Caitlin Clark's Simple Ball Screen Decision-Making
Clark and the Indiana Fever showed a great grasp for pick-and-roll timing in the clutch against Seattle Storm
What’s up? I’ve been off the grid for a while and may go back off the grid again soon. But I flipped on a WNBA game the other night and saw this amazing young player that not many people have noticed: Caitlin Clark. Subscribe to this newsletter and maybe read more about basketball here.
No intro. Let’s just talk about four of Caitlin Clark’s possessions from the Fever’s win over Seattle on Sunday, August 18th. She had 23 points and 9 assists, including one to break the rookie assist record. These fourth-quarter ball screen possessions not only gave Indiana the game but also show the simple ways Caitlin Clark dominates in the pick-and-roll.
Clark and Damiris Dantas try to run a drag screen in transition, but the Storm ice the ball screen and push Clark to the sideline. Dantas immediately re-screens to allow Clark some space along the sideline. Clark has done her job as the PnR ball-handler: draw two defenders.
But the Fever don’t have an advantage yet because Aliyah Boston is trailing the play. This is where Clark’s patience and vision come into play. She creates time for Boston to cut to the basket with a dribble toward the corner. On that first dribble, she only looks inside as the three help defenders all move into the paint. Then, she deploys a second dribble to allow Jordan Horston to fully commit to Boston. Lexie Hull finds open space for a pretty easy dish and swish.
The Storm didn’t recover correctly anyways, but the play is still a great example of how to drag out the ball screen and of Clark’s impressive patience on the ball. A lot of young players will pick up their dribble after seeing their big covered either to shoot or in fear of the defenders closing in. Clark using that second dribble put her in a potentially bad spot, but she already knew that she had options and how she could get the ball to those options.
The Storm again try to ice the Clark-Boston ball screen after a handoff. Instead of re-screening, Clark jab steps to create space from Skylar Diggins-Smith and drives baseline to engage Nneka Ogwumike. Now that she’s drawn two defenders, she opts to have Boston operate a 3-on-2 advantage on the weak side.
I love that Clark stops moving her feet before throwing the one-handed pocket pass. Sometimes, guards get ahead of themselves and throw an off-balance dribbler into the defenders’ legs. Boston takes it from there. She makes herself a threat, looks at the cutter, and delivers a perfect pass into Hull’s shooting pocket.
Among the many many reasons to love the Clark-Boston, their ability to divide-and-conquer like they did here stands out. There’s usually a 2-on-1 or 3-on-2 advantage when offenses run sets correctly. The challenge is finding it and these two are already mastering the task together.
Next time someone screams “WHY WOULD YOU EVER GO UNDER ON CAITLIN CLARK?”, show them this clip. In the first play, Horston goes over the screen and recovers well enough to keep Clark from an open three. Ogwumike also does a good job of plugging the lane and deterring a pull-up. But Clark again smoothly bounces a pocket pass to Boston in the tiny sliver of space between defenders.
The flipside is on display in the second play. Indiana run a Horns action with Kelsey Mitchell creating some confusion before the ball screen. Jewell Loyd gets caught up on Boston’s screen and forced under as Ogwumike is too far below the screen to step up to Clark. The result is a wide-open three for one of the best shooters in the world.
I’m not arguing for defenses to go under on Clark. It’s not a wise choice. But which of these plays produced an easier shot? An Aliyah Boston elbow jumper is a slightly higher percentage look than Clark’s deep three. The answers to guarding Clark, and specifically the Clark-Boston duo in ball screen, are not as clear cut as we, the fans, like to make it seem. Clark makes teams pick between bad options and she’s getting better every game.