The Golden State Valkyries – and fans at Chase Center — will likely see Indiana Fever star Caitlin Clark next week, after all.
Barring any unforeseen setbacks, Clark, who has missed the last five Indiana games with a quadriceps injury, is expected to be in the lineup Saturday when the Fever host the reigning WNBA champion New York Liberty.
“As long as we don’t have any regressions, she’s going to be ready to roll,” Fever coach Stephanie White said Friday.
Clark returned to practice this week, and her comeback game just happens to be a nationally televised one against the Liberty (9-0), the last unbeaten team left in the league this season. New York is winning its games by an average of 19 points.
“I’m really excited,” Clark said. “I think it’s definitely been a process. I think the hardest part is when you like begin to feel really good and then it’s just a process of working yourself back into actually getting up and down and getting out there with my teammates.”
Clark, the reigning WNBA Rookie of the Year, hasn’t played since May 24, and the Fever announced three days later that they would be without the standout guard for at least two weeks as she dealt with a strained left quad.
That seemingly put Clark’s availability for the Fever’s game in San Francisco against the Valkyries on June 19 in question. A sellout or near-sellout crowd is expected for the game, which will also see Clark face her former Iowa Hawkeyes teammate Kate Martin, who is averaging 6.4 points in eight games this season for Golden State.
The expansion Valkyries (4-5) enter their home game against the Seattle Storm on Saturday in eighth place in the 13-team WNBA. Golden State is coming off an 89-81 road win over Los Angeles on Monday.
The Fever (4-5) went 2-3 in Clark’s absence. She was averaging 19 points, 9.3 assists, six rebounds and 1.3 steals per game when she got hurt.
There’s still a long way to go this season, but no player in WNBA history has ever finished a season averaging that many points, assists, rebounds, and steals per game.
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Clark freely acknowledges that she’s not a patient person, but she understood the process and why it was essential not to skip any steps in her recovery. Among the treatments: “anything under the sun,” she said, including everything from massage to weights to hyperbaric therapy.
“It was certainly a learning opportunity, and I think it’s going to benefit me a lot throughout my career, just falling back and understanding certain moments like this,” Clark said. “But I’m super, super excited. I’m antsy to get out there and probably shake off a little bit of rust and then play.”