WNBA rookie sensation Caitlin Clark admitted her excitement about playing against the Aces in Las Vegas.
Despite suffering a 99-80 drubbing at the hands of the reigning WNBA champions on May 26, Clark is relishing the opportunity to play under the bright lights of Sin City once again.
While their first meeting took place at the Michelob ULTRA Arena, the highly-anticipated rematch will be played at the T Mobile Arena and is expected to draw a packed audience on Tuesday.
“Yeah, I’m excited,” Clark said during the press conference. “Obviously, it’s a different place than we visited last time. Obviously it’s fun to go to all these different places and play all these new venues and stadiums.”
“I just hope there’s a big crowd, the tickets are sold out,” he continued. “I know it’s going to be a great atmosphere and a really fun game. I hope we come out prepared and ready to play, even though the atmosphere is really great.”
Caitlin Clark told a media member that she is excited to play against the Las Vegas Aces on Tuesday.
The Aces defeated Clark and the Indiana Fever, 99-80, in their first meeting on May 26 in Sin City.
In addition to being the first matchup between the league’s most dominant team and its new star, the May 26 game was also the first WNBA meeting between Clark and her former Iowa teammate, Kate Martin.
After Clark was held to eight points by the Las Vegas defense, Martin came off the Aces bench and scored 12 in their victory.
Clark took advantage of a low-scoring night by grabbing seven assists and five rebounds, while Martin grabbed seven rebounds and made a block.
“I’m really excited,” Clark said of playing against Martin. “These are opportunities that you don’t take for granted. This league is so tough that you never know at any moment it could end for you. It’s harder to stay in this league than it is to be in this league, so you don’t take it for granted.”
‘I know both of our families will be here, too, and our college coaches, so it will be a lot of fun for them, too.’
The game will also feature Clark’s second WNBA matchup against Iowa teammate Kate Martin.
In her first game, Clark was held back by Las Vegas’ defense and limited to just eight points.
The Aces have won the last two WNBA championships and are 10-6 this season.
Asked about the task ahead, Clark said getting more games and getting reps will be the key to the Fever’s success on Tuesday. However, she did admit how challenging the contest will be.
“We’ve been able to put some games together,” Clark said. “We came here last season after two games in a row, which was very difficult. But they’re two-time defending champions for a reason.”
“It’s going to be a tough game for us, but we’re going out and competing as best we can. We go into every game believing we can win and that’s definitely the mentality we approach every game with.”
Clark and Indiana have some momentum on their side after coming back to beat a strong Phoenix Mercury team on Sunday.
Clark had 15 points, nine rebounds and nine assists in the win over Phoenix on Sunday.
The Fever came back and rallied to snap a two-game losing streak with an 88-82 victory.
Despite playing through migraine issues, Clark scored 15 points and was one rebound and one assist shy of a triple-double. The Fever nonetheless pulled out an 88-82 win and earned praise from their opponents.
“I thought we did a lot of things very well,” Clark said of his performance. “At one point, we were down by 15 points, but to be able to come back from that shows a lot of resilience.”
“They’re going to have streaks, they’re going to get the early points, they can be up by 10, 15 points again, but I think that shows us our confidence,” she added of the Aces. “We’re always in the game, always on a roll, staying together and being a collective unit is something we’ve gotten a lot better at.”
The Fever are 8-12 at the midpoint of the season and have won five of their last seven games. The defending champions, on the other hand, are 10-6 behind A’Ja Wilson’s 26 points per game on 51.1 percent shooting from the field.