Caitlin Clark’s 3-point shooting not lighting up FIBA World Cup but ‘great playmaking’ ignites USA
BERLIN — Through three games of the 2026 FIBA Women’s Basketball World Cup, the depth and balance of the United States is best captured by the absence of a dominant scorer. Sharing the ball has been key for the U.S. this tournament, with 69 assists on 92 field goals, or 75%.
The most effective distributor has been Caitlin Clark, whose 19 assists create a potentially historic average of 6.3 assists.
Clark is on pace to break the tournament record of 5.8 assists per game set by Dawn Staley in 1998. Clark has done all this while coming off the bench, playing an average of 21.9 minutes.
“She provides a great playmaking aspect to her game on our team,” coach Kara Lawson said about Clark. “We rely on her at the point guard position, when she’s in, to run the team. We saw that in the first game, when she had 11 assists and zero turnovers. She’s another young player who’s feeling her way through her first World Cup, you know? And she’s really motivated and wanting to help our team win. And I think that’s a great place to be.”
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The United States finished out Group D play with a 3-0 record following a 105-64 win over Czechia on Monday night. Automatically qualifying for the quarterfinal round on Thursday, the U.S. will face Hungary, which defeated Japan, 84-63, Tuesday afternoon.
Clark’s playmaking has become such an effective part of the U.S. team that an uncharacteristic mini-shooting slump makes no difference in the mind of her coach.
Clark has struggled from the field, shooting just 30.4% and 25% from 3-point territory. She had missed nine straight 3-pointers before knocking one down with 3:21 left in the fourth quarter against Czechia.
“Yeah, so I didn’t even know that,” Lawson said. “I don’t count how many times they miss. I just want their shot quality to be high. And I think Caitlin’s done a solid job in this tournament taking the right shots at the right times. And that’s normal for any shooter, you know, to have stretches where you’re hot and stretches, maybe, where you get a little bit cold.”
Jackie Young, the 2016 IndyStar Miss Basketball from Princeton Community High School, has led the U.S. with an average of 11.3 points, tied for 34th highest in the tournament. Beyond Young, seven U.S. players are averaging between 6.0 and 10.3 points. On a team with future members of the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame, there has yet to be someone who separates herself from the group as they continue to play a style of team-oriented basketball.
“This is a big moment for all of us, and we need to take full advantage of it,” veteran forward Breanna Stewart said after the victory over Czechia. “But the thing that separates us is the 12 [players] that we have. We can’t be special unless we do it together.”
Carter Jones is a graduate student as part of the Sports Capital Journalism Program at IU Indianapolis. Get IndyStar’s Indiana Fever and Caitlin Clark coverage sent directly to your inbox with our Caitlin Clark Fever newsletter. Subscribe to IndyStar TV: Fever for in-depth analysis, behind-the-scenes coverage and more.