Matt Calkins: Caitlin Clark hardly dominant halfway through her first WNBA season

SEATTLE — Caitlin Clark had some serious RAF. That's short for the just-made-up-now Resting Annoyed Face.

There seemed to be few moments during the Fever's 89-77 loss to the Storm on Thursday when the rookie was feeling joy.

It's certainly understandable. Her team sits in eighth place in the WNBA standings after losing its second straight. Indiana (7-12) also has yet to beat a team with a record better than .400 this season, regularly getting hammered by the league's elite teams.

There also is the very real issue of her teammates struggling to make open shots within 5 feet of the basket, a regular occurrence Thursday. But perhaps more irritating than anything is the fact that she has been unable to take over a game when her squad needs her to.

That was one of Clark's signature traits during her time at Iowa, where she went to back-to-back national championship games while setting the all-time scoring record in college basketball. If they needed a bucket or an impeccable setup for one, the Hawkeyes put the rock in Caitlin's hands.

The Fever, however, can't do it. Not yet, at least.

It didn't look like you were having a lot of fun out there, a reporter said to Clark.

"We're competitors and we want to win, and it didn't really feel great out there, even when we cut it to nine," said Clark, who finished with 15 points, seven assists and six rebounds. "We want to win more than anybody. This is our job. ... We're trying to give it our all so we're not going to be out there smiling when we're down by 15."

The ideal outcome for a Storm fan at a Clark game, which sported another sellout crowd at Climate Pledge Arena, is probably a Seattle win mixed with a college-days performance from Caitlin. And for a while there Thursday, it looked as though the attendees were going to get just that.

The Storm (11-6) established an early lead and went into halftime up by 14, but Clark had 12 points through the first 20 minutes and knocked down three 3-pointers. A couple of those triples were at least 5 feet behind the arc, too.

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