Clark Sets WNBA Record for Single-Season Assists

Indiana Fevers Caitlin Clark’s magical rookie campaign has earned another place in WNBA history.

The Fever superstar guard broke the league record for single-season assists with her 317th of the season in a game against the two-time defending champion Las Vegas Aces on Friday, surpassing the mark Connecticut Sun star Alyssa Thomas posted in 2023.

She accomplished the feat with an assist to her backcourt mate Kelsey Mitchell on an inbounds play.

Clark finished the game coming up short of her third career triple-double, with 18 points on just 7-of-18 from the field, 9 assists, eight rebounds and six turnovers, which was not enough in a 78-74 Aces victory.

She already has captured the WNBA single-game assist record, having posted 19 assists against the Dallas Wings on July 17 in the last game prior to the month-long Olympic hiatus. After a less than stellar start to the season, she has been as good as advertised and taken the league by storm looking every bit the league-changing talent that was promised while she was shattering college records at Iowa.

It is even more extraordinary and impressive when you take into account Clark has been playing high-stakes, competitive basketball since last October, having gone from playing in the NCAA championship game against Dawn Staley and the South Carolina Gamecocks to her WNBA debut in the span of 37 days.

Besides her dynamic passing ability, Clark is within striking distance from the WNBA’s single-season 3-pointer record. She exited Friday with 114 on the season, 14 behind New York Liberty’s Sabrina Ionescu’s 128 with two games to go. It goes without saying that she has no shortage of rookie records after 38 games. In the 27-year history of the WNBA there has never been a combination of shooting and playmaking like Clark’s.

Earlier this summer, Chicago Sky rookie Angel Reese set a WNBA single-season record for rebounds (446). Reese’s rebounding (13.1) and Wilson’s scoring (27.0) averages are both on pace to set league records, and while Clark leads the league with 8.4 assists per game, Courtney Vandersloot’s 2020 average of 10.0 assists when she was with the Sky, will not be threatened and appears safe to remain the league’s single-season record.

“I think it definitely speaks to the whole entire year and how historic it has been for this league and how great the basketball has been for the league, and we’re not even into the playoffs yet,” Clark said. “I think that’s what’s so fun about it, is you’re just going to continue to see records be taken down, but also I think really good basketball, and that’s why it’s been so fun to watch.

“That’s why the fans have been showing up. The viewership has been absolutely crushed this year. So, I think everybody’s just kind of raising their game. The competition’s just getting better and better, and it’s fun as a competitor to show up in this league every night and know you have to bring your best, because whoever’s on the other side of the court from you, they’re going to bring their best, and that’s what makes it fun. It’s been cool to watch everybody really take a step up and elevate, and to be a part of that has been really fun for myself too.”

Even with all she has done on the hardwood, not every record is to be celebrated, as Clark has already shattered the all-time mark for turnovers in a season with 209 entering Friday. The previous record was Thomas with 137 last year.

That inefficiency has not hampered the Fever’s playoff aspirations. The team clinched its first playoff berth since 2016 last week, breaking the longest playoff drought in WNBA history.

All of that has Clark as the run-away favorite to win WNBA Rookie of the Year, despite some stiff competition in the record-breaking department. Her past, present and future rival Reese of the Sky, claimed the record for single-season rebounds and longest double-double streak before her season-ending wrist injury.

Aces superstar A’ja Wilson is on track to surpass Reese, though, with 435 boards and three games remaining on the Aces schedule. She cleaned the glass and had 17 against the Fever on Friday, while Chelsea Gray led all scorers with 21 points.

“I’ve been feeling like myself after the Olympic break,” Gray said. “You want to be playing your best basketball in September and October. … I just trust the process, and I know I put the work in. … I’ve got to surrender myself to the result, and that’s what I’ve been doing and it paid off tonight.”

Fever players and coach Christie Sides lamented, though, how Indiana finished 11-for-20 from the charity strike and experienced lulls in the first quarter and the start of the third against Las Vegas.

“When we played Vegas early, we weren’t there, and they got us,” Sides said. “But right now, they’ve got to really believe that we are there with those guys, and I think they do. And now we just have to find ways to not have those lulls that we’re having. … That was playoff basketball out there tonight, and you’ve got to make sure that you are not giving them any opportunity to take any advantage of times where you’re frustrated or it’s just not going our way and we take several possessions off. You just can’t do that with these great teams.”