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Dave Portnoy apparently can be critical of Caitlin Clark.
The Barstool Sports honcho and Clark superfan called out the Fever star for being “terrible” in a 88-77 upset road loss Thursday against the expansion Valkyries.
Clark shot 3-of-14 and missed all seven of her 3-point attempts, while tying her season-low with 11 points.
“Caitlin had terrible game. Happy for Kate Martin though,” Portnoy tweeted shortly after midnight.
“Also Golden State is 1st crowd I’ve seen that was a true home crowd that was there for their team and not for Caitlin. Good for WNBA.”
Portnoy is usually one of the most ardent supporters one can find on social media, so for him to even speak negatively about Clark — even in a tame manner by his standards — is a shocker.
Earlier this week following Tuesday’s melee against the Sun that featured the former No. 1 pick being bumped to the floor, he went on the offensive against the WNBA — and even Stephen A. Smith.
Portnoy immediately called out Sun star Marina Mabrey for knocking Clark to the floor.
“Imagine not kicking Marina Mabrey out after she assaults the face of the league?” Portnoy wrote Tuesday in a quote tweet featuring the play. “Sick league @WNBA. Also shouldn’t have been a tech on Caitlin since that girl got in her face after gouging her eyes.”
He later chided Smith for his Solitaire scandal after Smith said Clark can be an instigator.
“I’ll take things that never happened but ESPN always pretends did for 100 Alex,” Portnoy tweeted in reference to Smith saying Clark started certain skirmishes. “Less solitaire. More facts.”
In this case, Portnoy did not come rushing Clark’s defense after she had a rough night out west.
Thursday marked the second time she missed all of her shots from deep this year after failing to do so once in her rookie season.
With Clark not providing her usual steady production, the Fever (6-6) wasted a 13-point lead.
The Valkyries (6-6) outscored the Fever, 33-18, in the fourth quarter.
“They did a really good job of being physical with her. That’s going to be the game plan all year long,” Fever interim coach Austin Kelly said.
“I think the lack of ball movement kind of allowed them to just really beat her up. When we move it, a lot of stuff happens, we’re able to punch gaps, get to our sprays and it gets back to her, that’s when she’s going to get the good looks. But they did a good job of being physical and making it tough for her at the point.”
Golden State coach Natalie Nakase confirmed that her players took a physical approach to stymie Clark.
“We were being disruptive. We know she doesn’t like physicality,” Nakase said. “We know that she wants to get to that left stepback. I watched her in Iowa, she loves that left stepback, it’s almost like a layup for her. We’re making sure she wasn’t getting into rhythm and then that she was seeing multiple bodies.”
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