Indiana Fever coach Christie Sides gives blunt response to Caitlin Clark technical foul in loss to LA Sparks

Caitlin Clark’s head coach called her out for her behavior toward officials.

Caitlin Clark recorded her first career 30-point game in the WNBA, but the horrendous start to the season for the Indiana Fever continued with yet another loss Tuesday night to the Los Angeles Sparks, 88-82. Clark had the best scoring performance of her rookie campaign, but picked up a technical foul in the closing seconds of the first quarter that put the Fever in an early deficit.

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Indiana head coach Christie Sides was asked postgame about what led to Clark getting the technical, but instead of answering she indirectly called out the former Iowa record-setting sensation and No. 1 overall pick in the WNBA Draft.

“We’re spending too much time talking to the officials,” Sides said.” We’ve got to leave that alone. We’ve got to just play our game and let them do their job and not put it in their hands to make decisions that ultimately hurt us. We don’t want — we shouldn’t get technicals. Let me get the technicals. Let me go after the officials.”

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Clark became the first rookie to score 30 points in a game this season. She went 7-f0r-16 from the field, but made 13 of 15 free-throw attempts while grabbing five rebounds and dishing out six assists.

“I think she was attacking, she was getting downhill, she was also spraying out as well,” Sides said. “The way they are going to defend her, you know, they could probably have called about five or six more fouls with how they keep both hands on her, but I thought she did a good job of getting people involved. I know she had some good downhill drives that she hit Kelsey (Mitchell). She shot the ball well tonight. I know she needed to feel good about that.”

Clark broke numerous records during her four-year college career at Iowa where she became a household name. Women’s college basketball reached incredible new heights in popularity this past season with star players, a list headlined by Clark. Iowa drew record TV ratings for the Elite Eight, Final Four and national championship games. Clark became the all-time scoring leader for any NCAA Division I player — men’s and women’s — while also surpassing Lynette Woodard as the all-time scoring leader in major women’s college basketball with 3,951 career points.