Following Indiana Fever setting multiple new franchise and WNBA records, including scoring 100 points in four straight games and doing so 12 times in a single season, the conversation has centered around their offensive prowess and defensive holes. However, WNBA reporter Erica L. Ayala thinks Caitlin Clark and Aliyah Boston deserve to be one ingredient often gets overlooked: playmaking.
“I think some of these names should not be very surprising. Maybe a surprise or some players that are criminally underrated on this list as well,” Ayala said on We Need to Talk before revealing the league’s top five in assists per game.
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Phoenix Mercury forward Alyssa Thomas currently leads the WNBA at 8.3 assists per game, followed by Caitlin Clark (7.9), Atlanta Dream guard Jordin Canada (7.7), and Las Vegas Aces teammates Chelsea Gray (7.3) and Jackie Young (6.6). While Ayala praised the entire group, she made it clear that the conversation couldn’t end with individual numbers alone.
“I want to pick Caitlin Clark and Aliyah Boston because we also have been looking at duos as a part of this conversation,” she added while talking about her connector pick for the guarantee of the week. “That might be, wink-wink, something that we talk about in an upcoming show. And when it comes to pick-and-roll duos, I mean, Aliyah Boston and Caitlin Clark, come on now. That’s solid. That’s solid right there. It is solid.”
The Indiana Fever currently sit at 18-10 on the season, and their longest winning streak is just four games. Now, for a team ESPN has given the best odds to win this year’s championship, that doesn’t exactly inspire much confidence. But if there’s one area where Indiana has consistently excelled, it’s on the offensive end, and much of that starts with the chemistry between Caitlin Clark and Aliyah Boston.
That inside-out connection has been one of the major reasons the Fever are leading the league with 95.8 points per game. Clark’s ability to stretch defenses well beyond the three-point line has made her pick-and-roll play with Boston one of the WNBA’s toughest actions to defend. Defenders are often forced to commit extra attention to the Fever guard, leaving Boston with favorable looks around the rim or space to make plays of her own.
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But a massive share of the credit also belongs to Kelsey Mitchell, who is leading the Fever with 23.5 points per game and has provided another reliable scoring outlet alongside Caitlin Clark and Boston. And it’s this balance of scoring and playmaking that has helped Indiana build the league’s most explosive offense.
On an individual level, Alyssa Thomas may be setting the standard, while players like Jordin Canada, Chelsea Gray and Jackie Young continue to orchestrate elite offenses in their own ways. But when the focus shifted to the partnerships finishing those plays, Ayala didn’t hesitate to spotlight Clark and Boston.
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The post “Want To Pick Caitlin Clark”: WNBA Reporter Voices Thoughts Over ‘Criminally Underrated’ Reality Surrounding Alyssa Thomas & Others appeared first on EssentiallySports. Add EssentiallySports as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
