Fever coach Stephanie White hints at Caitlin Clark plan amid WNBA punishment

It was a successful day in the office for Indiana Fever head coach Stephanie White. This was after the Fever handily defeated the Connecticut Sun in a 123-88 blowout at Gainbridge Fieldhouse.

Caitlin Clark led the charge for Indiana, scoring a game-high 27 points on 8-of-13 shooting. The former Iowa Hawkeyes standout also registered 11 assists, two rebounds and five three-pointers in 27 minutes of action.

Clark, however, received a technical foul late in the third quarter. She had a heated exchange with Sun guard Saniya Rivers, which prompted double techs. The downside here is that this was Clark’s seventh technical foul of the season. She is now just one away from an automatic one-game suspension.

Indiana Fever guard Caitlin Clark (22) in the first half against the New York Liberty.

Stephanie White comments on Caitlin Clark’s looming suspension

The Fever improved to 17-10 after Wednesday’s win. They are now heading into the All-Star break. They return to action on Wednesday to resume the second half of the season with a home matchup against the Seattle Storm.

Including the Storm game, Indiana still has 17 games to play in the regular season. Clark will need to be extremely careful not to get a technical in any of those games to avoid WNBA punishment.

Coach White, however, has other plans in mind.

“Anybody who thinks that I plan to be strategic about technical fouls is crazy,” said the Fever coach. “No, she’s just got to pick and choose, right? She’s got to pick and choose, and it’s every two after that.”

As White said, it’s going to be another one-game suspension for Clark if she gets to 10, 12, 14 technical fouls, and so on. This is exactly why the former WNBA Coach of the Year hinted at Clark potentially picking which game she’d like to miss — at least after her eighth technical.

“The biggest thing is she knows,” White continued. “She has awareness about it. We’ll try to help her when we can, but sometimes we can’t.

“If she wants to be strategic about which game she doesn’t want to play, then she’ll let her fly.”

White seems to believe that there’s very little chance Clark will be able to avoid getting another technical foul from now until the end of the season. This is exactly why she suggested a more methodical approach in navigating the looming WNBA suspension.