Fever fans watched Caitlin Clark make her return to the lineup on Wednesday night, but the story of this one had nothing to do with her comeback. Indiana's defense simply fell apart in Los Angeles.

The Sparks put up 106 points on a Fever team that couldn't find answers all night, and Lexie Hull didn't hold back afterward.

"Defense is ultimately a five-person job. We do a great job at times of switching, helping each other, and playing on a string. That will only get better as the season progresses, but tonight, letting the other team score 106 points, I don't think our defense was that great," Hull said while speaking with the media following the loss.

Hull's frustration made sense given the numbers. Los Angeles shot an efficient clip all night, got 46 combined points from Rae Burrell and Nneka Ogwumike, and this marked the eighth time this season Indiana has allowed 100 or more points, a mark now tied for third-most in WNBA history.

That defensive breakdown carried a ripple effect, and Kelsey Mitchell pointed to how it wrecked the offense too.

"I think we shot ourselves in the foot because we couldn't find a decent offensive flow, and that's a testament to how bad our defense was," Mitchell said while speaking with the media after the game.

The interpretation of the game from Mitchell was correct since Indiana sat through almost four minutes of the second quarter with no points while the Sparks came back with a 16-2 run.

Besides the bad defense from Indiana, Clark had her own problems with the game too. Her highly anticipated return was not what she expected it to be.

Caitlin Clark Opens Up On Her Restricted Return

Clark's comeback lasted just 16 minutes, and the stop-start nature of her playing time left her searching for any real rhythm on the floor. She finished with nine points in the loss.

"It's just really hard when you're playing three minutes, sub out, three minutes, three minutes, then you're on the bench," Clark told IndyStar. "It's really, really hard to get into a flow."

"I probably didn't get to have a feel for the game as I usually do. It's just really, really hard for me to play in that scenario. I won't be available in Phoenix, solely because of minute restriction and my progression back," she said.

Clark's words explained why her impact felt limited against the Sparks. The constant substitutions never let her settle in, and now she'll sit out Thursday's matchup against the Mercury as Indiana manages her workload carefully during this stretch of the schedule.

Do you think Clark's minutes restriction will hurt Indiana's chances down the stretch? Comment down below.

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Written by

Utsav Gupta

Edited by

Utsav Gupta