Why the Caitlin Clark-Angel Reese incident was a ‘basketball play that got supercharged’ | NBA Today

Why the Caitlin Clark-Angel Reese incident was a ‘basketball play that got supercharged’ | NBA Today

The WNBA season is underway. Caitlyn Clark and the Fever open their season hosting Angel Reese in the Chicago Sky. We’re going to pick this one up in the first here just under two minutes in. Clark dribbles up the court, hits the three. This is what the Fever crowd was here to see. A deep three there from Caitlyn Clark. And then the closing seconds of the half again. Dribbles left and hits that three. The Fever up 15 at the break here. Going ahead to the third quarter. Indiana up by 10 here. Look at this. Clark just a terrific no look but or back door pass rather to Natasha Howard for the layup. Let’s see that one one more time. Threading the needle there. Clark to Natasha Howard. And then a few minutes later, this one is the play that everybody is talking about. All right, Angel Reese gets the offensive board here. But watch Clark foul to keep the two points off the board. She said afterward, Ree immediately gets back up and then Clark’s holding her hands up. Just take one more look at the play. Clark would be assessed a flagrant on the play and then Angel Reese would get a tech. Aaliyah Boston also gets a technical foul on this play. A little bit perplexed by it maybe, but there’s still more game to be played and that’s what’s important. After the dust settled, finishing the job, step back three. By the way, she had a triple double. 20 points, 10 rebounds, 10 assists. The fever roll. Here’s Clark after the game on that back and forth with Angel Reese. We watch a lot of basketball. You It’s a take foul to put them at the free throw line or rather give up two points. You know, I’ve watched a lot of basketball in my life. That’s exactly what it was. I wasn’t trying to do anything malicious. That’s not the type of player I am. So, um, yeah, this wasn’t anything like that. And I went for the ball and that’s clear as day in the in the replay. You watch it. You know, it shouldn’t have been upgraded. But again, that’s up to the ref’s discretion. Hey, can you take us through the flavor ball from your perspective? Uh, just what you saw in that play out, interpreted, what have you. Basketball player, refs got it right. Go on. Okay. After the game, the WNBA did release a statement on a hateful fan comment that was directed at Angel Ree and it said that the WNBA strongly condemns racism, hate, and discrimination in all forms. They have no place in our league or in society. We’re aware of the allegations and we are looking into the matter. All right. There’s no one whose perspective I would like more on this than our Chengum. Shane, what was your reaction to the play in question? Because it feels like that’s what everyone is talking about today rather than the awesome play that we saw over the weekend. First of all, I appreciate the WNBA for having that statement, creating a task force and standing on their standards. But when it comes to that exact play, in the words of Perk, keep a cool booty. It was a basketball play that got supercharged because of the players involved. And if you see the sequence, Angel Reese pushes Natasha Howard in the back. Caitlyn was flabbergasted and obviously reacted with a no free buckets type of foul that had some extra sauce on it and that’s why she was assessed and that was upgraded. And obviously whenever these types of situations happened, I’m not going to lie, this happened to me multiple times almost every game getting pushed in the back. You know, I’d get up, I’d turn around and I’d be willing to fight. I’m like, what? What in the world? No, that is not cool. That’s what Angel did. That emotional reaction could have escalated the situation, which is why she was upgraded in that situation. So, I look at this and I saw a circumstance in the New York Liberty uh Las Vegas Aces game between Jonquil Jones and Chelsea Gray. I went to Moheaggan. I saw a similar situation that happened between Marina maybe Shakira Austin and Dybe like that were that were all like just tustling. This is the WNBA. It is physical. And you heard it from Caitlyn Clark and Angel Reese. If they are unbothered about this this play that that situation, then we should be too. It’s just hoops. If the players are unbothered, we should be unbothered. I love what you said about that earlier. And what I know is if someone pushed down Chana Agum, she was absolutely coming with a side of extra sauce. What do you say we get to some of the basketball that we saw this weekend? Because Jana, the Fever, they looked pretty unstoppable here. Let’s take a listen together to what Clark had to say about this team’s chemistry. I think we’re still finding our chemistry together. It doesn’t feel perfect out there yet. Um, I think we’re still continuing to grow when we don’t have things in transition. How can we flow a little bit better? How can we set our teammates up for success in the half court? Um, but I mean we just have so many weapons and that’s what’s so fun. It’s like you swing it to the other side, okay? Like you got DB, you got Kelis on the other side, you got Tosh, you got AB, like there’s just so many options for us to go to and um I think just continuing to learn how to put our teammates in positions to be successful is what’s really going to make us a great team. The Fever, they have high expectations this year. Chené, what do you see as their ceiling and what are the steps to be able to get there? We’re still finding our chemistry, sis. That was the biggest win that the India Indiana Fever have ever had. A 35point win. They made history. She made history with a triple double 20110 and 10. And Dana Bonner, speaking of those weapons, also made history with her seven points, moving up to number three all time in the WNBA following Diana Terasi and Tina Charles. Look, this is a team that is still trying to put the pieces together. It’s new. It’s only been one game, but still, they have shown that they are lethal. They have all stars. They have championship experience. They have reigning rookies of the year. They’ve got it all. They just have to do the work. But I love what I I have seen so far from the Fever. And they went out there and they got the veterans that they needed to in order to be able to truly make the steps to be contenders. And we didn’t even see Sophie Cunningham in that game against Chicago Sky. So there’s still more that we could see here from the Fever. It’s time to take it coast to coast now Chana because we got a lot more WF action to get to. The Liberty, they raised their first ever championship banner on Saturday. Then they had a statement win overcoming 31 points from the reigning MVP Asia Wilson to beat the Aces 92 to 78. Did the Liberty look every part of the favorites to repeat Chana? Oh, 100,000%. Natasha Cloud is the new X factor. We already knew the Liberty were one of the best offensive teams, the best passing team. Now, they added a defensive dog who in their debut it was nearly flawless. 22 points, I believe, like nine assists, six or so rebounds. It could not have gone more perfectly, not only for Cloud, but also a chance to repeat. How about Paige Beckers? Wasted no time. Chenet getting on the board in her WNBA debut, scoring the wing’s first points of the season. But it was Nfi Saka Collier who stole the show, dropping 34 in the links win. Chené, is this just the start of the revenge tour for Fee? Are you smelling maybe an MVP? Look, I I absolutely am. I think right now it’s Nfisa Collier that are a lot of favorites and also Caitlyn Clark. If you think about it, Asia Wilson as well, but Fee every year she adds to her game in her bag. She’s one of the most unguardable players in the W. We’re going to hear from Nfisa. She’s going to join us later on NBA today.

On NBA Today, Chiney Ogwumike reacts to the incident between Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese during the game between the Chicago Sky and the Indiana Fever.

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