The “three-headed monster” is getting ready to rear its head! And for their star rookie, it is a full-circle moment. Caitlin Clark made her WNBA debut at the Mohegan Stadium on May 14 against the Connecticut Sun. Now 5 months later, she will make her postseason debut at home against the same team. On the previous occasion, the Fever fell to the Sun 92-71, but they have grown exponentially since then. As Clark gets an opportunity to avenge the loss, Connecticut’s head coach has some strategies to tackle the five talented starters of the Fever.

Stephanie White sat down with the media yesterday to discuss some strategies the Sun might employ and also discussed their rivals. In the regular season, Connecticut held a 3-1 record against Indiana, which might be a good confidence boost for White’s team. But she’s not taking Caitlin Clark and Co. lightly. In fact, she agrees with what the Las Vegas Aces coach Becky Hammon said about the Fever last week.

“Becky Hammon had it right, you can’t outscore that team. You gotta be able to lock down defensively, you gotta be able to give them different looks because they’re smart players,” White says. Hammon had said on Sept 14, “They’re a legit three-headed monster. So you have to play defense against this team. Otherwise, they’re just too good offensively, we don’t want to get into a situation where we have to outscore them. Because they really have some unbelievable scorers.” Ironically, Stephanie White’s Sun lost the 2022 Finals to Becky Hammon’s Las Vegas Aces, who are bent on a three-peat this year.

The Connecticut Sun HC agrees when she describes Clark and her teammates as “smart players” who are “gonna pick you apart, so we gotta be able to give them different looks…we gotta be consistent for 40 minutes.” These are two teams where the Sun has postseason experience while among the Fever’s 12 players, only Erica Wheeler has playoff experience. Even with Caitlin Clark as a shoo-in for the Rookie of the Year award, the postseason atmosphere is just different.

With multiple rookie and WNBA records in her debut season, it’s been a largely successful year for Clark. She led her team to a .500 record (20-20). But let’s not forget that she will match up against a Sun squad that finished 28-12 and comes into the postseason with one of the best defenses in the league. And as things stand, the Sun have checked Clark better than any other team in the league. Let us take a look at some stats.

So, it looks like Clark alone might not be enough to overcome the Sun’s defense. But at the same time, the Clark factor is also not something to be completely ignored. In fact, she is not alone. Her teammates also have left Stephanie White in awe. The coach took time to give a mention to all of them.

“You have Aliyah Boston in the interior, certainly what NaLyssa brings, and Lexie Hull from an energy standpoint and knocking down shots. They’re playing really confident basketball, they’re playing well together, they’re a tough matchup,” White pointed out. However, one pair-up received praise from the coach.

“When you talk about the job that Caitlin and Kelsey have done from a perimeter standpoint, they’re a backcourt combo that is really tough to match up with,” she says in the same presser. While the current core of the Fever is mostly new players, Kelsey Mitchell is in her seventh season as an impressive shooting guard. And indeed, we can not stop but marvel at their coordination on the court.

Will Caitlin Clark and Kelsey Mitchell’s magic help Fever get past the Sun?

During their last regular season game on September 19, an ankle injury scare arose surrounding Kelsey Mitchell. Her time was cut short as she played only 5 minutes in the first quarter before heading to the bench. Within that short span, she scored 4 points and an assist. To the relief of the team, later on, Fever coach Christie Sides said that it was not “anything major” and they benched her as a precaution. To understand why her injury would have been a blow to the team, let us look at Fever’s September 15 game against the Dallas Wings.

The Fever defeated the Dallas Wings 110-109, and the Clark-Mitchell duo put up a combined 65 points, including 12 3-pointers, in their 65:51 minutes on the court. Mitchell went 12-of-21 and scored 30 in the Fever’s final regular season home game, while Clark put up a career-high 35 points, setting the WNBA rookie scoring record. For more context, Clark (769) and Mitchell (767) occupy the first and second positions respectively in overall points of the Fever in the 2024 season. Caitlin Clark herself is in awe of the partnership.

“The amount of back-door cuts that girl has got just because we make eye contact and she knows to go back door, it’s incredible,” Clark had said about Mitchell. When Mitchell was asked how she and Clark make each other better, she highlighted their speed. “Oh man, I just think that our pace alone is… A lot of people want to play fast (and) with a young PG, I get the best of both worlds, She’s young and she likes to play fast so I can appreciate it,” she added. She has to hail Clark for one more thing.

Mitchell thinks because of Clark, more eyes have turned towards her, something she has missed out on because of her introverted nature. She also hailed Clark for the overall increase in viewership in the sport.

“I think the reality of it is that I don’t think people would know without C-squared [Clark’s nickname]. So, shout out to Caitlin. That’s just the reality. I think she’s done an unbelievable job of obviously bringing her own fans and people that support her.” According to a report by Sportico, an average of 17,035 viewers attended Fever home games this season, which is an all-time WNBA record for any team. In fact, Indiana’s away games in Capital One Arena in Washington, D.C., and T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas also surpassed 20,000 spectators, becoming just the fifth and sixth games in league history to do that.

With that flurry of talent and support from the spectators, Fever will set out to cross the first-round hurdle on Sunday. It remains to be seen who reigns supreme in this battle of defense vs. offense.