The Indiana Fever will be facing elimination on Wednesday night in Connecticut, as they dropped Game 1 of their best-of-3 first round series with the Sun in lopsided fashion on Sunday afternoon. The Sun gave the Fever fits with their defense, and Indiana went ice-cold from beyond the arc (6-of-28 from three) in a 24-point loss.
Internally, the focus for the Fever has to be how to get Caitlin Clark and Kelsey Mitchell back into the rhythm that saw them dominate the second half of the season to get the 6-seed. Those two combined to go 4-of-23 from deep and have to crack the code of Connecticut’s length and pressure on the perimeter if they’re going to force a Game 3 in Indiana. However, on the outside, some have focused on a play that happened early in the game in which Clark got poked in the eye after making a pass, as DiJonai Carrington’s follow through as she reached for the ball saw her catch Clark in the eye.
It was, pretty clearly, an inadvertent poke, but as is the case with everything involving Caitlin Clark, some have opted to make it a much bigger deal. Most notably, the LA Times ran a post on it highlighting how earlier in the season Carrington had mocked Clark for flopping, insinuating this was something intentional and drumming up some outrage.
On Tuesday, Clark was asked about the incident and those that think it was intentional and laughed at the idea it was anything malicious or purposeful.
Asked Caitlin Clark on what she’d say to the crowd that thinks the Carrington hit to her eye was on purpose: “It wasn’t intentional by any means. You just watched the play, it wasn’t intentional.” pic.twitter.com/HiMNiibpy5
— Matthew Byrne (@MatthewByrne1) September 24, 2024
This has, unfortunately, been a regular occurrence this season for Clark, as she has had to answer questions about a certain subset of her fans overreacting and at times crossing a line with other players throughout her rookie season. As always, she handles it extremely well, whether it’s about an eye poke or how she’s been used as a proxy in a larger culture war, but it would certainly be better if everyone could just be normal about things that happen with her on the court.
Carrington was also asked about the play and likewise laughed off the idea there was anything intentional about it, explaining she was making a play on the ball and accidentally caught Clark with one of her fingers.
I asked DiJonai Carrington about that moment early in Sunday’s Indiana-Connecticut game when she caught Caitlin Clark in the eye. Here’s her answer: pic.twitter.com/DnQVYi0r6J
— Christine Brennan (@cbrennansports) September 24, 2024
It is sadly not the first time this has happened, as we went through a whole round of discourse after an early season foul by Chennedy Carter led to some insane takes that Clark was dismayed by — and Colin Cowherd, of all people, being the voice of reason. This time, at least, the conversation was not as loud (it wasn’t leading TV talk shows) but that’s partially because it’s a truly egregious reach to try and paint this as anything more than an unfortunate accident that sometimes happens on the basketball court.