Basketball News: Caitlin Clark studying Stephen Curry’s moves on dealing with physical, swarming defenses

By Geoffrey H. Latayan

Indiana Fever guard Caitlin Clark said she has been studying tapes of Golden State Warriors’ Stephen Curry on how the four-time NBA champion deals with swarming, physical defenses and regular double teams.

Clark’s thinking is she’ll always face top defenders and her share of hits with all the attention on her. 

Due to this, the Indiana superstar said she has been committed to getting stronger and has increased her weight lifting regimen coming into her second WNBA season.

“Steph is somebody I’ve watched and watched a lot of film, I try to watch as many Warriors games as I can just because I love the way he plays and there’s so much I can learn from him,” Clark said.

The Indiana star noted that she admires how Curry is built tough for the physicality in the NBA.

“I think that also kind of showed me going into Year 2 is how much time I really needed to put into the weight room to be able to play at this level of physicality and also not get tired through the course of a game,” she pointed out.

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Moving on from physical, testy win over Connecticut

Clark says she has moved on from Indiana’s physical, testy win against Connecticut during which she was shoved to the floor by Marina Mabrey.

Mabrey’s hit on Clark in Tuesday night’s game was upgraded to a flagrant 2 on Wednesday.

“I think Steph (Fever coach Stephanie White) talked about it plenty after the last game and it is what it is, you move on,” Clark said on Thursday ahead of the game against the Golden State Valkyries in her first visit to San Francisco. “My focus is just on tonight.”

Sun guard Jacy Sheldon poked Clark in the eye in the third quarter. Clark cringed while grabbing at her face. Sheldon then chest bumped her, Clark pushed back and Mabrey got involved by bumping Clark to the floor.

Fever lose to Valkyries as Caitlin Clark struggles

The effect of the eye poke seemed to have an indirect effect on the Fever superstar. She struggled to find her shot against Golden State’s defense and finished with 11 points, nine assists and seven rebounds in an 88-77 loss.

Clark missed her first six shots before making a layup in the middle of the second quarter. She wound up shooting 3 for 14 and 0 of 7 on 3-pointers.

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