After an 89-72 loss against the Connecticut Sun on Monday night, coach Christie Sides took a hard stance against Caitlin Clark and her teammates from the Indiana Fever. Sides questioned Clark and company’s effort.
After the first period, Indiana was behind 26–15 and never recovered from the deficit. The Fever’s record now stands at 3–10 for the season, and they are giving up a league-high 89.8 points per contest.
Sides did not hold back when questioned about her team’s performance thereafter.
“I’m going to begin by explaining why it’s impossible to coach effort at this level,” Sides stated at her press conference following the game. It seemed to me that all we were doing was asking them to keep playing hard, play hard. No, you can’t begin there. If you have to coach effort, you are not allowed to play in this league. It’s just too difficult.
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Caitlin Clark Agrees With The Coach’s Evaluation Of The Indiana Fever’s Level Of Effort
To her credit, Clark—who had a strong offensive start but battled terribly in the competition—seemed to concur with Sides’ assessment.
Regarding the performance, she remarked, “This is a team you can’t come out and be lackadaisical against; they’re just that good.” They’re going to give you a mouthpunch. Furthermore, I don’t suppose we had it right away, which is obviously a little frustrating.
With the win, Connecticut improved to 10-1 on the season—the best record in the league.
Clark went on, “I felt we could have played with a lot better energy.” “I felt that we played poor defence and allowed tiny offensive details to irritate us. It doesn’t guarantee a lot of wins in games.
Perhaps the biggest weakness she had after college was her defence of Clark. The squad with the lowest defensive and net ratings in the league is the result of combining that with an astonishing lack of rim protection.
