Fever’s Caitlin Clark Needs to Shoot More, Says Christie Sides

Indiana Fever guard Caitlin Clark leads all WNBA rookies in scoring (16.2 PPG) and assists (6.6) as well as field goals made (4. 9) and tempted (12.2). After Thursday night’s 89-77 loss at Seattle, Fever coach Christie Sides said she wished Clark would shoot the ball even more.

“Caitlin Clark has to shoot at least 15 shots a game for us,” Sides said. “She has to get vaccinated, and we have to do a better job of preparing her, setting really good screens for her so she can get open.”

On Thursday, Clark led the Fever with 15 points on 4-of-9 shooting from the field, including 3-of-7 from behind the arc, and made 4-of-5 from the foul line. She also had 7 assists and 6 rebounds.

Post players Aliyah Boston (5 of 16, 11 points) and NaLyssa Smith (5 of 11, 12 points) led the Fever in shot attempts against the Storm, and guard Kelsey Mitchell shot 5 of 10 for 14 points.

Clark is second on the Fever this season in shot attempts, behind Mitchell’s 13.4 per game. Over her four-year career at Iowa, she averaged 20.1 shots per game, peaking at 22.7 during her senior season.

While Clark currently leads all WNBA rookies in shot attempts, she is 22nd overall in the league. Dallas guard Arike Ogunbowale leads the WNBA with 21.8 shot attempts per game.

Other true guards who average more shots than Clark are Seattle’s Jewell Loyd (17.5) and Skylar Diggins-Smith (13.5), Las Vegas’ Kelsey Plum (15.9) and Jackie Young (14. 7), Sabrina Ionescu of New York (15.3), Diana of Phoenix. Taurasi (13.7), Marina Mabrey of Chicago (13.6), Ariel Atkins of Washington (13.0) and Rhyne Howard (12.5) and Allisha Gray of Atlanta (12.4).

Of those 12 guards, all except Ogunbowale, Mabrey and Mitchell are Olympians for the upcoming Paris Games or have competed in previous Olympics.

Loyd, who will compete in her second Olympics next month, stole the show Thursday night with 34 points on 10-of-15 shooting. The first overall pick in the 2015 draft, she won two WNBA titles with the Storm and led all-time in scoring last season with 24.7 points per game.

So it’s an elite group of guards that Clark has joined just 19 games into her WNBA career. She talked about Indiana’s offensive challenges after Thursday’s loss, in which the Fever had 20 turnovers, six by Clark, to go with 21 assists.

“We played a lot of ball screens tonight,” Clark said. “So when you get doubled on a ball screen, you’re always going to give it up. That should create an advantage for us 4-on-3 attacking the basket. But I don’t think we played too well off our ball screens tonight.

“I could definitely be a little more aggressive at the basket. But I think I’m just going to try to take what the defense gives me and try to set my teammates up for success as well.”

Clark has been on ball screens a lot this season, which Sides acknowledged.

“The way people defend her is difficult,” Sides said. “Once she doesn’t have the ball in her hands, she gives the rest of our team some really good chances. She has very good chances (for herself) without the ball. But we like him with the ball, so we have to figure out how to deal with both. »