Fever guard Caitlin Clark made sure the referee saw her bloody tooth after she caught an elbow to the face and no foul was called in Thursday’s deciding Game 3 against the Aces.
With three minutes left in the fourth quarter and the Fever trailing by five, Clark took an elbow from Aces guard Jewell Loyd while fighting for a rebound under the basket.
Clark immediately grabbed her mouth and had to be attended to on the baseline.
As she went back to the locker room, she waved her finger in the air, seemingly calling for a review of the play.
When she returned, Clark approached a referee and blatantly pointed at her bloody mouth as she argued the non-call.
Fever head coach Stephanie White was furious and called a timeout after Clark got hit.
“Steph White calls time because the play would not have been stopped otherwise,” one of the broadcasters said. “… And White is not happy that the officials missed something.”
After a 94-83 season-ending loss to the defending champion Aces, White focused on the free throw disparity.
“It’s a game of the margins,” White said. “They had 35 free throws and we had 20.”
A stone-faced Clark responded, “Hmm, interesting.”
The 2024 WNBA Rookie Rookie of the Year scored 11 points in the first quarter and was held to seven for the remainder of the game.
This is the second straight year Las Vegas has ended the Fever’s season, although last year’s clash came in the semifinals.
Las Vegas will play the winner of the Golden State-Dallas series, with the deciding Game 3 being played in San Francisco on Friday.
