Caitlin Clark, Angel Reese make pro debuts as WNBA preseason begins

WNBA fever is within the air, and followers lastly acquired to see Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese swimsuit up as professionals for the primary time Friday night time because the temporary league preseason begins. Clark and Reese had been standouts in school, with the previous breaking the NCAA Division I scoring report and the latter main LSU to an NCAA title in 2023. 

Clark’s Indiana Fever took on the Dallas Wings in Arlington, whereas Reese’s Chicago Sky traveled to Minneapolis to play the Minnesota Lynx. 

Clark missed a possible game-tying 3-pointer on the buzzer because the Fever misplaced to the Wings 79-76. Regardless of the loss, Clark was the workforce’s main scorer, ending with 21 factors on 6-of-15 from the sphere, together with 5 3-pointers, together with three rebounds and two assists in 28 minutes. 

Reese additionally walked away from her preseason debut with no win because the Sky fell to the Lynx 81-92. Reese completed with 13 factors and 9 rebounds in 24 minutes. 

The WNBA initially indicated, incorrectly because it turned out, that every one its preseason video games can be obtainable on WNBA League Go. 

“Apologies! Our App is incorrectly displaying that each preseason sport (together with CHI vs MIN) is out there on League Go. However you *can* watch IND vs DAL tonight in a FREE preview of WNBA League Go on the WNBA App,” the WNBA posted to social media lower than half an hour earlier than tip off. 

Whereas the Fever sport streamed without cost on the WNBA app as marketed, the Sky vs. Lynx showdown was unavailable anyplace — formally, that’s.

A Lynx fan on the sport got here by means of within the clutch, hosting a livestream which garnered over 170,000 viewers by the fourth quarter.

The Wings introduced on social media final week that tickets to the sport in Arlington had offered out. Clark, the primary total choose on this yr’s WNBA draft, shall be coming to city alongside Aaliyah Boston, final yr’s high draft choose and unanimous rookie of the yr.

The Fever haven’t made the playoffs since 2016, and at present sit within the ninth spot in CBS Sports activities’ energy rankings. The Sky, who drafted Reese with the seventh choose, rank lifeless final out of the 12 WNBA groups. Reese’s LSU was eradicated by Clark on this yr’s NCAA Match.

Reese is not the one rookie Chicago is hoping will flip their workforce round. The workforce spent the third choose on 6-foot-7 Kamilla Cardoso, who led the College of South Carolina to a championship over Clark’s Hawkeyes in April.

Daybreak Staley, Cardoso’s coach, credited Clark because the “sole purpose” why viewership in girls’s basketball has grown not too long ago in an interview with 670 The Rating final month. The championship sport netted 18.9 million viewers per ESPN, essentially the most seen school basketball sport ever on the community.

“She’s the best of her time. I need girls’s basketball to develop, and I am not too shy about saying why it grows. She’s made it develop over the previous two years,” Staley mentioned within the interview.

The WNBA preseason will proceed till subsequent Friday, with the common season tip-off on Could 14.