Sun spoil Caitlin Clark’s WNBA playoff debut with dominant win over Fever

Alyssa Thomas had the 15th triple-double of her career to spoil Caitlin Clark’s playoff debut as the Connecticut Sun beat the Indiana Fever 93-69 on Sunday in Game 1 of their best-of-three series.

Thomas finished with 12 points, 13 assists and 10 rebounds, earning her fourth postseason triple-double. Marina Mabrey led the third-seeded Sun with 27 points, 20 of which came in the second half. Her 27 points are the most by a reserve in the playoffs, according to ESPN.

Game 2 is Wednesday night in Connecticut with a potential decisive third game in Indiana on Friday night if necessary.

Clark, who earlier in the day was announced as the AP Rookie of the Year, finished with 11 points, recovering from a rough start. She also had eight assists. Kelsey Mitchell scored 21 points and Aliyah Boston added 17 points and 11 rebounds for Indiana.

The Sun came into the contest with 222 playoff games under their belt while the Fever had just 19, including none among the starters. This was Indiana’s first appearance in the playoffs since 2016. Connecticut head coach Stephanie White was in charge of the Fever that year.

The lack of experience didn’t seem to rattle the Fever early. It also probably helped that like most Fever road games this season, nearly half the crowd — many of whom were wearing Clark shirts — cheered on everything they did.

After a back-and-forth first 16 minutes, Indiana led 36-34 with 3:45 left in the first half. The Sun then took over, closing the opening 20 minutes on a 12-2 run.

DeWanna Bonner had four points and an emphatic block of a Clark layup during the spurt. Bonner finished the opening 20 minutes with 16 points. Clark had a quiet first half with just three points, making one of her nine shots.

She missed her first two shots of the third quarter before the Fever called timeout. Clark smacked the bench in frustration. That seemed to get her going as she made her next three shots to try and rally the Fever, but it wasn’t enough as Mabrey matched her shot for shot, scoring 11 points in the third. Clark finished finished 4 for 17.

The first half also had a bit of everything with a stoppage 48 seconds into the game for Indiana to challenge a foul called on the wrong player. They were successful. About 45 seconds later Clark was accidently poked in the right eye by DiJonai Carrington and was down for a bit before walking off the court.

A few minutes later Tyasha Harris hurt her right leg while trying to defend a shot. She had to be helped off the court and later returned to the bench with that ankle heavily wrapped.

Liberty cruise past Dream

Leonie Fiebich hit four three-pointers and scored a career-high 21 points on 7-of-8 shooting, Breanna Stewart added 20 points and 11 rebounds and the New York Liberty never trailed Sunday in their 83-69 win over the Atlanta Dream in the opening game of their best-of-three series in the first round of the WNBA playoffs.

New York can sweep the series with a win in Game 2 on Tuesday in New York. Game 3, if necessary, is Thursday in Atlanta.

The Liberty — who made each of their first six field-goal attempts, including four three-pointers — jumped to a 13-4 lead. Allisha Gray was fouled on a jumper and hit the and-1 free throw to cut Atlanta’s deficit to four with 5:33 left in the first quarter, but the Liberty scored the next 14 points — the final seven by Sabrina Ionescu — to take an 18-point lead. The Dream went scoreless for more than four minutes before Tina Charles hit a fade-away jumper to spark a 7-2 spurt that trimmed their deficit to 29-16 going into the second quarter.

New York made eight of 11 from the field, five of six from the three-point range and eight of eight from the free-throw line while outrebounding the Dream 11-3 in the first period. Atlanta, which shot 35.3 per cent (six of 17) and went 0 for 6 from behind the arc, trailed by double figures for the final 33-plus minutes.

Rhyne Howard scored 14 points and Charles added 12 for Atlanta.

The Dream beat New York 78-67 on Thursday in the regular-season finale to clinch the eighth and final playoff spot — and a date with the top-seeded Liberty in the first round. Atlanta shot 50 per cent (31 of 62) from the field.

Fiebich scored 15 points — one shy of the rookie’s season high — on perfect shooting in the first half, making five of five from the field, two of two from behind the arc and three of three from the free-throw line. Ionescu added 14 points and New York took a 48-30 lead into halftime.

The Liberty, who seek their first WNBA championship, made their fifth WNBA Finals appearance last season but lost 3-1 to the Las Vegas Aces.

New York’s Courtney Vandersloot had four points, three rebounds, three assists and two steals.

Ionescu finished with 17 points and Betnijah Laney-Hamilton scored 10 for the Liberty.