{"id":711509,"date":"2026-05-29T02:06:16","date_gmt":"2026-05-29T02:06:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/711509\/"},"modified":"2026-05-29T02:06:16","modified_gmt":"2026-05-29T02:06:16","slug":"fevers-caitlin-clark-raves-about-sf-giants-ballhalla-steph-curry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/711509\/","title":{"rendered":"Fever’s Caitlin Clark raves about SF Giants, Ballhalla, Steph Curry"},"content":{"rendered":"

SAN FRANCISCO \u2013 Caitlin Clark<\/a> could not wait to leave Indiana Fever practice on Wednesday afternoon.\u00a0<\/p>\n

After prepping for Thursday\u2019s game against the Valkyries<\/a>, the WNBA\u2019s biggest star raced from USF to McCovey Cove, threw on a \u201cSF\u201d cap and took in some thrilling Giants baseball.<\/p>\n

Sitting close to Warriors guard and Valkyries superfan Brandin Podziemski, not even 3-2 Giants loss<\/a> could detract from her enjoyment of a beautiful day by the water.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, Oracle was on my bucket list, and we got here a few days early, so I was like, \u2018I gotta try to go,\u2019\u201d Clark said before Thursday night\u2019s game at Chase Center. \u201cI\u2019m not going to complain about being in the second row, but it might be one of those ballparks where the nosebleeds might be better than behind home plate. Obviously, 65 and sunny right on the bay, and a baseball game in the middle of May, that\u2019s not too bad.\u201d<\/p>\n

She did not expect such welcoming conditions from the Valkyries fans during her lone Bay Area appearance of the regular season. Clark is so beloved by visiting fans that the Fever printed out shirts that read \u201cEvery game is a home game\u201d last season.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But the venue known as \u201cBallhalla\u201d is an exception. The majority of the 18,064 who sell out the arena are there to cheer for their Valkyries, no matter how much star power the other side has.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI was available for one of the two games we played here last year, and I know this crowd is great,\u201d Clark said. \u201cThey\u2019re into it, they\u2019re into the game, positively supporting their team, and they\u2019re loud from the tip.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"IndianaIndiana Fever’s Caitlin Clark (22) takes a shot during warmups before their game against the Golden State Valkyries at the Chase Center in San Francisco, Calif., on Thursday, May 28, 2026. (Nhat V. Meyer\/Bay Area News Group)\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Valkyries crowd saw a different version of Clark compared to the one who shot just 3 of 14 from the field last June.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Clark is finally at full strength again after, hampered by a groin injury, played in only 13 games a year ago. Well, not quite, considering she has missed a game with a nagging back injury.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But even with the hobbled back, Clark is averaging a career-high 23.8 points and 9.0 assists on career-best 43.2\/34.8\/96.4 shooting splits, and has scored at least 20 points in all five games.\u00a0<\/p>\n

She credited some of her improvement to working with acclaimed skills trainer Brandon Payne, who also works with Warriors star Steph Curry.<\/p>\n

\u201cI knew he worked with Steph, and I love Steph\u2019s game, and was just looking for some creative watts to make myself better and challenge myself, and I feel like we found a lot of ways to do that over the course of the offseason,\u201d Clark said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

She went for 24 points and nine assists in last Friday\u2019s game against the Valkyries in Indianapolis, getting into a jawing match with the similarly-talkative Tiffany Hayes<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

At Valkyries shootaround, Hayes, who also previously posted about it on social media, made it clear that she has moved past the supposed feud.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cShe just made a play and chirped. And it was a little chirping here and there, and that was that,\u201d Hayes said. \u201cThat was the end of it and it should have been the end of it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Clark was also in no mood to create controversy.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t have any bad blood with any sort of players in this league, like it\u2019s just a competitive fire, that\u2019s competitive fire,\u201d Clark said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Monique Billings returns<\/p>\n

Former Valkyries center Monique Billings made her return to the Bay Area. Now a member of the Indiana Fever, the veteran big still has love for the Golden State organization.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was like, \u2018Aw I miss it,\u2019\u201d Billings said at shootaround. \u201cI had such great times here. Being a part of the inaugural season with this team is really special. That\u2019s something in a feeling that will never go away. Just a lot of gratitude.\u201d<\/p>\n

In her last game in violet, Billings put in 15 points off the bench in a close playoff loss to top seeded Minnesota. When Billings ran onto the floor for warmups on Thursday, she received a loud cheer from the crowd.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think just Mo and her energy is something that we love and obviously we miss,\u201d Hayes said.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SAN FRANCISCO \u2013 Caitlin Clark could not wait to leave Indiana Fever practice on Wednesday afternoon.\u00a0 After prepping…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":711510,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2408],"tags":[5,1696,5776,2178,162,29856,5775,853,4,5777,378,5778,66,4343,4340,4344,4341,4342,185,10391],"class_list":["post-711509","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-francisco-giants","tag-baseball","tag-basketball","tag-bay-area","tag-california","tag-giants","tag-golden-state-valkyries","tag-inside-sports","tag-latest-headlines","tag-mlb","tag-peninsula","tag-san-francisco","tag-san-francisco-county","tag-san-francisco-giants","tag-sanfrancisco","tag-sanfranciscogiants","tag-sf","tag-sf-giants","tag-sfgiants","tag-sports","tag-wnba"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116655422534404910","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/711509","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=711509"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/711509\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/711510"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=711509"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=711509"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=711509"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}