Caitlin Clark Dominates: Fever Crush Sky 100-81 | Post-Game Reaction

Introduction [Music] hi everyone this is APO Sports and we're going to be breaking down last night's game between the Indiana Fever and the Chicago sky where the fever won 100 to Breaking Down the Fever's Big Win 81 19point game blowout it really wasn't close at all after the fever started the game it kind of struggling and sluggish in the first quarter just the beginning of the first quarter they were they were able to actually close out the quarter only being down three and it was over from there on like the fever then won every single quarter pretty comfortably a huge contributions from most everybody in the team there's still some rotations to figure out but of course the start of the game was Kaylin Clark with 31 points career-high 12 assists four rebounds only turned the ball over three times and really out of those three turnovers there were a lot of plays where it seemed like the sky were just playing soccer with Kaylin Clark's passes and then they were turning into turnovers but the rest were not calling the whistle so I was a bit confused about that but if you remove those kick balls I think Kaylin Clark has a Flawless game where there is without turnovers and she was 10 on 11 from the free throw line five of nine from three and then we'll cover a little bit more into some of the records that she broke some of the other impressive stats uh because it seems like every game that play some sort of record is broken but we'll get more into more in depth with that another huge game by Kelsey Mitchell with 23 points it's super efficient game nine of 13 from the field uh he only had two turnovers plus 21 on the floor and then kayin clar Kaylin Clark was plus 23 um Aaliyah Boston that struggled a little bit she was in foul trouble was not really able to get down low this guy have some big bodies of course and Camila cardoso and Angel Reese so it wasn't an easy game for Boston but it still but still she was effective in the ways that she she needed to be effective then Lexi Hall another just massive game by Lexi hle it's just every time that she's on the floor she's just always has a positive impact in the game no matter if she's goinging or not but in this game she was able to be three of four for three I mean she's been on fire from three if you leave her wide open she's going to she's going to knock it down but 11 points uh three rebounds one assist no turnovers uh huge impact and played almost 32 minutes almost had the same amount of minutes as Kaylin Clark and really that if anyone needs to be playing kayin CL Clark type minutes is Lexi hle so I'm glad that chrisy sides was able to to you know to realize that and to actually make it happen now we have to talk about of course we have to talk about Nelissa Smith because I continues to this continues to be the one thing that Christy sides has not figured out yet is how to best utilize Nelissa Smith and I think now it's become clear to me how she needs to be better utilized so I said in last video I was pretty critical of Nelissa Smith and I said you know that she doesn't quite make winning plays uh she's not that effective as far as affecting winning and her impact on the court and to they was a little bit of a testament to that because she was minus five on the court really she was the only starter that was in the minus and the only players that had a worse plus minus than her were the three players that were playing in G's time in Christy Wallis Berger and Saxton but I then checked to see some of Nelissa Smith history and collegiate career and she did win a title an NCAA title with Baylor back in the day I can't remember if it was 2021 um 2022 something like that is when she she won the title with them but then I was like okay so she won a title let me see what kind of role she played in that game and effectively she came off the bench and she played 17 minutes so pretty much playing less than 20 minutes and I think that's the formula for how to better utilize Nelissa Smith is just she has to come off the bench and she has to limit it to less than 20 minutes a game she can't play any more than that and I think that's how she can be best effective especially now that you've inserted uh Lexi ho in the starting lineup I think you're going to need a little bit of firep power that comes off the bench I think that's going to be that should be Nelissa Smith and she'll be more effective playing against the opponent's team's bench players than she will be playing against the starters so she can actually go to work with them instead of the starting team but I don't think she belongs in the starting lineup it's just taken away from the potential of this team and what they can be and it's clear to me now that tamy F Benelli has to be in the starting lineup and just I mean I think right now if you swap those two as far as like Nelissa Smith coming off the bench and fabing nelli starting and then you have the healthy rotation of dtis Wheeler um wheeler Smith and uh ktie Lou then you'll be good to go as far as your bench rotation and you still maintain pretty good pretty good production coming off the bench while your starting lineup is intact and it's the best uh it's solidified in that way so I think that's the final adjustment really to her credit she was being Christy size was being CR criticized quite a bit early on and a lot of it warranted she's been slowly I mean been slowly kind of catching up to the Right Moves that she needs to make but she's actually getting there and I think the final final move that she needs to make in order to actually make this work is put Nelissa Smith in the bench don't play her more than 20 minutes insert fanelli in the starting lineup I mean fabelli was a plus 29 in 18 minutes plus 29 in 18 minutes now she s she shot 16% from the from the field she was only one of six and only three points but her her impact on the court as far as defense you know just deflecting basketballs here and there there grabbing re rebounds uh running down the floor everything like that just making a ton of winning plays so she needs to be in the starting lineup all right and then Caitlin Clark's Huge Game: Analysis & Highlights we have to get to Caitlyn Clark it was just so there were so many stats so many things that she was doing on the court she was having so much fun and I think this is one of the games that I've seen her have the most fun uh playing in the WNBA you can tell she was trying some crazy pass she was not knocking down the three she was shooting with confidence she was going you know having fun with the fence having fun with the bench just I mean it was a full complete display of kayin Clark Entertainment on the court she broke a few records as far as being uh I think it was the only player to have uh or the only rookie to have 30 plus points and 10 point assist but also was the only WNBA player in history to have uh 32 points and 12 assists in a game so that stat line had never happened before um some other stat line stat line uh stat lines as well like 20 plus points 10 plus assist 10 plus assists plus four or more three-pointers the only one to do that multiple times in a season um I mean it's just the accolades and just the records and her play just continue to elevate I think a lot of the people that that were criticizing her early on uh maybe did not see this potential maybe they not see that this could happen at least not this fast but it's obvious now that she has figured this thing out and then you know we we'll talk a little bit later about the the Rookie of the Year race uh but at this point I think she has to be uh a first WNBA player there's no way she's second like Sabrina for as great as she is and yes she's playing with the Liberty but the Liberty went to the title last year and they were expected to be this dominant uh the fever were not expected to have this type of record and Kaylen Clark has put up better numbers than Sabrina yonescu so and not only Sabrina but so far I think someone else put Alisa Thomas in the in the WNBA first team uh she could belong there but not over Kaylin Clark so those are the the consider erations but yeah I just I enjoyed watching her today it was a lot of fun she had a lot of fun she's a menace on the court right she's always kind of poking fun and you know doing her type of things just kayln Clark type Shenanigans uh it was a packed house she had the whole Arena rolling and cheering for her at the end of the game you could even see her kind of you know get in the crowd to do a stand inovation for her as she departed in Chicago on Barbie night and Angel Reese did not have a really good game so uh it was just a complete performance by Kay Caitlyn Clark and now the question is as August comes to a close the debate the real debate is you know whether or not kayin Clark is going to be player of the month or if K Kelsey Mitchell will be player of the player of the month I don't think any one else is in that conversation so it has to be either Kaylin Clark or Kelsey MIT okay so we now we move on to the Impact on WNBA Standings standings so the the fever actually moved up to six in the standings now who in the world had the fever six at this point in the season of course no one did especially not after starting the season 2 and N or one and8 however they you know terrible way that they started they've been dominating and right now now they're in a in a really good position because they own a tiebreaker against the Mercury they own a tiebreaker against the sky and they own a tie break a tiebreaker against the dream who are all right there fighting for playoff position so they're they're very well placed and I really think they're only about like if they win the next game and the dream lose the next game I believe that they'll secure a playoff spot at that point but um they've solid solid I themselves in the standings and now they're really only three and a half games behind the fourth place Las Vegas acis so the fever at this point in the season still can claim homec court advantage in the first round of the playoffs and if they do that I mean that will be I just don't know how if if they're able to do that and the fever end up higher in the standings than the aces then Kaylin Clark should be the MVP this season I don't care the I don't care about what numbers AJ Wilson has it does not matter the expectation for the aces is that they're going to three repeat right they were supposed to be one or two they're not they're underperforming as a team and the fever's expectation was like maybe they'll make the playoffs but if they actually have homecourt Advantage with the kind of season that Kaylin Clark is having then she has to be MVP I I don't think that is a discussion at all at all I'm not sure about unanimous but my vote for MV VP if they end up the season with a higher seed than the aces Kaylen Clark should be MVP in St should be Rookie of the Year in MVP only time this ever happened was with Candace Rookie of the Year Race: Where Does Clark Stand? spker and I mean I I'm just talking about I was just done talking about the MVP conversation so the Rookie of the Year race I mean I don't think it was ever a race I you know the frustrating part about this entire discourse about the Rookie of the Year race is that you know generally like Angel Reese that there's nothing I and I'm impressed by the stuff that she's doing with the rebounds the double doubles and everything like that but the only thing that has made me mad and like kind of like I just can't believe what I'm hearing is whenever people start comparing or making a case for Angel ree as leading in the Rookie of the Year race and then ESPN coming out with this article uh saying that angel ree is number one it just just makes things worse and then it puts us who respect Angel re game but know that she's nowhere near the caliber of player that killing Clark is it puts us in a position to kind of you know I don't know say some things about angel ree whether stat padding and stuff like that like normally we wouldn't care but like we're trying to make it obvious like this is not and should not be a discussion so it's kind of unprofessional in my opinion from ESPN is kind of unprofessional from these legitimate individuals and these legitimate media Personnel uh you know who are supposed to be you know whether it's ESPN or whatever other legitimate media saying that this is a thing or a race or that I mean that angel Rees is actually leading is is unprofessional it's a bad look uh I don't I mean at this point I just don't know how ESPN or anyone else that's claiming this has any cred credibility left it just doesn't make any sense so and I think it's actually also hurting angel re in a way because now she's receiving all this hate that she shouldn't have like who cares if she stat Pats really right like I really wouldn't don't care if she stat Pats unless you're trying to use that to to say that she's rookie of the of the year over kayen Clark and I mean even if she's doing it it doesn't matter like she's not at that level yeah she's second I think I mean Ria Jackson is making a a pretty good uh uh she's making a pretty good case here late although I don't think she would still over overtake Angel ree only because of the historic impact that angel ree is having with rebounds with double doubles everything like that right Ria Jackson hasn't done anything no you know no rookie records no WNBA records so she's third uh Andel ree is firmly second any other year she probably would win uh would win rookie of the year but not this year this is just Caitlyn Clark's year she's the better rookie she's going to have the better career career she's the better overall player she's the skilled player Angel ree is not very skilled she's she she works hard right she she hustles she gets rebounds like that's amazing that's great to have like you need a player like that like Dennis Rodman uh secured himself a hall of fame or was able to make the Hall of Fame just based on working hard and having hustle and getting rebounds and being a great defender like if Angel re continues to do what she's doing she'll get into the whole of Fame but she's not Kaitlin Clark just that's just just how it's been like we've never had this debate in the NBA this is what makes me mad as well like we've never said just be Dennis Rodman has had similar you know 30 rebounds 40 rebounds a game and which things that Jordan never did right Jordan was not a rebounder but no one ever dared say that Dennis robman was better than Michael Jordan or that the an award or an MVP over Michael Jordan like it's just not a thing so that's been the frustrating part navigating through these fans WNBA because they are making it about race they're making it about politics and it should not be about that and I don't even think it's ever been about that so rookie of the I hope that this whole entire Rookie of the Year thing is it's it's done like let's get past that I think at this point let's celebrate both Kaylin Clark and let's celebrate Angel Reese for the amazing impact that they've had and listen Angel Rees has actually been able to elevate kitlin Clark even more if not like if if we had no angel re kayen Clark would still be big I think most people will still watch her play but I think that element of Andel Reese has made it even higher right has elevated her even more uh just because of that rivalry and and and everything like that and Angel ree has actually been you know successful she's been able to get a lot of deals and sponsors uh sponsorship off the court so she's doing her thing and she's also gaining both of them are really gaining from from this rivalry that they've created but let's uh let's put that conversation to rest Kaylin Clark is is not just the rookie of the year but she's now top two or three in the MVP discussion as well and that's it for this video this is my reaction there's a lot more that I want to cover but we'll cover as we as we move on now the next game that we have is the you know Dallas Wings which is a dangerous team especially now with that uh player that was hurt I think Sali is her name um so and of course we know arque is a straight beast so Dallas Wings is not a team that you can just sleep on uh you know they're 11th Place in the standings but they are much better than that so so we'll see and it's on the road for the fever it'd be great if they can if they can get this win to put him above 500 which again I don't think anyone saw that coming but we'll see we'll have a lot more to share more to discuss right after that game but uh that's it for now thank you all for watching and I'll see you next time