The WNBA's opening weekend has been chock-full of drama, especially in Saturday's first game featuring the Indiana Fever and the Dallas Wings.
The four most recent No. 1 overall picks took the court during the contest, including Aliyah Boston (2023), Caitlin Clark (2024), Paige Bueckers (2025), and Azzi Fudd (2026), and the game gave us everything we wanted and more.
It was a back-and-forth game featuring two premier guards in Clark and Bueckers, and they both lived up to the billing. Clark finished with 20 points, five rebounds, and seven assists, while Bueckers finished with 20 points, three rebounds, and four assists as the Wings outlasted the Fever 107-104.
Clark believes she was very close to having a really good game
It was a record-setting night across the board, becoming the first season-opening game in WNBA history with both teams scoring over 100 points.
Clark also had a record-setting night, and she believed she was extremely close to having a breakout performance.
She became the fastest player in WNBA history to record 1,000-plus points, 250-plus rebounds, and 250-plus assists, but it wasn't enough to beat the new-look Dallas Wings.
Clark had some amazing moments throughout the game, including a behind-the-back assist, but she was plagued by inconsistency.
She did almost notch a double-double, but shot 39 percent from the field and 22 percent from beyond the arc, and racked up five turnovers in the loss.
According to the Atlantic, Clark stated that she was "literally a couple of buckets away" from putting together a really good game and helping her team win.
It was encouraging, but there are definitely some things to clean up before the Fever's next game against the Los Angeles Sparks on May 19.
Clark is definitely back, but maybe not all the way back
While her first game back for the Fever was encouraging, Clark was definitely a little rusty, and a few moments on the sideline were definitely a scare for fans.
She went to the Fever locker room multiple times, but head coach Stephanie White played it off as nothing, saying they wouldn't have played her 30-plus minutes if she wasn't ok.
Clark also played it off, saying she was just getting a back adjustment, but after her injury-riddled 2025 season, it is definitely something to keep an eye on.
It isn't clear whether Clark was suffering from some kind of ailment or just ran out of gas down the stretch, but she was visibly slow to get back on defense multiple times and couldn't stop Odyssey Simms from scoring with 35 seconds left.
Simms' basket was a deciding factor because it put the Wings up five late in the game.
Kelsey Mitchell was also the player tasked with taking the final shot of the game, not Clark, which could also point to some issues.
Overall, it was a solid game for Clark, and if a few more of her attempts had found the bottom of the net, we'd be having a whole different conversation about the outcome.
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