After a very slow start in Friday’s game against the Washington Mystics, Caitlin Clark eventually came alive with a dominant fourth quarter, putting up massive numbers. However, it seems like the WNBA scorekeepers shorted her on the stat sheet in a big way.
Through the first three quarters of Friday’s game, Clark was struggling, making just two three-pointers in 10 attempts while shooting just 4-for-20 from the field overall. But Clark caught fire in the fourth, putting up 17 points, making 5 of 7 shots from three-point range and 6 of 8 shots overall, along with two assists, a rebound, and a steal.
Clark finished the game with 32 points, eight assists, and four rebounds. But upon further review, it seems like she should have had 10 assists, giving her a double-double.
Clark Shorted 2 Assists
While the official scorebook listed Clark with eight assists in the game, video shows that she actually had two clear assists that were not counted as assists in the scorebook.
In the second quarter, Clark drove into the lane and kicked the ball out to teammate Monique Billings in the corner for a three-pointer. Then, in the fourth quarter, Clark had a hand-off pass to teammate Kelsey Mitchell that set up another three-pointer.
Neither of those two passes was credited to Clark as an assist. If they were both credited as assists in the scorebook, Clark would have had her first double-double of the season.
Fans Are Not Happy
Needless to say, fans were not happy at the WNBA for apparently shorting Clark two assists in the game.
“WNBA scorekeeping is extremely wonky. I’ve seen them give Clark assists after buckets that come like 5 seconds after passes and then not after direct passes like these. They also give her TOs sometimes for on-target passes that get fumbled out of bounds,” one fan wrote in a post on X.
“Robbery,” another fan said simply.
“They are stealing Caitlin Clark’s assists. She wasn’t given her assists properly – she had a double double,” someone else said.
“This looks like egregious erroneous stat keeping,” another person added.
“Shows you how incompetent the WNBA is, still not corrected lol,” someone else pointed out.
“Everyone, we need to flag these for the WNBA so they do a formal review and correct the box score. Please share and notify the league,” another fan added.
We’ll have to see whether or not the league reviews the game tape and corrects those stats. For now, though, Clark officially had just eight assists in the game, even if the video footage shows 10.
About Dave Kelsey
Bets on sports stuff.