Just one stat shows major impact of Fever losing Caitlin Clark in lineup

The Indiana Fever are expected to be atop the league in three point shooting this season thanks to Caitlin Clark, Kelsey Mitchell, and Lexie Hull all occupying their starting lineup, and with sharp shooters like Sophie Cunningham and DeWanna Bonner coming off the bench, as well.

Prior to the Fever's 83-77 loss to the Washington Mystics - their first loss and game without Clark on the floor because of a quad injury - they were shooting decently from deep. Around 34 percent from long range is nothing to sneer at.

However, in just one game without Clark's 19 points per game and 31.4 percent shooting from three point range, the Fever saw their 6th-place 34.5 percent three point shooting take on a new low: 23.8 percent.

Indiana needs to find offense somewhere to replicate Clark's shooting, and it can't all be on Aliyah Boston's shoulders. In fact, it's imperative that they find more reliable three point shooting moving forward to help get her more space to work with in the post.

Without that - and, especially with a 4-16 shooting night from Mitchell - they cannot win many of their Clark-less minutes against sharp shooting teams like the Mystics.

First Fever game without Clark shows how huge her shooting is for teams' offense

Outside of the obvious impact on Boston's offense, missing Clark's shooting also puts major pressure on Mitchell, Sydney Colson, and Lexie Hull to be more aggressive with their scoring. All three also have to figure out who is running the show, so to speak, and helping to get the offense flowing.

READ MORE: Caitlin Clark’s injury didn’t stop her from delivering for Fever fans

Colson, a veteran that tends to be more passive with her shooting, is going to likely end up falling back more into a point guard role to get Mitchell and Hull more shots from three point range. The team will likely also need Colson to work with their bench unit in Cunningham and Bonner to facilitate more looks for them.

Missed shots also led to major defensive rebounding opportunities for Washington, which in turn ended up killing the Fever in transition. So many 50-50 balls were instead 100 percent in the hands of a Mystics defender, and they were setting a fast pace the entire game with their front court streaking down the floor.

This isn't a problem the Fever will have if they can figure out how to get better looks from long range. And, they will - this is just a one game sample size of what's to come from this Fever team looking to stay hot without Clark on the floor.

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