Caitlin Clark is known for her fire and emotion on the basketball court, but instead of that leading to her first career win with the Indiana Fever, she received her first career technical foul instead. 

The Fever remain winless on the year, falling to the Connecticut Sun for the second time already, 88-84, but this one came down to the wire when every possession counted. 

However, Clark’s temper flared with 3:41 left in the fourth quarter with the Fever up one point, as she appeared to curse in the direction of a referee, leading to an immediate whistle and a technical foul called on her. 

“It’s a f—ing foul,” Clark appeared to bark at one of the officials after she was called for a transition take foul following a turnover, which the Sun’s Alyssa Thomas caused on the other end of the floor. 

Clark felt she got fouled by Thomas prior to her steal, and then the transition take foul did not help how she felt when she attempted to slow down Connecticut on the other end. 

The technical foul led to one free throw for the Sun, which DeWanna Bonner made to tie the game. It was also the last time the Fever held the lead in this one. 

CAITLIN CLARK’S ‘PROBLEMATIC’ POPULARITY COMES FROM ‘RACE AND HER SEXUALITY’: FORMER ESPN HOST

A back-and-forth battle on the scoreboard ultimately ensued, with the Fever tying things up with 30 seconds to play thanks to Clark finding Aliyah Boston, who made a seven-foot jumper to knot things at 84 apiece. 

However, Indiana’s Temi Fagbenle was called for a personal foul on Tyasha Harris with 11.1 left on the clock, leading to two free throws. Harris would drain both of them, giving Connecticut the two-point lead over Indiana. 

Connecticut Sun forward Alyssa Thomas, #25, knocks the ball away from Indiana Fever guard Caitlin Clark, #22, during the second half of an WNBA basketball game on Monday, May 20, 2024, at Gainbridge Fieldhouse. (IMAGN)

On the other end, Boston could not make a driving layup with 7.1 left in the game, and Thomas buried two more free throws to ice the victory for the Sun. 

Clark would finish the game with 17 points, which was tied with Kelsey Mitchell for the team lead in that category. Clark shot 5-of-11 from the field, including 3-of-7 from beyond the arc, with five assists, three rebounds and two blocks as well. 

After the game, Clark knows she should not have reacted the way she did, leading to the technical. 

“Just the technical foul, can’t get that,” Clark told reporters. “A little frustration of how the game was reffed. But it is what it is. That’s out of your control. I thought our team put ourselves in position to make some plays to try and win down the stretch and the Sun always came up with big plays.” 

Earlier in the game, Clark injured her ankle, which certainly gave the Fever and its fans a big scare. However, she would return to the game after needing to come out in the second quarter. 

Indiana Fever guard Caitlin Clark, #22, reacts after being called for a foul during the second half of an WNBA basketball game against the Connecticut Sun on Monday, May 20, 2024 at Gainbridge Fieldhouse. (IMAGN)

Clark and the Fever have not gotten off on the right foot to start the season. They will get another chance to notch that first win on Wednesday, when they head to Seattle to face the Storm. 

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Seven seasons after its MLS debut, LAFC is beginning to show its age.

A team built around young, dynamic South Americans, including Brian Rodríguez, Diego Rossi, Diego Palacios, Francisco Ginella and José Cifuentes, had the youngest starting lineup in the league in 2020. It was a relatively new approach to roster building in a league that had long been mocked as a retirement home for big-name European stars.

And it was wildly successful, with LAFC winning two Supporters’ Shields and reaching two MLS Cup finals and two CONCACAF Champions League finals in six years.

Those five South Americans are all gone, sold for nearly $13 million in transfer fees, and this year’s LAFC roster is the 26th-oldest in the 29-team league. It will grow even older in July when Olivier Giroud, a World Cup champion with France, joins the team on a designated player contract 10 weeks shy of his 38th birthday.

Yet for general manager John Thorrington, the maturing of the team isn’t so much a change of strategy as it is a seizing of opportunities.

“[It’s] adapting to the current climate,” said Thorrington, who certainly knows what he’s doing since he’s the most successful general manager in MLS since 2018.

Changes in MLS budget rules, such as the U-22 initiative, and increases in targeted allocation money have given Thorrington the freedom to spend in different ways. So when Giorgio Chiellini, the 38-year-old captain of the Italian national team, and Gareth Bale, the 32-year-old Welsh captain, became available midway through the 2022 season, LAFC signed both.

Five months later it won an MLS Cup.

Both players have since retired, replaced on this season’s roster by Hugo Lloris, 37, the former captain of the French national team whose 20 World Cup appearances are the most ever by a goalkeeper. Lloris signed for $350,000, less than what 25 MLS keepers will earn this season, a bargain Thorrington said he couldn’t pass up.

Unlike Lloris, Giroud isn’t coming cheap, receiving a designated-player contract that runs through 2025, with an option for 2026. He was reportedly paid $4.76 million in his final season in Milan. Yet unlike Lloris, who didn’t play in his final seven months at Tottenham, Giroud is at the top of his game, with his 14 goals for AC Milan tied for fourth in Italy’s Serie A with a game to play.

“It’s not as though we have abandoned this idea that we are going to invest in young talent that will help us win here and then sell them. That’s a part of what we’ve always done,” said Thorrington, whose team is 6-4-3, good for fifth in the MLS Western Conference standings heading into Tuesday’s U.S. Open Cup round-of-16 match against Loudoun United. “Are you a player-development club or are you going for championships? We don’t see those as mutually exclusive concepts. We are both.”

LAFC’s roster is indeed a mix of young and old. Eight players are under the age of 23, among them teenager David Martínez, the sixth-youngest player to appear in an MLS game this season. Giroud’s arrival after this summer’s European Championship, will give LAFC eight players over 31, among them 39-year-old striker Kei Kamara, the league’s oldest player.

Thorrington is especially high on Martínez, a Venezuelan forward three months past his 18th birthday, while 22-year-old forwards Mateusz Bogusz and Cristian Olivera are tied for second on the team in scoring with four goals each.

As for established players such as Chiellini, Bale, Lloris and Giroud choosing to end their careers with LAFC, Thorrington said that’s a product of the young team’s success, something the team had to build before it could be exploited.

“At the beginning we were a concept,” he said. “Now that people see and feel what LAFC is, those opportunities from top players in Europe with interest in coming here have certainly increased. For us, signing players at economic terms that make sense for us to help us achieve our objectives of winning and also help our young players develop by showing them the right example and what it means to be a pro, that still fits well within our strategic aims as a club.”

When that door opens, more than one player can walk through. Consider that the Arizona-based Elite Athletes Agency, whose founder Jerome Meary was in the social media photo that announced Giroud’s signing last week, also has ties to several European-born players, among them Lloris, Denis Bouanga, Stipe Biuk, Filip Krastev and Maxime Chanot, all of whom have played for LAFC.

Four of those players — Giroud, Bouanga, Lloris and Chanot — were born in France. Lloris, the French national team leader in caps, and Giroud, the team’s all-time leader in goals, played together in the last two World Cup finals, winning the title in 2018. Certainly they all spoke to one another before they wound up together in L.A.

That has fueled rumors another Frenchman, Antoine Griezmann, could be in LAFC’s future. Griezmann, 33, is under contract with Atlético Madrid through 2026 but has long expressed a desire to finish his career in MLS.

Part of that desire was to reunite with former Real Sociedad teammate Carlos Vela, who hasn’t played anywhere since his contract with LAFC expired in December. And that raises a question: If LAFC has money and a roster spot to wager on a soon-to-be-38 Giroud, who is a great player but an unknown quality in MLS, why doesn’t it have the same for Vela, 35, a former league MVP, the single-season scoring leader and the team’s captain through its first six seasons?

Thorrington said he has had discussions with Vela’s agent, but the talks have so far been fruitless.

“It’s been a bit of a frustrating process trying to find a match between what we could afford to do and what we felt like we needed as a club on the field,” he said. “We, unfortunately, have not been able to find that balance with Carlos.”

When it comes to mixing young players with old, however, LAFC has gotten that balance just right.

An angry Ricky Stenhouse Jr. confronted Kyle Busch, then punched him following the NASCAR All-Star Race on Sunday night at North Wilkesboro Speedway, setting off a brief fight between teams in the garage.

Stenhouse made an aggressive move on the opening lap of the race and Busch ended up in the wall, which led to Busch intentionally crashing Stenhouse and eliminating him on Lap 2. But North Wilkesboro is an old-school track with no exit tunnel, so Stenhouse had nothing to do but wait for Busch until the race was over.

Sure enough, Stenhouse was standing by Busch’s hauler as the driver of the No. 8 car approached. After a short conversation, Stenhouse swung and set off a fight. Team members then got involved.

Kyle Busch and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. got into an altercation following the NASCAR All-Star Race 😳

🎥 @Jordan_Bianchi pic.twitter.com/86EA503lCw

— The Athletic (@TheAthletic) May 20, 2024

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“You hit the fence yourself,” Stenhouse said, according to footage from The Athletic’s Jordan Bianchi. “I didn’t touch you!”

When Busch disputed that, Stenhouse’s eyes widened and he added: “I did not touch you. Not once.”

“We all hit each other,” Busch said.

“No we — you hit the fence and then you hit me,” Stenhouse said.

Busch then said that wasn’t true again, and Stenhouse swung his fist and appeared to hit Busch in the face.

After the initial contact, Stenhouse’s dad — Ricky Stenhouse Sr. — also went after Busch and swung at him.

“Dad! Dad!” Stenhouse Jr. said after being knocked to the ground, then asked a crew member: “Can you get my dad?”

Stenhouse Sr. and Busch angrily tussled and grabbed each other for a few moments before they were pulled apart.

“Bring it! I don’t give a f—,” Busch then yelled at Stenhouse Jr. “I suck just as bad as you! Let’s go!”

Busch was referring to his disappointing season so far and a 10th-place finish on Sunday night. Stenhouse is also having struggles this year after winning the Daytona 500 last season.

Required reading

(Photo: Sean Gardner / Getty Images)