Valkyries coach unlocks Caitlin Clark defense secret: 'She doesn't like physicality'
Valkyries coach unlocks Caitlin Clark defense secret: 'She doesn't like physicality'
Did the Golden State Valkyries unlock a way to shut down Caitlin Clark in the win over the Indiana Fever? I'm honestly not sure that's possible given that she's a near-20 ppg scorer, but perhaps other WNBA teams will take a page out of their book in the future.
Valkyries head coach Natalie Nakase spoke about what her team did to slow down Clark, and her response was very specific: "We were being disruptive, we know she doesn't like physicality, right? We know that she wants to get to that left stepback.'
She spoke about watching her at Iowa and that left stepback -- "it's almost like a layup for her" -- and taking Clark out of her rhythm:
It's two straight games in a row that Clark has faced physical play after the Fever-Sun game in which she got hit across the face. If other teams are going to defend her physically, the question then becomes how she fights through that.
We'll see if this becomes more of a theme throughout the season with opposing teams, or if that strategy was a one-game anomaly. As we've seen, it's not easy to defend her and completely shut her down, physicality or not.
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