Key Points
- Caitlin Clark posted 24 points and 9 assists against the Phoenix Mercury on June 22.
- It was her sixth straight 20-point, 5-assist game — a WNBA record.
- Indiana erased a 13-point deficit to win 86-77 and improve to 10-7.
- Kelsey Mitchell added 22 points; Monique Billings logged her first double-double.
Caitlin Clark walked off her home floor Monday night with a record no one in the WNBA has held before. Her 24-point, nine-assist line in the Indiana Fever's 86-77 win over the Phoenix Mercury was her sixth consecutive game with at least 20 points and five assists — the longest such streak in league history.
The game
Indiana spotted Phoenix a 13-point first-quarter lead before the offense woke up. The Fever hung 35 points on the Mercury in the second quarter, their second-highest-scoring period of the season, then put the game away with a 30-11 third quarter. Kelsey Mitchell chipped in 22 points and Monique Billings recorded her first double-double of the year with 14 points and 10 rebounds. The win moved Indiana to 10-7 and snapped a two-game skid. Phoenix's Alyssa Thomas became the fastest player to reach 500 assists with a single franchise.
The record
The streak reads as a scoring number, but the more telling figure is the assist column. Clark leads the WNBA in assists, and the record she just set rewards the part of her game that does not show up on a highlight reel — six straight nights of running an offense that scores when she is on the floor and stalls when she sits. The scoring was never the question with Clark; the playmaking is what is turning a marketing phenomenon into the league's best floor general. It extends a stretch of statement games that included her third career 30-point, 10-assist game against Chicago earlier this month. The deal market has priced the trajectory accordingly: she ranks second in U.S. basketball jersey sales behind only Stephen Curry, and her Nike Caitlin 1 signature shoe — part of an eight-year, $28 million deal — debuts October 1.
Source: ABC News
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