Indiana Ketlin Clark Fever goalkeeper did not miss one match between four years in Iowa and her first season in WNBA, playing in At least 206 consecutive competitions He returns to high school. But that was before the quadruple strain calmed down on the rising of the year 2024 for this year only four games in the 2025 campaign, warning a season full of frustrated injuries.
After this early absence, Clark has returned to five other games, starting from its best performance for 2025 to date: a 32 -point picnic against the defense champion in New York Liberty. But the left thigh disease was destroyed again in late June, this time for four games. After returning to four other games with less than 100 percent healthy – an average of 12.5 duties at 31 % of the shooting on that period – an injury to the opposite thigh, Clark fell in the affected list in the past ten games.
With his best player for 19 of 32 possible competitions (in addition to the Commissioner’s Cup Championship game), the fever season could have been a disaster, but this was not. Instead, they are on the right path to making the qualifiers and is expected to improve in the total victory last season by 4.5 wins in Elo’s latest expectationsEspecially if they managed to gather after the guards are lost, Ari McDonald and Sydney Kulson were lost at the end of the season on Friday. They even won the Commissioner’s Cup without Clark.
Fever (18-14) did not do completely Flourish Without Clark, they lost to Los Angeles Sparks and Phenix Mercury at a rate of 22 points to finish a four -game trip last week. But they have Survive To go 10-9 without it, including 6-4 on the latest extension. Let’s be exposed to four reasons they managed to achieve the utmost benefit from the highest sports star in this season.
The least timeline Clark was favorable
The fever is equivalent to the absence of Clark, which corresponds to an easier extension of the table. With the exception of matches against fever, the average net classification of their opponents was 2025 -1.8 -the second easiest in the league, only before Minnesota Linux in -2.1. But in the games that Clark missed (in which the fever went 10-9), the average net classification of their opponents was 2.7 compared to -0.6 in the games that played (which are 8-5).
The defenses are first easier for this difference in the schedule. While the average fever discount in the Clark games was a little better in the attack – with an average efficiency of 104.0 points per 100 properties compared to 103.7 for opponents in the games that missed – it was particularly better on the other side of the ball, allowing 0.9 points less per 100 properties. This has made it possible for Indiana’s motto – recently, Keelsey Mitchell, Olaya Boston, Sophie Knngham, Natasha Howard and Meddonald – to keep the crime standing on his feet, and 31.4 % of the Clark team’s property spread when it was on the field ( The third highest use rate).
Now, the average fever discount has become more difficult as the lower part of the Clark season continues. While the average exhibitions during their first injury period had a clear -5.7 classification in the unattended games, this number rose to -3.1 during its second absence. During the latter’s extension, fever mainly faced a table closer to the average period, at -1.0 on average. (Five games of 10 games against opponents were higher than the average, and seven on the road. However, Indiana went 6-4).
Fever defense is real
Without 16.5 points from Clark and 8.8 passes for each game to provide crime, Indiana needed to rotate elsewhere to get a profitable feature, and I found this on the other side of the ball: fever has the most improved defense in WNBA compared to 2024, which helped them carry them without Clark.
Last season, Indiana ranked eleventh out of 12 teams in the defensive classification, which allowed 6.0 points per 100 properties more than average. (By the way, this was part of the reason Advanced scales were less in the rising year of Clark Of the traditional numbers for each game. It is difficult to present a convincing case for a huge value in two directions when an average is 35.4 minutes for one of the worst 30 batch in the history of the league.) But this season, the fever reaches the number 8 out of 13 teams, which provides 1.0 points less per 100 points from the average.
The improvement of 7.0 points in the defensive classification is the 15 largest jump on an annual basis that was seized by any team in the history of WNBA.
There was a defensive shift with the new coach Stephanie White after he led the defense team number 1 in the league, Contecticut Sun, last season. The addition of Howard and Keningham, who had a history of solid defensive standards, was the reasons for optimism. Clake It has emerged to improve D on its second season for professionals.
However, the results are noticeable, as six of the best seven minutes of averages in the team are defensive above the average Raptor classification. While their defense showed cracks in successive games last week, which allowed the classification of a 127.6 high efficiency (albeit against good crimes in sparks and mercury), the fever mostly rose to defense.
Spreading responsibility equally and efficiently
With Clark, one of the WNBA players ranked first among the five best use and assistance prices when this season (Sabrina IEESCU) is also in New York), the fever cannot produce one player, but they managed to reinstall Clark’s contributions in total.
Although the roof of the middle result in the game-the summary of the whole in one of the contributions of the player’s box-for the most productive players in the fever with Clark against Don Clark on the stadium (decreased (from 16.2 to 14.0), the floor increased (7.2 to 8.6) and the average varies barely (10.9 to 11.2).
Some players have moved to Clark’s advanced arrangement better than others. Boston suffered, for example, without a goalkeeper as a colleague in running: in the games that Clark missed, the real shooting rate in Boston (TS %) decreased from 63.2 % to 56.7 %, and it records less (13.9 to 6.9 points per game), a trend that rose only in the latter without Clark. Lexie Hull Raptor -3.6 has been since July 16, and Sydney Kulson was in -9.1 before it was lost for the season with the left ACL tear.
On the other hand, Mitchell and Huadward scored more in the games without Clark, and McDonald was up to 11.6 PPG with 60.0 % TS % in the latest games that Clark had missed before McDonald suffered a foot injury.
Cunningham was late, with an average of 12.4 PPG with a rate of 76.1 ts- partially due to a large rate of 35.5 %-and +0.4 RAPTOR in general since July 16. This is a dramatic performance in performance of the 7.1 -PPG player in the games played by CLARK.
With a lot of injuries, fever will have to enhance her mix again, but White has done a great job in reseting roles and responsibilities in a way that increases the list that was originally built to revolve around a player who lost a lot of the campaign.
Remember: He had to survive
By going 10-9 in the absence of Clark, the fever themselves put themselves in operating a separator that increases the capabilities of a season that lost 60 % of. But they are still a much better team with it in the squad – and they will need to return it in full strength in order to compete for the tournament.
Before running out of gas as it extended on the road, the fever was playing some of the best Clark ball with a five -game winning series. But after calculating the game site and the quality of the discount, its general net classification in games without Clark (-0.3) is not close to what it is in games with Clark (+6.4), and this is primarily due to their crime. With Clark, the offensive classification of Fever +4.4 will be well expected enough to classify third place in the league; But without it, they are mainly falling to the average league despite the registration of Mitchell, the McDonald Renaissance before injury and the effective play for Howard and Cunningham.
It is tempting to look at the difference in one match in Indiana’s record with Clark against Clark and we conclude that the loss of his star did not make a big difference in the team’s results. But largely like Chicago Bulls 55 games won after Michael Jordan retirement1993-1994, the size of Clark is hidden for luck, the strength of the timeline and the other factors blocked in the top line records.
The fever must be praised to raise it to the challenge of surviving three separate periods without Clark. They have shown that they have the depth of the title competitor while learning lessons that are likely to be important at the bottom. But do not let the records mislead you: the numbers say they will need again, and at their best, by the time when the qualifiers are tackled to reach their roof.