WNBA EXPLODES After Angel Reese Just Said THIS About Caitlin Clark! 

WNBA EXPLODES After Angel Reese Just Said THIS About Caitlin Clark! 

You guys had over 30 assists as a team and that’s a quarterfinal record for the Royal Cup which is amazing. A lot of those came between Kaitlin and you. What’s it been like just to develop that relationship because it seems like you guys are coming along with some great chemistry. >> Yeah.

 I mean, we’ve played against each other so many times, so I’m sure we know each other’s game um like the back of each other’s hand. Um so, just additionally to her, she dishes up to me. She knows my slides. I kind of got one to her today already, too. Um so, it’s fun. We just continue to build chemistry because we know we know we’re going to be um USA teammates for a while.

 You guys know that >> and and she’s right. She look she definitely assisted Caitlyn Clark on a fast break layup. That was really nice as well. They looked really good out there together. I’m going to be honest with you. And throughout this tournament in playing together, they look good on the floor together.

 Uh Angel Reese is making her layups much better than Aaliyah Boston at this point. Hold on. Let cuz we got to get to Carol Lawson as well cuz Carol Lawson has lost her damn mind. She has no clue what she’s doing sitting Angel and Caitlyn on the bench all damn game. It’s >> Angel Reese stood in the mixed zone in Berlin after team USA put 108 points on Hungary.

 And she didn’t talk about her own line first. She talked about Caitlyn Clark, not in the polite, say nothing way athletes usually handle a teammate they’ve spent two years feuding with in public. She talked about Clark’s game like she’d been studying it from the bench for weeks and finally got the chance to say it out loud.

 So, you know, look, they’re definitely going to be USA teammates for a while. They definitely competed against each other at a high level for a long time. Um, and hey, hey, Caitlyn, Caitlyn put you in a position where you ain’t got to dribble. You ain’t got to be no point center, no point forward. You just get you just make your layups.

 That’s all you got to do with Caitlyn. That’s all you got to do. She can make anybody look good. I’m just being real with you. The girl can make anybody look good. >> That alone is worth sitting with. Two years of college hatred, technical fouls, and a flagrant that turned into a national conversation. And now here’s Reese unprompted praising the exact player she’s been trading shots with since March Madness.

 Nobody made her do that. She chose to. And we also got the team up we didn’t know we wanted. And that was the team up between Caitlyn Clark and Angel Reese. What? Roads. Yeah. I I I know it. I get it. I hear you. But wow. Okay. I I mean, kind of a powerhouse out there for Team USA. I got to tell you, this team could actually be fun to watch.

 That’s not a small detail either. These two spent the last two years as the most talked about rivalry in American sports. college hatred that turned into a WNBA storyline that turned into a whole industry of hot takes and jersey sales. And here they are in a USA uniform running a pick and roll off each other with seconds on the clock, timing it so clean it looked rehearsed. It wasn’t.

 Nobody rehearses that under game pressure. You either read it in real time or you don’t. And both of them read it. Clark sets up the defender with a hesitation dribble and finds Ree cutting exactly where the seam opens. Reese is already moving before the pass leaves Clark’s hand, which means she trusted it was coming. This Angel and Caitlin connection, the real deal holy field for this team USA.

 I mean, you want to talk about somebody setting screens for CC? You want to talk about somebody getting out in transition for CC? You want to talk about somebody hustling to get boards? You want to talk about a physical big? this Angel race and Kaylin Clark connection. Yeah, they’re making it work out there and they’re making it work very well.

They’re making it work out there and they’re making it work very very So here’s the part that actually matters. Reese didn’t just say Clark is good because everybody already knows Clark is good. She got specific about the way Clark pushes the ball. The way she reads a break before her own feet are even set.

 The way she puts a pass exactly where a teammate needs it instead of where it’s simply easy to throw. That’s not a rival being generous for the cameras. That’s one basketball player recognizing what another one does better than almost anybody else currently playing the position. And it came across as genuine, not scripted. She just talked about basketball, the way players talk when they respect what they’ve actually watched up close. Let’s go.

Kaylin brings it up the court. Angel cuts to the basket. Guess who was making her layups? Aaliyah Boston, I’m looking at you because it wasn’t you. Let’s just be real. Angel Reese has looked like a better player than Aaliyah Boston in this FEA World Cup. I said it. I And Ree backed it up with her own legs, not just her mouth.

 Watch her in that hungry game. She’s not standing around waiting for the ball to be walked up to her the way she sometimes has to in a slower WNBA offense. She’s running the lane, beating defenders down the floor, finishing plays before Hungary’s defense even gets set. That’s the version of Angel Ree people forget exists when all they remember is a rebounding stat sheet and a few viral shoving matches.

 She can run. She’s always been able to run. It just hasn’t always been the plan asked of her. [music] There’s a sequence late in the second quarter where she grabs a defensive board and just goes herself all the way to the rim for an and one. That’s raw motor, the kind you can’t coach somebody into. Say with the mastery, the defending champs advance to the semifinals.

 That game will be on Saturday. Kaylin Clark today 20 minutes, 10 points, nine assists. We were hoping we got that one more. We were hoping we got that double double, but one assist shy. one steel, a plus minus of plus 36 for Caitlyn Carr. Folks, it’s clear as day she just impacts this team, USA team, this USA team, in a positive way.

 Anytime she’s on the floor, it it the the tempo ramps up, the intensity ramps up, the purpose, the intent of this team, it just all seems to kick into another gear. It just all seems to kick into another gear. Shout out. >> Which brings up the part nobody in that press room really wanted to say out loud.

 The night before this game, the same returning veterans who opened every single game of this tournament, no matter what the bench group had shown in the games before it. Reporters pushed on it gently, the way beat writers do when they already know the answer. Lawson didn’t flinch. She’d made her decision well before that podium.

 She said it plainly. I like where we are right now with the starting five. That’s not a small gap over the course of one game. That’s the difference between a team cruising through a possession and a team grinding out every single one of them. It’s worth noting Lawson isn’t lying when she says that.

 She genuinely likes where the team is. The numbers she’s citing to defend that comfort just keep telling a different story once somebody pulls up the box score. Just to let everyone know, [music] Caitlyn Clark is the only USA player to be top five in a statistical standpoint. And [music] what I mean by that, I’m saying in points, assist, rebounds, and blocks, she’s the only USA player that’s top five in any of them.

 And even while being iced out, she is in third [music] for most assists per game in the whole FIFA tournament. Let that sink in. If she wasn’t being iced out, especially that second game where she only was able to get one assist, that is ridiculous. [music] If she wasn’t in that, she would be she would be leading. >> Run the numbers again and it gets harder to explain away.

 Clark led the entire roster in assists and plus minus through group play while coming off the bench every single game. Ree was right behind her in impact minutes, especially once she got comfortable running instead of standing in the post waiting for entries. Chelsea Gray, the starting point guard, finished group play with the lowest scoring average on the whole 12woman roster.

 Put those two stat lines side by side, and this isn’t a debate about who the better career player is. Gray has rings. It’s a narrower question about who should get the first six minutes of a knockout round quarterfinal and group play already answered that before Hungary tipped off Clark haters and ang and angel ree fans are crashing out over the teamup action and I love it. Look at this.

 This Kate jail needs to die right now. Angel start bricking when she passes to you. They want Angel to start missing shots because Caitlyn Clark passed the ball to him. Now they fitting the keep crediting Angel’s success to Caitlyn and continue the Angels moving me BS. Like shut the f up you ass. Woo. Wow. Get them off the floor together.

 I’ve had enough. They got they content. Why more suffer? >> Reese addressed that tension too in her own way without being asked directly about the rotation. She talked about how none of this is really about who starts or who gets the spotlight anymore, at least not for her. She said the group is just trying to win a gold medal and that whatever happened between her and Clark before this summer doesn’t matter once they’re both wearing the same jersey.

That’s a noticeably different tone from the Reese who’s traded shves and pointed fingers with Clark across an entire WNBA season just months earlier. And it landed different in that room. Reporters who cover this team said it was the calmst she sounded discussing Clark since the rivalry went national. >> The biggest thing is, you know, we’re all competitive.

 We all show our emotions in a different way. You know, Angel’s tremendous, tremendous player. I have nothing but respect for her. Um, I love her game. The way she rebounds the ball, scores the ball is absolutely incredible. Um, you know, I’m a big fan of her and even the entire LSU team. Um, you know, like I said, they played an amazing game.

 So, um, you know, I don’t think there should be any criticism for what she did. Um, you know, I honestly didn’t see it when the game was going on. And like I said, I haven’t been on social media really at all. I’m just trying to reflect back on, you know, what this team did and enjoy every single second with >> Clark has said versions of this before, too.

 And it’s worth hearing it again right next to what Ree just said in Berlin. Months ago, Clark told reporters flatly that she and Ree aren’t best friends, but they respect each other on the floor. Ree said something almost identical around the same time in a separate interview. Two separate interviews, same message, months apart, neither one aware the other had said basically the same thing.

 Now watch them actually play together on the same roster, and the message finally has film behind it instead of just words. That’s the difference between a talking point and a truth. Words are cheap in this sport. tape isn’t. >> Angel Reese with the steal, driving up court with a CAITLYN CLARK TRAILING FOR TWO. I’m loving this Angel Reese Caitlyn Clark connection today.

 Team USA is on fire. The Associated Press picked up on exactly this in Berlin, writing that Ree and Clark’s interactions have become a subplot of the entire World Cup. on top of already being a subplot of the WNBA season and roughly half of American sports social media at this point. And the reporting from inside that arena backs up what the clips show.

 Both players insist their relationship on the court is fine. You can see it in small moments, too. A fist bump after a defensive stop. Ree clapping when Clark hits a tough shot from the bench. None of it gets a headline alone, but stacked together, it paints a different picture than the one that’s followed both of them since college.

All right. So, for those of you who woke up early this morning to watch the United States host a breakfast buffet, well, you certainly got a treat because everybody got to eat. And that’s certainly appropriate since we were playing hungry. And just like last game, the United States was intentional about establishing a leader.

 [music] Carol Lawson must have an unrivaled theme. Last game it was Bana Stewart they worked through in the beginning to establish some norms. This game it was Nfisha Collier’s breakout game and then everything fell into place after that. I mean the United States was very intentional about playing with pace and they had great vision.

 On top of that they had adequate ball pressure and excellent interior. >> None of this is Reese trying to take anything away from the veterans either and it shouldn’t be read that way. Nfisa Collier had 19 points in that same hungry blowout, playing the kind of steady, efficient game that’s kept her on this roster for years.

 Brianna Stewart has three World Cup golds already and knows exactly what a medal round game demands from a roster full of talented but occasionally undisiplined scorers. Nobody watching that tape thinks the veterans can’t play at a high level. The issue was never talent, and this isn’t a lazy young versus old story line.

 It was whether the fastest version of this team sat on the bench for the first six or seven minutes of every quarter while the slower version worked itself into an early hole against lesser competition. Fair goal for any coach running a long tournament on short rest between games. But improvement showed up fastest in exactly the group she kept holding back at tip off, the one built around Clark’s pace and Reese’s motor, not the group she kept trusting with the first minutes.

 If the plan was steady improvement, the improvement was already sitting on the bench waiting for more run. This team is so much more fun to watch when the younger players are out there moving around. And I know some people have talked about, well, this seems like a physical I don’t think this is nearly as physical as the WNBA.

 The WNBA is like a uh like rugby or hockey is taking place on the court. And how fast these games go, it’s glorious. I mean, if WNBA games move this quick, you know, just far as the actual television product, it it would be a big deal. It it would really it would. And then the scoreboard did what scoreboards eventually do when one team is simply playing faster and sharper than the other. USA 108, Hungary 56.

 A 52-point win to punch the ticket straight to the semifinals. Clark and Ree connecting on that late pick and roll wasn’t the headline statline of the night, but it might end up being the moment people remember longest because it’s the one that actually shows what fans have been asking for since this rivalry first started turning into a spectacle nobody could look away from.

Because here’s what makes this different from every other Clark Reese storyline over the past 2 years. This wasn’t a leading question she had to answer diplomatically just to get out of the room. Ree brought this up on her own the same way Clark brought up pace unprompted after the Czecha win a few nights earlier.

 Nobody baited her into complimenting a player she’s been at odds with since college. Lawson isn’t benching Clark and Ree out of spite, and nobody serious is arguing that. Depth matters across a tournament with games [music] packed close together, and veterans who’ve won Olympic gold have earned some benefit of the doubt. But there’s a real gap between that instinct and what the box score has shown three games running.

 The bench group, the one Ree, Clark, and Bukers make up most of, keeps playing faster than the starting five it’s replacing. And that gap isn’t closing on its own. Kaylin Clark finally got a power forward that catches every pass she makes when they cut hard. Angela Reese finally got a PG that sees her cutting hard and can make the pass.

The synergy. Look at that. The synergy, folks. They’re connecting so well that we even have Kaitlin Clark haters and Angel Reese super fans crashing out on how well they are connecting. While I’m over here celebrating it, we have the CC haters and Angel stands losing their mind. Shout out to J-Mack. The KO needs to die right now.

 Angel start bricking when she passes to you. Wow. Get them off the floor together. I’ve had enough. They got they content. Why more suffer? Like honestly, just let hungry win. I don’t care anymore. Mood ruined, son. It’s generally making me mad. You guys ever want to see what a loser looks like? Look at these fools. >> So, you end up with two true things happening in the same building on the same night, sitting right next to each other without canceling out.

 Reese and Clark, the two most talked about rivals in this entire sport, are putting two years of tension aside, and actually building something real on the floor. timing plays off each other like they’ve done it for full seasons together instead of a few weeks of national team practices. And the coaching staff running the team they’re both trying to win a gold medal for keeps leaning on the same veteran group whose numbers say the opposite of what the young crews numbers have said in every game so far.

Both storylines are true at the same time. They wanted proof that the beef was never actually bigger than the game itself and that if you put both of them in the same colors with something real on the line, they’d figure out how to make each other better instead of worse. Berlin gave them that proof directly on tape in real time with a buzzer beating pick and roll to close a quarter that neither of them had any real reason to fake for the cameras.

 Look at these two being very mature unlike their vets. The people that they supposed to be looking up to in a way. The people that’s supposed to be leading by example. The vets look terrible and the vets have looked terrible since Kayn Clark and Angel Reese stepped foot into the WNBA. And it’s not only the vets, it’s the coaching, too.

 That’s Like sometimes like you can just look around and be like does any does does any of those people have something going on up here because something is just not right. Now if anybody on the team was to have any type of [music] feelings toward each other like any type of negative anything for one another. We all know elephant in the room [music] it would and should be them two for for whatever reason.

 We ain’t got to talk about that. [music] But it’s neither one of them. It’s literally the old >> What happens with the minutes from here is the part still worth watching closely. If the chemistry between Ree and Clark keeps producing possessions like that late pick and roll, and if the bench group keeps out producing the starters, the way it has three games running now, the pressure on Lawson to actually adjust the rotation instead of just talking about steady improvement is going to get louder with every game left on the schedule. Ree didn’t ask for that

pressure to build when she stood in that mixed zone and complimented Clark’s game so openly. She was just being honest about what she’d actually watched up close for weeks. But honesty like that, said calmly and specifically instead of vaguely, has a way of following a coaching staff around long after the interview ends.

 That’s not a small shift in a sport this size. It’s the kind of thing that changes how an entire fan base watches a semi-final because for the first time, the storyline everyone tuned in for and the basketball everyone actually needs to win a gold medal happen to be pointing in the exact same Infection.