Sides after Fever loss: Clark has to shoot more

Indiana Fever guard Caitlin Clark is leading all WNBA rookies in scoring (16.2 PPG) and assists (6.6) as well as field goals made (4.9) and attempted (12.2). After Thursday night’s 89-77 loss at Seattle, Fever coach Christie Sides said she wants Clark to shoot the ball even more.

“Caitlin Clark needs to shoot a minimum of 15 shots a game for us,” Sides said. “She’s got to get shots, and we’ve got to do a better job of setting her up, setting some really good screens for her to get her open.”

On Thursday, Clark led the Fever with 15 points on 4-of-9 shooting from the field, including 3-of-7 from behind the arc, and went 4-of-5 from the foul line. She also had 7 assists and 6 rebounds.

Post players Aliyah Boston (5-of-16, 11 points) and NaLyssa Smith (5-of-11, 12 points) led the Fever in shot attempts against the Storm, and guard Kelsey Mitchell was 5-of-10 for 14 points.

Clark is second on the Fever this season in shot attempts, behind Mitchell’s 13.4 per game. During her four-year Iowa career, she averaged 20.1 shots per game, with a high of 22.7 in her senior season.

While Clark currently leads all WNBA rookies in shot attempts, she is 22nd overall in the league. Dallas guard Arike Ogunbowale leads the WNBA with 21.8 shot attempts per game.

Other true guards who average more shots than Clark are Seattle’s Jewell Loyd (17.5) and Skylar Diggins-Smith (13.5), Las Vegas’ Kelsey Plum (15.9) and Jackie Young (14.7), New York’s Sabrina Ionescu (15.3), Phoenix’s Diana Taurasi (13.7), Chicago’s Marina Mabrey (13.6), Washington’s Ariel Atkins (13.0) and Atlanta’s Rhyne Howard (12.5) and Allisha Gray (12.4).

Of those 12 guards, all but Ogunbowale, Mabrey and Mitchell either are Olympians for the upcoming Paris Games or have competed in past Olympics.

Loyd, who is headed to her second Olympics next month, stole the show Thursday night with 34 points on 10-of-15 shooting. The No. 1 draft pick in 2015, she has won two WNBA titles with the Storm and was last season’s scoring leader at 24.7 points per game.

So it’s an elite group of guards that Clark is working her way into just 19 games into her WNBA career. She talked about Indiana’s offensive challenges after Thursday’s loss, in which the Fever had 20 turnovers, six from Clark, to 21 assists.

“We played out of a lot of ball screens tonight,” Clark said. “So when you’re getting doubled on a ball screen, you’re always going to give it up. It should create an advantage for us 4-on-3 attacking the basket. But I didn’t think we played too well out of our ball screens tonight.

“I could definitely be a little more aggressive to the basket. But I think I’m just going to try to take what the defense gives me and try to set my teammates up for success, too.”

Clark has been blitzed a lot on ball screens this season, which Sides acknowledged.

“The way people guard her, it’s tough,” Sides said. “Once the ball is out of her hands, she is setting up the rest of our team for some really great looks. She’s getting some pretty good looks [for herself] off the ball. But we like her on the ball, so we have to figure out how to manage the two.”