INDIANAPOLIS — Caitlin Clark likes to push the pace.

That was evident during Clark’s college career at Iowa, when she frequently grabbed a rebound and turned to run back up the court, quickly pulling up for a transition 3-pointer. She’s someone that likes to play quick.

And that is working out in her favor, especially as she transitions from the 30-second college shot clock to the 24-second WNBA clock. There are also only eight seconds to get the ball over halfcourt, instead of 10.

‘It’s fast, a fast shot clock, but I think all of you know that’s how I like to play,’ Clark said. ‘So, I think it suits my game pretty well. And, you know, it’s a fast pace, a lot faster than college. You gotta learn quicker, you gotta get your mind fully wherever, you know, there’s no time to be tired.’

The Fever cut that number down even more on the first day of training camp on Sunday, playing five-on-five with a 15-second shot clock. Clark was running with the first team during practice, joining center Aliyah Boston, forwards NaLyssa Smith and Katie Lou Samuelson, and guard Erica Wheeler. Kelsey Mitchell, who has started for the Fever for multiple years, is currently out with an ankle injury to start camp.

Clark easily kept up with the first team during that drill, which also featured rim passes to Smith — something head coach Christie Sides was emphasizing during their film session. But Clark never got out of basketball shape. After all, she played in the national championship game just three weeks ago.

‘I feel like I’m in really good basketball shape,’ Clark said. ‘There’s no getting back in shape for myself, I’ve been playing basketball. There’s been no really off period. And for me, I feel like that’s a really good thing. It just keeps the momentum rolling.’

Even as the pace quickens for Clark, her fundamentals never wavered. She sank 3-pointers and made elaborate passes throughout the first official day of practice, looking like the same player she was in college. Clark averaged 8.9 assists per game in her senior year at Iowa, and her passing ability will be crucial for a Fever team that had just 18 assists per game — 11th in the league — in 2023.

Her new teammates will just have to get used to those passes coming their way.

‘Her passing ability, I mean, you saw some of the passes,’ coach Christie Sides said. ‘Like, I’m more mad at how many missed layups that we had. It was off a couple of her passes that I think we’re just not used to having, you know, someone who can make some of those passes. So, for me, it’s her passing. I’m just enamored at times.’

Now, the only thing Clark will really have to work on is her defense, something she said Sides has already been on her about.

‘Can’t let people drive middle,’ Clark said with a laugh. ‘I need to work on that for sure.’

Indiana ranked 10th in general defense last year, and Sides said of the 26 close games the Fever were in last year, they could never get stops late – they had a defensive rating of 119 in those moments.

‘I hate to even admit that we were focused on defense because we fell (10th) last year, right,’ Sides said. ‘That didn’t sit well with me. We’re going to be better defensively. We have to be better.’

The Los Angeles Clippers were without Kawhi Leonard in Game 4 against the Dallas Mavericks Sunday.

Still, they built a 31-point second-quarter lead on Paul George’s 26 first-half points, and it looked like the Clippers would ease their way to a matinee triumph.

But since this is the NBA, few leads, especially in the first half, are safe. Just as one team opens a 31-point lead, the opponent can erase a 31-point deficit.

So, after the Mavericks fought back from that massive deficit and tied the score with 5:03 left in the fourth quarter on Luka Doncic’s 3-pointer and took a one-point lead on Kyrie Irving’s creative layup in traffic with 2:15 to go, the Clippers found just enough from George and James Harden to squeeze out a wild 116-111 victory and tie the series at 2-2.

The Mavericks were trying to match the biggest comeback in NBA playoff history – incidentally a game involving the Clippers in 2019 when they came back from 94-63 to beat Golden State 135-131.

George’s 3-pointer from deep in the right corner with 1:55 left in the fourth quarter gave the Clippers a 107-105 lead, and Harden helped secure the victory with a series of floaters in the fourth quarter, including two in the final 80 seconds.

George, who had just seven points in the Clippers’ Game 3 loss, finished with 33 points, eight assists, six rebounds and four steals, and Harden scored 15 of his 33 points in the fourth quarter. Harden added seven assists and six rebounds.

The Mavericks’ comeback was special in a high-intensity playoff atmosphere. Irving had a game-high 40 points, and Doncic had a triple-double with 29 points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists. Doncic was 10-for-24 from the field but just 1-for-9 on 3-pointers.

Game 5 is Wednesday in Los Angeles, and the status of Leonard (right knee inflammation) is not known.

Denny Hamlin flexed his Toyota’s muscle in the second half of the Würth 400 Sunday afternoon to win the NASCAR Cup Series race at Dover Motor Speedway.

In the lone race in Dover, Delaware this season, Hamlin’s No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota gained the lead with a super fast pit stop after Stage 2 and held off Hendrick Motorsports’ Kyle Larson by 0.256 seconds for his third win of 2024, tying him with Hendrick’s William Byron for the series lead.

The victory was Hamlin’s 54th, tying him with Lee Petty for 12th all-time.

‘Just a great team,’ Hamlin said when asked how he won. ‘All the guys on the wall right here, they’re the ones who make it happen. Thank you to them, (crew chief) Chris Gabehart, the whole team for just giving me great cars.’

Larson got within two-tenths of a second of Hamlin but said he could not muster the run to pass him.

‘(Nothing I could do) in the last 10 (laps),’ said Larson, who notched his fifth top-five finish. ‘I could pace it and get closer to him at the end of the runs, but it’s so easy to air-block … as the leader at a place like this to shut off the air on the guys behind you.’

Completing the top-five finishers were Martin Truex Jr., Kyle Busch and Chase Elliott.

After claiming his second career Dover pole on Saturday, Busch raced out and led the first 33 laps around the one-mile layout in the 120-lap Stage 1 until Ryan Blaney grabbed the point in his No. 12 Ford.

On Lap 79, Byron positioned his No. 24 Chevrolet past Blaney, the defending series champion, and Truex took the lead as the 72-lap green-flag run came to an end after Brad Keselowski spun his No. 6 Ford following a right-rear tire problem.

Truex, who started 15th, earned the full bonus points by taking his fifth career stage win at the Monster Mile under caution. Byron and Tyler Reddick followed him to the line.

The event’s defending winner who won last May when the race was postponed to Monday, Truex had little trouble putting separation between himself and Byron, leading by 2.61 seconds on Lap 180 before green-flag pit stops began.

But Byron’s car was dropped from the jack without one of the tires bolted on, and Larson’s stop was four seconds faster than Truex’s.

That put Larson’s No. 5 ahead of Truex’s No. 19 Toyota, but Corey LaJoie chose not to pit and led 33 circuits until Larson passed him on Lap 219.

Larson earned the Stage 2 win over Hendrick teammate Alex Bowman, but hard-charging Hamlin finished third and won the ensuing race off pit road to lead for the first time.

Bubba Wallace, Byron and Christopher Bell were involved in the day’s worst wreck on Lap 329 after Zane Smith turned Wallace’s No. 23 Toyota off Turn 2.

NEW ORLEANS — Oklahoma City Thunder head coach Mark Daigneault was named NBA Coach of the Year, the league announced Sunday night. 

Two years removed from a 24-win season and just a year removed from a play-in berth, Daigneault coached the Thunder to a 57-25 record this season, becoming the youngest No. 1 seed in NBA history. It began the season as the league’s youngest active team, only older than the San Antonio Spurs. The Thunder finished with both top-five offensive and defensive ratings this season. 

Minnesota’s Chris Finch and Orlando’s Jamahl Mosley were the other finalists.

Daigneault becomes the second Thunder coach to win the award, with Scott Brooks being awarded after the 2009-10 season.

The fourth-year coach began his time with the Thunder organization back in 2014, named head coach for the team’s G League affiliate, the Oklahoma City Blue. After serving as an assistant under Billy Donovan during the 2019-20 season, Daigneault was handed the keys as his predecessor. 

All things Thunder: Latest Oklahoma City Thunder news, schedule, roster, stats, injury updates and more.

Daigneault’s journey began as a manager for the UConn men’s basketball team, working with eventual NBA players such as Ben Gordon and Emeka Okafor. From there, Daigneault earned his first assistant coaching job at Holy Cross. He eventually went on to become Donovan’s unofficial assistant before being tapped by Thunder owner Sam Presti. 

‘I want to thank Sam for always seeing me for what I could be rather than what I am,’ Daigneault told the media after he was hired in 2020. 

During a season that began without grandiose expectations, Daigneault has a team mostly without playoff experience on the verge of completing a first-round sweep against the New Orleans Pelicans. He’s found steadiness through spontaneous lineups and unpredictable substitutions. He’s kept a firm identity, playing small lineups and openly accepting tradeoffs. 

The 39-year-old’s staff has earned a reputation for offensive creativity without sacrificing defensive integrity. By the end of the season, Daigneault helped claim a Northwest Division title to earn the tiebreaker in a historically competitive West – making him the favorite for Sunday’s award.

Daigneault was surely aware of the award’s eventual reveal Sunday, and his chances at winning. Still, in typical Daigneault fashion, he chose to deflect any anticipation surrounding him.

‘Nope, no plans,’ Daigneault said when asked what he’d be doing Sunday night. ‘Regular evening.’

The Phoenix Suns began this season with Mat Ishbia saying they have the ‘best team’ in the NBA.

‘Obviously, we’ve got to play it out,’ the Suns team owner said on their media day back in October at Footprint Center. ‘We’re really excited.’

On Sunday, their season of championship expectations ended much sooner than planned.

The third-seeded Minnesota Timberwolves completed an impressive sweep of the sixth-seeded Suns, 122-116, in Game 4 of this Western Conference first-round series. The T-Wolves are younger, played with more force and physicality and Anthony Edwards has put the league on notice.

The Suns have now been eliminated from the past three playoffs on their home floor.

All things Suns: Latest Phoenix Suns news, schedule, roster, stats, injury updates and more.

2022 – Game 7 conference semifinals: (4) Mavericks 123, (1) Suns 90
2023 – Game 6 conference semifinals: (1) Nuggets 125, (4) Suns 100
2024 – Game 4 first round: (3) T-Wolves 122, (6) Suns 116.

After last season, they changed head coaches, moved Chris Paul, dealt Deandre Ayton and spent over the second league tax apron with a new-look roster led by their Big 3 of Devin Booker, Kevin Durant and Bradley Beal only to fall drastically short of bringing Phoenix its first NBA championship after a 49-win regular season.

The Suns remain one of 10 NBA teams to have never won title.

So, what’s next for a franchise that’s projected to have a team salary of $206 million and $104 million in luxury tax, both league-highs, and go more than $16 million over the second tax apron next season?

The first year of Grayson Allen’s four-year, $70-million extension he signed right before the playoffs will cost the Suns $79 million in payroll and luxury tax for 2024-25.

Change in front office, another new head coach?

When a team that was supposed to compete for a championship with a ginormous team salary of $188.5 million needed help to avoid the play-in tournament and got swept in the first round, change would seem imminent in moving forward from such disappointment.

Monty Williams was fired after coaching the Suns to the playoffs for three consecutive seasons. The Suns reached the 2021 NBA Finals, won a franchise-best 64 games the next season when Williams won NBA Coach of the Year and lost to the eventual NBA champion Denver Nuggets in the second round of the 2023 playoffs, but how they were eliminated those last two years, with bad home-court losses, made Williams expendable.

Ishbia was just four months into being the team owner before making that huge decision. The idea of letting general manager James Jones go at the same time would’ve been a complete cleaning house. Jones and Williams were a tag team in Phoenix, but Jones remained with the task of generating a roster that was top heavy with Booker, Durant and Beal making around a combined $130 million.

They pulled off a trade before training camp to move Ayton and acquire Jusuf Nurkic and Allen after a disappointing season. Jones, even with roster restraints due to being over the second tax apron, may now be expendable. 

The Suns wanted Ty Lue to replace Williams, but the Clippers didn’t allow teams to talk with him and guaranteed the final year of his contract for the 2024-25 season, the Los Angeles Times reported.

Nick Nurse was a finalist, also coached a team to an NBA title with the Toronto Raptors in 2019, but he took the job with the Philadelphia 76ers. Ishbia has said Frank Vogel was the ‘obvious’ choice.

‘We went through a very grueling interview process with many candidates,’ Ishbia said. ‘Frank Vogel emerged as the obvious choice in every aspect. From culture building to winning a championship, past credentials to defensive mindset along with team building. Being able to coach superstars, which we have three now in Devin Booker, Kevin Durant and Bradley Beal. He checked every single box. He was the obvious choice.’

Sounded confident about returning, but just for the sake of argument, say the Suns move on from Vogel.  

If that happens, Phoenix’s hiring process could easily be considered a failure. It’d be the second Suns head coach let go within a year and further stamp a win-now-or-else atmosphere a coaching candidate may have trepidation entering.

Signed to a five-year, $31-million deal, Vogel has been saying more and more as of late this is their first year together in terms of him and his coaching staff in Phoenix. Kevin Young was the only holdover from Williams’ staff as he will head to BYU as a head coach after being in the running for NBA head coaching jobs in recent years.

Fans have been calling for Ishbia to fire Vogel, who coached LeBron James and the Lakers to an NBA championship his first season with that franchise. He didn’t have nearly the same success in his first year with the Suns as they were inconsistent, had too many stagnant moments on offense for a team with three prolific scorers in Booker, Durant and Beal and were turnover friendly all season long.

Their defense improved over the course of the season, but the Suns looked disconnected in giving up open looks to the T-Wolves throughout the series. The rotations and in-game adjustments were also a problem and they came up small in some critical must-win games.

The Suns dealt with injuries that greatly led to having 24 different starting lineups. The Big 3 only played 41 regular-season games together. Phoenix went 26-15 with Booker, Durant and Beal in the lineup.

However, Phoenix got a healthy, All-NBA level season out of the 35-year-old Durant. The future first-ballot Hall of Famer averaged 27.1 points in 75 games, the most he’s played since he suffered a season-ending Achilles injury in the 2019 Finals with the Golden State Warriors.

Durant called Vogel the team leader after Saturday’s practice. The Suns could run it back with Jones and Vogel to continue continuity with roster decisions knowing that won’t satisfy a fan base that expected much more from this team this season. 

What to do with roster as Big 3 is due $150M

Booker’s supermax contract of four years, $224 million kicks in next season, when he’s due $49.3 million. Durant will be in the third of a four-year, $194-million deal that will pay him $49.8 million and Beal’s five-year, $251-million deal is set to pay him $50.2 million next season.

That’s a whopping $150 million tied up with three players.

The Suns find themselves over the second NBA tax apron that presents roster limitations: Can’t use pre-existing trade exception but can use a trade exception from a new trade; can’t take money in a trade; can’t aggregate contracts; can’t send out cash.

Booker, Durant and Beal have been viewed as untradeable. Booker is the franchise player who stuck with the Suns through the rough years, Durant is the team’s best player and Beal has a no-trade clause. Would the Suns be bold enough to move one of those three to get back rotation players to complement the remaining two and add a draft pick for the future?

Allen led the league in 3-point shooting percentage in having a career year, but he has a tradeable contract. The Suns can’t move him until next Oct. 16.

Jusuf Nurkic averaged a double-double of 10.9 points and 11 rebounds in his first season with the Suns, but he struggled to finish inside and the T-Wolves big Rudy Gobert got the better of him in this series.

Phoenix acquired him and Nassir Little from the Portland Trail Blazers in the three-team deal right before training camp that sent Ayton to Portland, a move that has been more debated as of late. Nurkic is in the middle of a four-year, $70-million deal that’ll pay him $18.1 million next season.

Booker, Durant, Beal, Allen and Nurkic make up the most-used starting lineup that went 21-12 in the regular season. That’s less than half the season with that group.

Royce O’Neale essentially became the team’s sixth man as the Suns landed him in a three-team deal before the trade deadline. He’s an unrestricted free agent after this season.

The Suns have limited roster flexibility and are heading down another year of going with veteran minimum guys again as they did last season to fill out the roster. Plus Eric Gordon, Drew Eubanks, Josh Okogie and Damion Lee, who missed the entire season with a knee injury, all have player options going into the final year of two-year deals.

Phoenix could’ve used a point guard to share the facilitator duties with Booker, Durant and Beal. Suns legend Charles Barkley called for the Suns to grab one and an additional big man.

The Suns do have a first-round pick (22nd overall) in this year’s draft. They maybe can address one of those needs with that selection, but the Suns appear locked to run it back with a Big 3-led roster in their win-now mode.

The West is only getting stronger

The Suns managed to land the sixth seed because they owned the head-to-head tiebreaker over the New Orleans Pelicans. Looking ahead, the Suns will face an even more formidable Western Conference next season.

Oklahoma City, Minnesota and Denver aren’t going anywhere. They have young cores with depth led by three of the game’s best players in two-time MVP Nikola Jokic (Nuggets), Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (Thunder), who with Jokic is an MVP finalist, and Edwards, a rising superstar.

Dallas has MVP finalist Luka Doncic paired up with Kyrie Irving and an improved, athletic front court.

The Clippers can’t seem to get a healthy Kawhi Leonard, but they went 3-1 against the Suns this season. They exploded to a 35-4 advantage on the Suns in that third win without James Harden and Leonard in Phoenix’s final home game of the regular season.

The Pelicans have flopped in the postseason, but they didn’t have Zion Williamson, who dropped a 40-piece on the Lakers in the play-in before suffering a hamstring injury that’s sidelined him for the playoffs. If healthy, Williamson gives the Pelicans a chance to compete.

The Kings have one of the league’s best 1-2 punches in De’Aaron Fox and Domantas Sabonis. The Warriors can’t be counted out as long as Stephen Curry is there and if LeBron James can continue to defy age and miles on his 39-year-old body, he and Anthony Davis can keep the Lakers in contention.

Don’t forget about Memphis. Ja Morant will be back healthy and suspension-free next season for a young, talented squad with one of the game’s best coaches in Taylor Jenkins. The Rockets are on deck after a strong finish to the regular season and Victor Wembanyama has lived up to the hype.

If San Antonio can surround the rookie phenom with the right complement of players, look out. Only Utah and Portland seem further away, but they have good young, talent to build around, too.

That’s what awaiting Phoenix next season, but this offseason will greatly determine if the Suns put themselves in good position to take on those conference challengers.

Have opinions about the current state of the Suns? Reach Suns Insider Duane Rankin at dmrankin@gannett.com or contact him at 480-787-1240. Follow him on X, formerly Twitter, at @DuaneRankin. Support local journalism. Start your online subscription