Caitlin Clark might have drawn an expensive technical foul if not for some savvy prevention from her teammates.
During the second quarter of the Fever’s 110-109 win over the Wings on Sunday, Clark drove to the basket and drew contact — but when the whistle blew, it was for an offensive foul.
Clark was apoplectic, and as she barked at the officials, she was restrained by Kelsey Mitchell and Aliyah Boston.
Clark has drawn six technical fouls so far this season, and a seventh is cause for automatic suspension by the WNBA.
If Clark had been hit with the technical, she would have been forced to miss the Fever’s final regular season game, a road matchup against the Mystics on Thursday.
“Well, I didn’t think they were going to give me a technical at any point tonight. I would have been really sad for people in Washington D.C.,” Clark told reporters after the game. “I didn’t want to do that. I tried my best, but my teammates do a really good job of that.”
Fever head coach Christie Sides attributed “just good team chemistry stuff” for the technical foul prevention by Boston and Mitchell.
“They all know what’s at stake with Caitlin, and they know she’s doing incredible things,” Sides continued. “She’s just special and these guys know that’s her passion, that’s her fire. They all know when she’s reached that point and when we need to have a little assistance to come out there. And I appreciate that.”
Clark scored a career-high 35 points in the win on 10-for-22 field goal shooting, including 6-for-14 from three-point range.
The Fever brought their record to 20-19 on the season.
Indiana is the No. 6 seed in the WNBA playoffs and, at this point, remains on track to face the Sun in the opening round.