The Indiana Fever’s season tipped off with fireworks — and not just on the scoreboard. In their opener against the Chicago Sky, things got physical fast when Angel Reese shoved past Aliyah Boston for a rebound. Then, Caitlin Clark fired back with a hard foul and an extra push, which was later upgraded to a flagrant. Two games later, if anyone thought that was the most, the Fever star is making them think again.
For Game 3 versus the Atlanta Dream, Clark entered the court to dominate. And she did. Late in a tight second-half sequence, Rhyne Howard was called for a foul near half court. As the whistle blew, Clark didn’t simply move on — she stepped into Howard and gave her a hard shoulder to the chest. It wasn’t subtle, and it wasn’t accidental. It was a message.
“I’m not scared of you,” she told the opponent in the first quarter, right in the heat of that moment. Howard didn’t take kindly to it. She snapped back with a glare, and for a second, it looked like things might boil over. Players from both teams rushed in, and the moment passed before it could turn into something bigger. No technicals were called. But the energy in the building shifted.
Caitlin Clark put her shoulder into Rhyne Howard’s chest after Howard was called for a foul at half court, leading to a small scuffle.
Howard wasn’t happy, but it was broken up quickly, no techs. pic.twitter.com/fzrlAOsFp4
— Chloe Peterson (@chloepeterson67) May 22, 2025
That’s Caitlin Clark in a nutshell. She’s not backing down — not from veterans and definitely not from anyone questioning if she belongs on this stage.
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