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NEW YORK – The Indiana Fever fell to the New York Liberty in their final game before the All-Star break this weekend as star guard Caitlin Clark was sidelined with a groin injury.
Breanna Stewart led the Liberty with 24 points, 11 rebounds and seven assists and Sabrina Ionescu added 15 points and nine assists in the 98-77 win over the Fever on Wednesday night.
The Liberty controlled most of the game as Clark was ruled out just before tip-off with a groin injury, marking her third absence of the season due to injury.
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“Look, we’ve faced adversity. There’s no doubt about it. But we’ve also grown through it and we’ve talked about it from day one – no matter what keeps coming at us – and every team in the league has faced some sort of adversity,” Fever head coach Stephanie White said after the game.
“We’ve got to stop talking about building consistency and we’ve got to start doing it. We’ve got to understand that every single day we’re going to see opponents’ best shots and we’ve got to be ready for it. And then we’ve got to find I think some sort of dog in us, right? We play hard and at times we can be disruptive and be really good on the defensive end, and at the end of the day, that’s got to be consistent for us.”
White said the team is looking for a “reset” heading into the WNBA All-Star break which will be hosted by Indiana beginning on Friday. Clark is due to compete in the 3-point contest, alongside Ionescu, and was named a captain in Saturday’s All-Star Game.
FEVER COACH SAYS CAITLIN CLARK’S ALL-STAR GAME APPEARANCE UP IN THE AIR AS TEAM FOCUSES ON ‘LONG-TERM’ HEALTH
But her latest setback has raised questions about Clark’s availability for the weekend.
“No discussion yet about this weekend,” White told reporters before the game. “There was imaging done and obviously, we’re ruling her out for tonight but there hasn’t been any discussion beyond tonight.”
Clark is dealing with her second groin injury of the year. White said she does not believe that Clark’s latest injury, which was sustained in the final minutes of Tuesday night’s win over the Connecticut Sun, is the same as her previous injury. Clark has also missed five games early into the season because of a quad injury.
“I’m not really sure that it’s a re-injury as much as a different kind of injury. I know oftentimes when you’re working with injuries in the groin and the quad and the hamstring and all of those things, there’s just – they’re all kind of tied together and it’s not always just one thing.”
The Fever dropped to 4-6 in games without Clark after Wednesday night’s loss. Kelsey Mitchell led Indiana with 16 points. The Fever will return from the All-Star break on Tuesday where they will face the Liberty in Brooklyn again.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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