A fiery Caitlin Clark was caught on camera mocking Connecticut Sun rival Saniya Rivers as her Indiana Fever team recorded an emphatic 123-88 WNBA win on Wednesday night.
Clark and Rivers clashed near the end of the third quarter, with Rivers penalized for grabbing Clark while she dribbled with the ball.
Rivers appeared to contest the decision, seemingly by claiming that Clark drove into her and as the cameras closed in on the exchange between the two players, Clark can clearly be seen saying ‘scoreboard’ to Rivers multiple times and pointing up at the score from the court.
The Fever held a commanding 28-point lead at the time with the score 95-67 in their favor.
But perhaps frustratingly for Clark, her taunts of Rivers landed her with a technical foul, her seventh of the season. If she gets another, she will be banned for a game.
Speaking about the incident after the game, the WNBA star said: ‘She said she was locking me up, so I said “scoreboard” and the ref didn’t like that.
Caitlin Clark taunted WNBA rival Saniya Rivers during her team’s big win on Wednesday ngiht
Clark has given a technical for the incident – one more, and she will be banned for one game
‘I’m never going to back down. It’s trying to control your emotions as best you can. That intensity and that fire is what makes me, me.
‘But it’s also knowing my team needs me and I finding a good balance of that. I don’t think I am going to be playing with that in the back of my head, I think that will hinder my play a little bit.’
Her coach, Stephanie White, agreed.
‘She knows. She has awareness about it,’ White told reporters. ‘We’ll try to help her when we can, but sometimes we can’t.
‘If she wants to be strategic about which game she doesn’t want to play then she’ll let her fly.’
Clark continues to be finding her best form after a back issue had hampered her in recent weeks.
She played 27 minutes and finished with 27 points on Wednesday night in a sparkling performance, her team moving to 17-10 for the season.
They don’t play again now until July 28, against Seattle Storm, with the WNBA All-Star break meaning a pause in the schedule.
Clark’s best form has been returning but Fever now have a short break for the
‘I thought we shared the ball really well. We played up tempo, and everybody had one of those nights where the ball was going through the hoop,’ Clark said on the win.
But she sounded like someone who feels the All-Star game is coming at a bad time for her team as they try to build some winning momentum.
‘I like Chicago, it’s a cool city,’ she said. ‘But I’ll be excited to get back here with my team too and keep this rolling. I feel like we’re playing really good basketball right now.’
