On Thursday night, the Indiana Fever played the Golden State Valkyries. Despite the two teams coming in with similar records — Indiana was 6-5 and Golden State was 5-6 — the game wasn't expected to be close, as the Fever had Caitlin Clark back and the Valkyries were coming off a loss to the league's worst team, Dallas.
But this is why basketball games are actually played and not just simulated by computers. Golden State scored an 88-77 victory, and Clark was held to just 11 points.
This result shouldn't have surprised anyone, though. Clark was facing off against her former Iowa teammate, Kate Martin, and Martin has never lost a WNBA game against Clark's Fever.
Martin is 3-0 when playing against Clark, and she's 5-0 if we expand it to the two games Vegas played against Indiana last year where Martin didn't play. Maybe it was her presence on the sidelines that intimidated Clark too much?
Who is Kate Martin, the league's apparent Caitlin stopper?
Martin, Clark's sidekick at Iowa, wasn't really thought of as a WNBA prospect after her final season with the Hawkeyes. She averaged 13.1 points, 6.8 rebounds and 2.3 assists per game in her fifth season in Iowa City.
But when draft night arrived, Martin — who was in attendance to support Clark — was picked with the 18th overall pick by the Las Vegas Aces. She made the team's final roster and ended up playing significant minutes early in the year while the team waited for Chelsea Gray to return from injury.
Martin was left unprotected in this year's expansion draft, with the Golden State Valkyries selecting her to join the team's roster.
Caitlin Clark and Kate Martin's WNBA matchup history
Martin's teams are 5-0 when facing Clark's teams, but let's just look specifically at the three games between the two where both players saw the floor.
Starting in 2024, both players met on May 25 when the Aces hosted the Fever, and Martin was surprisingly the better of the two on an individual level. She scored 12 points on 3-for-5 shooting to go along with seven rebounds. Clark, meanwhile, scored just eight points in the loss, going 2-for-8 from the floor. She had five rebounds and seven assists, but also turned the ball over six times.
On July 2, the two teams met again, with the Aces winning 88-69. Clark struggled once again, going 4-for-12 for 13 points, though she did dish out 11 assists. As for Martin, she was held scoreless off the Aces bench, recording one rebound and one turnover.
Fast forward to last night. It was another poor scoring night for Clark, as she tied her season-low with 11 points while going just 3-for-14 from the floor. It was her worst shooting performance of the year.
How did Martin do? She scored nine points on 4-for-9 shooting in 20 minutes of play and grabbed five rebounds. It was a solid performance off the bench for Martin.
Look: Martin isn't really some kind of Clark stopper. Clark's 0-3 head-to-head record against her is influenced by a few factors. One is that the Aces were much better than the Fever in 2024, as evidenced by Clark losing to Vegas in the two games where Martin didn't play as well.
Last night, Clark having to match up with Veronica Burton — basically the only player who figured out how to slow her down in college — was a bigger factor than Martin.
Still, it's a fun stat to look at. Clark will get her next shot at finally beating Martin in a WNBA game in July 9 at home.