Life is hard for the Indiana Fever without Caitlin Clark. It gets harder when they’re missing her services while playing the reigning WNBA champions. Such was the case over the team’s last two games. 

Just before the WNBA All-Star break, the Clark-less Fever suffered a 98-77 drubbing a the hands of the New York Liberty in Brooklyn. Several days later, Indiana got thrashed anew by the Liberty team in the same venue, 98-84, on Wednesday. Clark remained out in that contest as well due to a re-aggravation of a groin injury late in regulation of last week’s showdown against the Connecticut Sun.

It remains to be seen when Clark will return to action, but health has clearly been a big issue this season for the former Iowa Hawkeyes sniper. She’s missed 10 games already before the break due to an assortment of muscle injuries, and it might not be until the offseason when she can truly address it adequately.

“These soft tissue injuries, sometimes nag until you can actually have time to really allow to heal in the offseason,” Fever head coach Stephanie White said (via the Associated Press).

Before Wednesday’s game, White also said that there’s no update about a timeline for a potential return for Clark (h/t Chloe Peterson of The Indianapolis Star).

The Fever showed they can win games even without Clark when they bagged the 2025 edition of the Commissioner’s Cup despite the guard being sidelined by injury. However, it’s hard to argue against the idea that Indiana is a better team when Clark is active. And that’s despite the fact that her shooting splits this season are tough to look at. The two-time WNBA All-Star is averaging 16.5 points per game in her second year in the league, but she’s also shooting only 36.7 percent from the floor and 27.9 percent from deep while posting just a 44.1 eFG%.