Clark drops career-high 35, adds to rookie records

Indiana Fever guard Caitlin Clark recalls Seimone Augustus being the first WNBA player she ever met when she went to a Minnesota Lynx game as a child.

On Sunday, Clark set the WNBA rookie season scoring record, previously held by Augustus, and called it a full-circle moment.

“I got my picture with her on my dad’s little phone — it was maybe like a BlackBerry back in the day,” Clark said after Indiana’s 110-109 win over Dallas. “I vividly remember it. I was always a fan of her game and the way she could shoot the ball.”

Clark now has 761 points in 39 games, so there is the caveat that Augustus — who will be inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame in October — set her mark of 744 points in 2006, when the WNBA season was 34 games.

Regardless, it was a big afternoon for Clark, who had a career-high 35 points, and the Fever, who secured the No. 6 seed in the playoffs. Indiana is 20-19 and will finish the regular season Thursday at Washington.

“Everybody is definitely excited for the playoffs,” Clark said of the Fever’s upcoming postseason trip, their first since 2016. “We’re not just happy to be there. We really feel like we can compete with every single team.”

The only team Indiana hasn’t defeated this season is the two-time defending champion Las Vegas Aces. The Fever fell twice to the Aces this past week in Indianapolis. But they got back on the winning track Sunday in a game in which both teams’ offenses ruled.

Dallas, 9-30 and already eliminated from playoff contention, shot 56.8% from the field and was led by 27 points each from Arike Ogunbowale and Satou Sabally.

Clark and teammate Kelsey Mitchell (30 points) each had six 3-pointers against the Wings. It was the third time in WNBA history that two teammates hit at least six 3s in the same game, and the first time since 2010.

“We did a great job of just kind of piggybacking our games off one another,” Mitchell said. “She’s young and she likes to play fast, and I can appreciate it. I think our pace can set us up for a lot of different stuff.”

Augustus, like Clark, was a No. 1 draft pick. The former LSU star played 14 of her 15 seasons with the Lynx and finished her playing career with the Los Angeles Sparks.

Augustus won four titles with Minnesota and three Olympic gold medals with Team USA. She is now an assistant at her alma mater.

Augustus averaged 21.9 points — still the rookie record for scoring average — 1.5 assists and 3.8 rebounds in 2006. But the Lynx struggled to a 10-24 record. They missed the playoffs in Augustus’ first five seasons, then made the WNBA Finals in six of her next seven years in Minnesota.

Clark is averaging 19.5 points, a league-high 8.4 assists and 5.7 rebounds. She set the WNBA single-season assist record Friday (breaking the mark of 316 set last year by Connecticut‘s Alyssa Thomas in 40 games).

Clark, who had eight assists Sunday, now has 329 on the season.

Sunday was Clark’s fourth game with at least 30 points and 5 assists, tying Ogunbowale (2019) for most in a rookie season. It was also the ninth game this season in which both Clark and Mitchell had at least 20 points. The Fever are 7-2 in those games.

“Kelsey makes my life easier out there,” Clark said. “It’s hard to pick and choose when both of us are on. We just really read and understand each other better from where we were in the beginning of the season.”

ESPN Research contributed to this report.