Caitlin Clark will not serve an automatic one-game suspension after the WNBA rescinded her eighth technical foul of the season. The ruling wipes out the disciplinary trigger that would have kept her out of the Indiana Fever's game against the New York Liberty on Aug. 11.
The timing mattered because Clark had picked up the technical on Saturday, Aug. 8, during the Fever's 90-86 road win over the Chicago Sky. With 1:06 left in the third quarter and Indiana leading 69-60, she was dribbling along the baseline when Natasha Cloud bumped her under the basket. The contact sent Clark out of bounds into a nearby official, and she was assessed a technical foul.
Clark did not sound certain it would stand. She said the official told her she ran into her, but added that she had already watched the play on tape and believed it was not intentional. Stephanie White called it a bad call and said the team planned to appeal. White also said officials told the Fever that Clark intentionally sought out the official and threw the forearm, a description that clashed with what Clark and White said they saw on the floor.
Under WNBA rules, an eighth technical foul in the regular season normally brings an automatic one-game suspension, with every two additional technicals triggering another one-game absence. If the call had held, Clark would have missed Aug. 11. Instead, the league's rescission means the matter is settled for now in her favor, and Clark said after the game that she hoped to play on Tuesday.
The same game carried another flashpoint. DiJonai Carrington was assessed a flagrant 2 foul and ejected after colliding at the basket with Sophie Cunningham and getting into a heated confrontation with her, an incident that unfolded with about two minutes left in the first quarter on ABC. But the only ruling that changed Clark's immediate future was the one the league took back, and that left her available when the Fever needed her most.
