Rebecca Lobo Cries Foul For Caitlin Clark As Dallas Wings Allowed Physicality Illegally

Caitlin Clark shrugged off overly physical play from the Dallas Wings to post 14 points and 13 assists as Rebecca Lobo was miffed by officials.

Rebecca Lobo Cries Foul For Caitlin Clark As Dallas Wings Allowed Physicality Illegally

Indiana Fever point guard Caitlin Clark (Image via FirstSportz)

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Caitlin Clark and Paige Bueckers, the two most popular woman’s basketball players of our time, met on the professional stage for the first time in their careers on Sunday morning in a Fever home game. Dallas hung with the Fever for the first quarter, but were outgunned in a landslide second quarter meltdown. It finished as a blowout 102-83 win for Caitlin Clark and co, who moved to a 11-10 record for the season.

Both Caitlin Clark and Paige Bueckers had stellar individual showings in different ways. Clark was masterful as a playmaker, setting up Aliyah Boston, Kelsey Mitchell, Natasha Howard and Sophie Cunningham repeatedly with easy layups and open shots. Bueckers, who only had Li Yueru as a consistent running mate this game, had an efficient 20-point game despite the Wings’ loss on the road.

The Fever star, however, had a rough shooting night, caused partly by the amount of contact that the Dallas defenders were allowed to play with while defending her. Clark finished the game shooting only 4-12 – her third consecutive subpar shooting game. She did have 14 points and 13 assists in the game, but the officiating was objectively terrible.

ESPN announcers Ryan Ruocco and Rebecca Lobo were both flabbergasted by how the referees allowed Wings defenders JJ Quinerly and Myisha Hines-Allen to get away with on Clark. There was a sequence during the first quarter when Hines-Allen had three different obvious fouls go uncalled while defending. Rebecca Lobo minced no words while describing the state of officiating during the replay for the above play.

Look at the ballhandler. There’s a grab, there’s a hold. There’s another grab. I mean, all of those are fouls. Every single one of them. And here, that’s a foul and finally they call it.

This was far from an isolated occurrence in this game, or indeed, this season. The referees are officiating Caitlin Clark with the kind of stringency that Stephen Curry faces in the NBA. Neither of these sharpshooters get any calls when they try to navigate screens off the ball and are met with handsy plays and illegal screen navigation from their defenders, who push them off balance constantly.

Caitlin Clark has been in an extended shooting slump this season

Caitlin Clark’s 2025 WNBA season has been marked by a significant shooting slump, particularly from three-point range, where her performance has dropped notably compared to her rookie year and college career. Through the first part of the 2025 season, Clark is shooting just 28.9% from three-point range. This is a sharp decline from her rookie year 34.4% mark and her 37.5% college average at Iowa.

Caitlin Clark
Caitlin Clark (Nike)

Over her last four games before the Wings faceoff, including a return from a groin injury, she’s hit only 3-of-28 three-pointers (10.7%), marking the worst four-game stretch with a minimum of 25 attempts in WNBA history. Specifically, in games from June 19 to July 10, she went 1-for-23 from beyond the arc (4.3%), including 0-for-7 against the Golden State Valkyries and 1-for-10 against the Las Vegas Aces.

Even in her best recent performance on July 10 against the Valkyries, she shot 2-for-5 from three but was 4-for-12 overall, indicating broader shooting struggles. Indiana has benefited a lot from her playmaking and her ability to get Aliyah Boston and Kelsey Mitchell easy buckets. But Clark, unlike Paige Bueckers, does not have a dominant scoring game, especially from the mid-range and from inside the paint – something for her to work on.

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