in her matchup against Angel Reese, is just coaching malpractice.

The Fever have work to do this offseason.