Caitlin Clark injury update: Fever make major announcement on status for Commissioner's Cup championship

On Tuesday, the Indiana Fever announced Caitlin Clark will miss her third consecutive game with a left groin injury and not play in Tuesday’s Commissioner’s Cup championship game against the Lynx. Clark is averaging 18.2 points, 5.0 rebounds and 8.9 assists per game this season.

The game on Tuesday will be Clark’s eighth missed appearance this season due to injury. Clark also missed five consecutive games from May 28 to June 10 due to a quad injury.

Due to her intermittent injuries, Clark hasn’t found a rhythm on the hardwood yet this season. Clark’s efficiency is particularly suffering from her injuries. She is only shooting 39.7% from the field and 29.5% from beyond the arc this season, compared to her 41.7% and 34.4% splits last season.

Some analysts believes Clark’s slump isn’t simply due to injuries. This past week, Skip Bayless tore into Clark for her recent troubles from deep.

“Looking at Caitlin’s impact, she has plummeted to 55th of 61 qualified 3-point shooters in the WNBA,” Bayless said. “She’s at 29.5%. That is horrendously bad. She is tied for the league lead in assists per game, no surprise there. But, she is running away with the turnover lead. She actually has five more total turnovers than Angel Reese, who is second.”

The Fever are 5-4 when Clark is healthy this season and 4-4 without the WNBA All-Star. Clark made headlines on Monday after her fellow WNBA players voted her as just the ninth-best guard in the league.

The WNBA All-Star votes are comprised of three groups: fans, media and current players. Although Clark didn’t receive the utmost respect from other WNBA players, she was No. 1 in the fan vote and No. 3 in the media vote.

Clark wasn’t even the highest-ranked guard on her own team. That honor went to Kelsey Mitchell, who received the sixth-most votes among league players. Other surprises included Natasha Cloud and rookie Paige Bueckers tying for the fourth-most votes.

Some outsiders believe that Clark’s lack of votes from her contemporaries was due to jealousy, not her play on the court. On Monday, sportscasting legend Dick Vitale called out WNBA players for not voting more for Clark.

“Absolutely PURE JEALOUSY that ⁦[WNBA] players voted Caitlin Clark the 9th best guard,” Vitale wrote. “Someday they will realize what she Has done for ALL of the players in the WNBA. Chartered planes – increase in salaries-sold out crowds – improved TV Ratings.”