Connecticut Sun guard Djonai Carrington denied she intentionally poked Caitlin Clark‘s eye, which left the Indiana Fever rookie sensation with a black eye in Game 1 of their WNBA playoff series.
“I don’t even know why I would intend to hit anybody in the eye,” Carrington told reporters following the Sun’s practice on September 24. “It doesn’t even make sense to me. But no, I didn’t. I didn’t know I hit her actually. I was trying to make a play on the ball.”
Caitlin Clark gets poked in the eye 😬
The incident happened in the early moments of the first quarter. No foul was called in the play.
Another angle of the play in slow motion made the rounds on X, formerly Twitter, showing Carrington’s fingers made a swift motion toward the eye of Clark.
Clark did not use the incident for her ugly shooting performance in their 93-69 Game 1 loss to the Sun.
“Obviously, she got me pretty good in the eye,” Clark told reporters after the loss. “I don’t think it affected me. I got good shots, they didn’t go down. It’s a tough time for that to happen.”
Clark scored only 11 points on a measly 4 of 17 shooting, including a disappointing 2 of 13 from the 3-point range.
The Fever rookie guard said she missed a wide open 3-pointer in the first half that she normally made.
Even with a black eye and a bad loss, Clark still tried to focus on the positive things she did.
“I took care of ball better than I usually do (tying her season-low with 2 turnovers).’ Clark said. “We were down 3 at the end of the first (quarter), down 5 (more) in the second quarter and lost the third quarter by 3.”
Caitlin Clark’s WNBA Debut Tops Last Season’s Finals Viewership
Clark’s WNBA playoff debut drew a historic 1.8 million viewership, according to The Athletic’s Andrew Marchand.
For a better perspective, last season’s WNBA Finals between the Las Vegas Aces and New York Liberty averaged 728,000 viewers, the most-watched WNBA Finals in 20 years, per ESPN.
The ratings for Clark’s WNBA playoff debut exceeded those for her regular-season games by more than 600,000 viewers.
Fox executive Michael Mulvihill reported that Clark’s games on TV during the regular season averaged 1.178 million viewers, per The New York Post. Clark’s games tripled the viewers for all other WNBA games, which drew an average of 394,000.
According to Associated Press’ Tim Reynolds, Fever games around the league averaged 16,084 attendance per game while non-Fever games only drew 8,552 per game, a stark 88% difference.
Game 2 is September 25 at the Mohegan Sun Arena, which is expected to draw bigger viewership with Clark looking to rebound and keep the Fever alive in the best-of-three playoff series.
Sun Torched Fever’s Defense in Game 1
The Sun connected on 49.3% of their shots, with trade deadline acquisition Marina Mabrey sparking Connecticut’s offense.
Mabrey toyed around the Fever defense to deliver 27 points, the most by any WNBA player who came off the bench in a playoff game. The Sun’s 5-foot-11 guard hit five 3-pointers as she made the most out of her opportunity in the series opener.
“Our defense could have been a little bit better,” Clark told reporters after the loss. “Obviously, Marina gets hot and she’s a really good player, but I had a few lapses on the defensive end. As a shooter, once you see two in a row go in, the basket looks huge. So you can’t allow that.”
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Sun Guard Breaks Silence After Causing Caitlin Clark’s Black Eye