Caitlin Clark struggles with shooting, lose 93-69

UNCASVILLE, Conn. — The Indiana Fever dropped its first playoff game against the Connecticut Sun, 93-69, on Sunday afternoon at Mohegan Sun Arena.

In a game that lost flow for the Fever early, Indiana is now 0-1 against the Sun in the playoffs in the best-of-3 series. Connecticut could clinch the game as early as Wednesday at Mohegan Sun Arena. The Fever would bring the series to Indianapolis on Friday with a win Wednesday.

Here are three observations:

Fever score:Fever vs Sun game recap: Caitlin Clark struggles as Fever lose Game 1

Caitlin Clark gets poked in eye, struggles with shot

Just 90 seconds into the game, Caitlin Clark was down on the court. She fell to the ground after she was poked in the eye by Sun guard DiJonai Carrington, grabbing her face in obvious pain. Clark didn’t leave the game; she went back to the bench for a quick moment after Indiana called a timeout, then collected herself and continued playing.

But that could be the reason she struggled from the field in the first half. She was playing in obvious pain — the ABC broadcast showed a black eye forming on Clark’s right eye by halftime.

Unusually, she did not make a 3-pointer the entire first half, and came out of the first 20 minutes with just three points. She was 1-of-9 from the field and 0-of-6 from 3-point range.

She started to recover in the third quarter, making two 3-pointers and a layup to bring her point total up to 11. But the Sun were doing what they needed to do; preventing both her and Kelsey Mitchell from getting hot at the 3-point line. Clark finished 4-of-17 from the field, 2-of-13 on 3s.

Fever struggle with questionable calls, shot clock issues in first half

Carrington’s poke of Clark’s eye was not called a foul, despite the protests from teammates and fans. That wasn’t the only questionable call the Fever had in the first half, either; they used their challenge 45 seconds into the game to protest a foul that was called on Aliyah Boston when she wasn’t near the play. That challenge was successful, and the foul switched to Lexie Hull.

There were multiple instances that head coach Christie Sides thought a foul wasn’t called. At one point, the referee needed to push her off the court when she was arguing a non-call. Sides picked up a technical foul later in the first half when referees called Hull out of bounds on the baseline. Erica Wheeler needed to hold Sides back from talking to the referees more after that tech.

On top of that, the Fever’s transition game, the up-tempo offense they like to play, was affected by intermittent shot clock issues. On three occasions in the first half, the shot clock did not start when the Fever gained possession. It put unnecessary stoppages in the game, affecting their flow and the style of play they have.

Damiris Dantas gets double-digits off the bench

Fever backup center Damiris Dantas one of four players on the Fever team that has playoff experience coming into this season, and she has the most of all of them — eight games in the playoffs, contributing to the Minnesota Lynx’s 2015 title run.

She plays as a stretch four, backing up Aliyah Boston and NaLyssa Smith. Over the second half of the season, her play has gotten her more and more minutes, and that was the same on Sunday.

Dantas drained two 3-pointers in the first half, keeping the Fever in the game at the time. She had 10 points by halftime on 3-of-5 shooting, and by being a 3-point threat, she effectively spaces out the Fever offense.

Dantas played 23 minutes in the Fever’s loss for 12 points, eclipsing Smith’s nine minutes.