Caitlin Clark & DiJonai Carrington Consensus Surfaces as Rookie Denies ‘Intentional Black Eye’ Play

If you want to stop the Indiana Fever, fans say concentrate on pausing Caitlin Clark. And that’s what happened on Sunday. Just 90 seconds into the matchup, Clark was angling to give a sublime pass to her teammate Aliyah Boston. But the Sun’s guard, DiJonai Carrington, noticed it. In an attempt to block her, Carrington jumped and waved her hand, only for her finger to poke Clark’s eye. What followed the no-call was the No. 22’s sub-par 2 of 13 from the deep performance and her fans calling out Carrington for intentionally trying to end Clark’s dominance on the court. But is this what the AP ROTY believes too?

Taking cognizance of the same, Clark clarified on Tuesday, during a practice session, that Carrington did not purposefully do anything. And her fans breathed a sigh of relief, knowing her side of the truth. “It wasn’t intentional by any means. You just watched the play, it wasn’t intentional,” Clark cleared the former Baylor star’s name.

While the game went on in full swing, Clark somewhere lost the ability to score her threes. She could only score two of the 13 three-pointers she shot. Many fans also opined that this was a result of Carrington’s poke that had gotten the AP ROTY the black eye and somewhat hurt her shooting prowess. Though Clark, during the postgame conference, cleared any such view and instead blamed the unfavorable result on their “crappy game,” fans weren’t convinced that Carrington had done it without knowing the repercussions of her action. But much like the Des Moines native, the 2021 second-round pick chose to clarify it.

DiJonai Carrington shares her side of the story

Clark, since the beginning of the season, had to face physical issues in the WNBA, which she admitted was her weakness. Thus, time and again, her opponents looked to take advantage of it. Not to mention, Connecticut has been the top three defensive teams in the last five years, only aiding what happened in Game 1 was not only unintentional but their usual style of play. Moreover, these being the playoffs, only add to why the officiating crew too did not make much of the incident. But that was not what fans believed.

When Carrington’s finger poked the point guard, fans opined that the California-born didn’t have clean intentions behind it. But clearing up the same, Carrington shared things in her defense. “I don’t even know why I would intend to hit anybody in the eye. It doesn’t even make sense to me. But no, I didn’t. I didn’t know I hit her actually. I was trying to make a play on the ball,” Carrington stated during the Sun’s practice session on Tuesday.

Perhaps, now that both the stars have revealed the truth, fans will move on from the matter. And wish that the number one pick plays well in the next game so that the Fever avoid a clean sweep and an elimination from Round 1 of the WNBA playoffs. But with the Sun being only as hungry to finally prove their worth, whose tourney would come to an end? Only time will tell.