Caitlin Clark broke the WNBA record for assists in a game with 19 in the Indiana Fever's 101-93 loss to the Dallas Wings on Wednesday night, the league's final game before the month-long Olympic break.
The previous single-game assists record was 18 by Courtney Vandersloot for Chicago on Aug. 31, 2020. Vandersloot also had 18 in a playoff game on Sept. 28, 2021.
Clark, the No. 1 pick in the 2024 draft and the NCAA Division I’s all-time scoring leader, also scored 24 points on 10-of-19 shooting. She scored or assisted on 66 points for the Fever, the most in a game in WNBA history, surpassing Diana Taurasi’s 65-point effort on Aug. 10, 2006.
Clark became just the second rookie in league history, joining Candace Parker in 2008, to score or assist on 50 or more points in multiple games.
Her career-high in assists in college at Iowa was 18 at Penn State on Jan. 25, 2022, while her previous WNBA season-high was 13, set four times, most recently in a 95-86 win over Phoenix on Friday night.
Clark's stat line marked the second 20-point, 15-assist game in league history, the other belonging to Vandersloot in 2018. It was Clark's third game with 20-plus points and 10-plus assists; only Angel McCoughtry in 2009 had recorded such a game before as a rookie.
“She'll say it doesn't mean anything, but I think it's great,” teammate Aliyah Boston, who finished with a career-high 28 points, said of Clark's achievement.
“I just try to help my teammates be successful,” said Clark, who had nine assists for Boston and helped the Fever score 62 points in the paint. “I think I can almost run over everyone at times… especially with AB, I'm always looking to help her. My eyes are always on our post players.”
Clark is the first rookie and ninth player in WNBA history with at least 400 points and 200 assists in a season. Chelsea Gray has three such seasons, Alyssa Thomas has two and six other players (Sue Bird, Jordin Canada, Natasha Cloud, Sabrina Ionescu, Courtney Williams and Vandersloot) each have one.
Fever coach Christie Sides said: “[Clark] “She has the ability and the vision to see things, and we're getting better and better as we play with her to get on the same page as her… 19 assists is incredible. That's incredible.”
Following her record-breaking performance, Clark moved from -1000 to -2000 odds to win WNBA Rookie of the Year at ESPN BET, while the Sky's Angel Reese moved from +500 to +600.
Through 26 games this season, Clark has scored or assisted on 915 points, a single-season record for a rookie. His 213 assists on the season are also the second-most by a rookie in league history and are closing in on Ticha Penicheiro's record of 225.
But after the game, the Fever lamented holding Dallas without a win. Now 6-19, the Wings are in last place in the WNBA standings, and Indiana is aware that every game matters as it looks to return to the playoffs for the first time since 2016.
“Offensively, we were able to get everything we wanted all night, at least it seemed that way. It was just our defense,” Clark said. “We gave up 28 points off turnovers, I think 20 of them were in the first half. So that really kills you early in the game, and you just have to do a better job of taking care of the ball. If you give up 100-plus points, you're not going to win many games.”
The Fever fell to 11-15 after the loss and enter the Olympic break in seventh place in the league standings; the top eight teams advance to the postseason.
“It's a little frustrating. I feel like we've let two games go that were very winnable for us before the break, the Mystics at home and then obviously this one, and then we've won other game(s) that are really tough for us,” Clark said. “I think that's the biggest area where our team needs to grow. These last 14 games of the year, you can't let these opportunities go by.”
Clark, Boston and teammate Kelsey Mitchell will head to Phoenix for the 2024 WNBA All-Star Game on Saturday, where the trio and the rest of Team WNBA will face the U.S. Olympic team.
ESPN Stats & Information and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
