Right before the break, we got a little John going on. Caitlin says, “Hey, you and me, Hayes. You and me.
” This is how you bring the roof down. All tied up here with 5:14 to go. The Golden State Valkyries spent 40 minutes hacking, grabbing, and scratching Caitlin Clark so badly that her arms looked like she’d been dragged through barbed wire.
And Sophie Cunningham went live after the game just to show off the marks on her own face. But the Valkyries forgot one thing when they drew up that game plan. Indiana spent the entire off-season hunting for exactly one type of player.
Someone who doesn’t flinch, doesn’t back down, and has already won a championship doing the dirty work nobody else wants to do. Her name is Myisha Hines-Allen. And this enforcer just destroyed the Golden State Valkyries bullies and made them lose their minds.
Do you think Caitlin will win MVP this season? Comment down below. Now, take a look at this ear altercation where Caitlin Clark hit a logo bomb.
I mean, absolutely hit a logo bomb all over. And then she’s talking that talk, talking cash, s h i t. And you’re going to see my Look, look at Myisha Hines-Allen running to get in front of her.
Don’t you dare. Don’t you dare do nothing. You better fall back.
YOU BETTER FALL BACK.
From the opening tip, Golden State didn’t pretend this was going to be a normal basketball game. The Valkyries attached themselves to Clark on every single possession, grabbing her wrists when she caught the ball, bumping her hips off screens, and raking their arms across hers every time she attacked the rim.
The referees swallowed their whistles for most of it, and Golden State just kept coming. Caitlin says, “Hey, you and me, Hayes. You and me.
” York, averaging nine per game. Right up the middle, it’s Tiffany Hayes.
Tiffany Hayes was the worst of the bunch, and it wasn’t close.
She held Clark on off-ball cuts, grabbed her jersey during pick-and-roll actions, and every time Clark tried to shake free and create some separation, Hayes turned it into a full wrestling match right there on the court. Not for one quarter, not for one stretch when things got heated. The whole 40 minutes, every time Clark touched the ball or tried to move without it, Hayes was grabbing, holding, and tugging like she was trying to win a tug-of-war instead of play defense. Now, Hayes is fouled by Clark. That’s the freedom of movement. Free game studio show the Fever had to make them feel that second night so far.
Haven’t been able to do so. And there Clark does draw the foul.
By halftime, Clark’s arms had visible scratches and marks all over them from the constant contact, and she wasn’t the only Fever player absorbing that kind of damage.
Sophie Cunningham was getting roughed up on the perimeter the entire game, too. So much so that after the final buzzer, she went live on social media, pointed the camera directly at her own face, and just let people see the scratches she’d collected. That’s how physical the game got.
Players were going live after the game to show off their wounds. Night during the game, I came out, and I literally leaned over on the bench. I was like, “Ty, do I have a scratch on my head?
Like, it hurts. ” She goes, “No, you’re fine. ” I literally looked in the mirror, and I looked like freaking Harry Potter. Then right before halftime, Janel Salone took it somewhere past basketball entirely. After a rebound battle, Salone wound up and threw an elbow directly at Clark that almost landed. Not a box out, not an accidental collision from two players fighting for position, an elbow.
Clark didn’t back down. The benches emptied onto the floor, and for a solid few seconds, it genuinely looked like the whole thing was about to completely blow up. Myisha Hines-Allen stepped in and pulled Clark away, coaches got involved, and the referees handed out matching technical fouls to both Clark and Salon before everyone headed to the locker room.
Got to make you pay with that three. Final five seconds, can Hull do it again? Not this time.
And that’ll take us into halftime. Well, some extra curriculars. Here it is.
Both teams head to their respective benches. Clark’s technical in that exchange counted as her second of the season. Her first coming on May 13th against the Los Angeles Sparks.
Then late in the fourth quarter, she picked up a flagrant one for a hard screen on Veronica Burton, upgraded after review. Postgame, Clark didn’t sugarcoat any of it. “I guess I have some fines coming my way,” she admitted.
“And a flagrant. Wow. ” She estimated around a thousand dollars in fines total, said the game was definitely really physical, acknowledged the referees didn’t catch everything she felt out there, and moved on without turning it into a longer complaint than it needed to be.
After the buzzer, Hayes got caught on a hot mic making it very clear her feelings about Clark went way beyond competitive defense. She wasn’t just playing hard. She wanted Clark to know exactly how she felt, and she didn’t care who heard it.
I did. She would never just play the game. No questions?
I’ll ask. If the refs would have made the right calls, Caitlin Clark would have destroyed you even more. They called this a foul on Caitlin Clark when she didn’t even touch you.
She gets elbowed, and they gave Caitlin Clark a technical. Sets a screen, they give her a flagrant.
The scratches on Clark’s arms and the marks on Cunningham’s face weren’t accidents from a physical game.
Golden State drew that blueprint on purpose, and it held together for about a half before Indiana flipped the script entirely, starting with the player they’d spent the off season specifically going out to find. So, talking about not calling stuff, how about if they actually called what they’re supposed to, like two hands on her chest? But Caitlin Clark still improvised, made it happen for her team.
How about this? That’s a foul. They didn’t call it.
So, if they would actually call what they’re supposed to, Caitlin Clark would have torched you even more. Look at this. She gets hit on her elbow from number 13.
You could clearly see she doesn’t have the follow through on her shot cuz she was hit. She’s hit again. Indiana didn’t stumble into Maïsha Hines-Allen.
The front office went looking for exactly what she is, and they found her before the Valkyries game proved just how badly the Fever needed her. Let’s talk about what Hines-Allen actually brings to this roster. She won a championship with the Washington Mystics in 2019, earned All-WNBA recognition, and built her whole reputation doing the work most forwards quietly avoid.
She posts up in traffic, bangs on the boards every possession, sets screens that actually hurt. And when someone takes a run at her team’s best player, she doesn’t check the bench to see if the coach is watching. She just goes.
That’s not a role you teach a player in training camp. Either they have that wiring or they don’t, and Hines-Allen has had it her entire career.
You see Maïsha Hines-Allen sprint into the frame.
Sprint it She sprinted into the frame here. Hold on, what y’all want to do? What y’all want to do? The Fever’s issue going into this off-season wasn’t talent at the top. Clark and Aliyah Boston were already one of the best duos in the league, and Kelsey Mitchell was a proven scorer who could take over a game on any given night. The problem was that Clark kept getting targeted game after game, and nobody in Indiana’s frontcourt could change what that cost the opposing team.
Teams figured out that going after Clark physically was a free strategy because there were no real consequences for it. Maisha Hines-Allen was the direct answer to that specific problem. Not a general roster upgrade, a fix for one exact thing. What many people noticed was Maisha Hines-Allen was not hesitant. She was sprinting front and center. Who Who said what?
Who trying to do what? Who trying to Who trying to touch 22? What you want to do?
We love that. We love that because for so long, we watched Caitlin Clark get targeted and get get a flagrantly fouled, people poking her in the eye, people knocking her to the floor when the when the the game is not even in play, and none of her teammates would step up and defend her.
Her history as a physical presence in this league goes back years, and she’s gone at serious competition.
At one point, she and Sophie Cunningham had their own heated exchange on the court, which is genuinely funny now that they’re teammates, but it also tells you everything you need to know about the kind of player Hines-Allen is. She doesn’t carry a list of opponents she’ll back down from. She goes at everyone, full stop. Sophie Cunningham tried to fight Maisha Hines-Allen. She tried to fight Maisha Hines-Allen. You do not like There were not that many people.
You can see everyone else is do trying to get as far away from this situation as possible. Everyone else. So, she hits a three, Maisha Hines-Allen fouls her and then tries to step over and then Sophie Cunningham grabs her leg.
Nobody’s going near Maisha Hines-Allen, but no, Sophie Cunningham will start the fight. The refs are trying to break it up. None of the None of the Mercury players are going to go near Maisha Hines-Allen.
They’re scared She’s She’s scared of her, but Jesus H. Maisha Hines-Allen is one of the toughest players in this league. Sophie Cunningham going head-to-head straight with her. The Indiana Fever built this roster around Fie and Clark up to run the offense without spending half her mental energy managing threats. Hines-Allen fits that because her presence pulls physical attention toward the front court and away from the paint, which opens up better angles for Boston in the post and gives White a rotation that can match up with the league’s most physical lineups without flinching. Indiana signed her to a one-year deal and that structure wasn’t accidental.
The front office kept cap room flexible for 2026 while still putting a real contender on the floor right now and Hines-Allen is exactly the kind of player that contract structure works for because her value doesn’t show up in the scoring column. It shows up when things turn ugly.
She’s willing to do her part and protect the goat.
That’s part of the reason why we love Sophie Cunningham and that’s just the fact. Now, there was a few mix-ups here, right? And you going to see Maisha Hines-Allen with no hesitation.
I mean, with no hesitation come and get in between and say, “Hey, you got to go through me to get through her. What you want to do, punk? ” Against Golden State, things turned ugly fast.
When Salon threw that elbow at Clark right before halftime and the sideline started moving, Hines-Allen didn’t hesitate. She sprinted directly to Clark, planted herself between Clark and Salon, and made it obvious that anyone who wanted to get to Clark was going to have to deal with her first. Later in the game, after the exchange with Tiffany Hayes heated up again, Hines-Allen was right back in that same spot.
Even before the third quarter, Clark had already done something absurd. In the first quarter alone, she scored or assisted on 17 of Indiana’s 21 points. Not 17 of her own points, 17 of the team’s 21 total.
She ran the entire offense while getting her arms raked and her jersey grabbed on basically every possession, and Golden State still couldn’t stop her. Had the whole pulls down the rebound.
Lexie Hull doing it all on that defensive possession.
CLARK OH, FROM ANOTHER STRATOSPHERE. A LITTLE CHATTER, TOO, GOES A LONG WAY from the logo back to defense. The second quarter got harder.
Golden State’s physicality started grinding on Clark’s rhythm. The Valkyries crept back into it, and halftime arrived with the Salon elbow incident still fresh and both benches still hot. Coach Stephanie White’s halftime message cut straight to it.
Tighten the defense, get physical at the point of attack, and stop letting Golden State run their stuff in comfortable positions. Force them into contested twos. Make them earn everything.
Clark walked out for the third quarter and pulled up from 33 ft, straight over Tiffany Hayes, and drained it. The game tied at 48. The crowd completely lost it, and Hayes, who’d been grabbing and holding Clark the entire night, just stood there and watched it go in.
You don’t pull up from 33 ft over the person who’s been mugging you all game unless you’re sending a very specific message, and Clark sent it loud. Come on, you can’t get enough of this.
Deep first. Deep. Back and through the
And electric. She didn’t stop there.
Clark drove hard into contact multiple times in the third, converting tough and-ones, and turning what Golden State thought were defensive wins into free points and momentum swings at the same time. Her passing in that stretch was just as damaging as her shooting, finding cutters before the defense could rotate, hitting Boston in the post when the paint opened up, and keeping Indiana’s offense flowing at a pace Golden State couldn’t match no matter what they tried. Hand off, Boston.
Backing away inside, kick out Hull, reposts Boston. Boston turns, fades, fires, and hits!
Beautifully done.
Boston, back-to-back, the repost. In the one-on-one, feels the D. Mitchell on the attack, gets to the rim, but couldn’t finish.
Tip out Hull, BOSTON’S OPEN, AND SHE HITS A THREE! ALIYAH BOSTON FINISHED WITH 20 POINTS and 16 rebounds. And that interior presence is what kept giving Clark space to operate from the perimeter.
Kelsey Mitchell dropped 19 points. And when three players are doing that kind of damage on the same night, the defense faces impossible choices on every single possession. Raven Johnson and Lexie Hull hit shots in the second half that kept Golden State from ever getting close enough to make the final minutes feel nervous.
Caitlin Clark and the Indiana Fever here. First possession from Indianapolis as Mitchell gets inside and lays it in. Clark’s final line: 22 points, nine assists, seven for 15 from the field, four for nine from three, one steal, one block, 32 minutes.
She also picked up a technical and collected a flagrant one. So, this wasn’t a clean game for her by any measure. She nearly had her third straight 20-point, 10-assist game despite all of it.
Postgame, she told reporters the officiating felt inconsistent, that some of what Golden State ran on her should have drawn whistles earlier. And she said it plainly without turning it into a speech. Indiana won 90 to 82.
The win over Golden State wasn’t just Indiana picking another W. It was the first real look at what this roster does when someone tries to bully their way through it and the answer was it doesn’t work anymore. You want to talk to her, you got to talk to me.
This is what we needed on this team. Somebody that’s willing to be front and center and that’s with all the smoke. That’s with all the smoke, okay?
Just like Sophie Cunningham was right here. Oh, you want to Yep. Yep, sit down.
Sit down. Yep. This is why we love Sophie.
This is why we love Sophie. Never forget and Myisha Hines-Allen is down for the same cause. Make no mistake about it, Myisha Hines-Allen is down for it.
Let’s talk about what changed up front because it’s not subtle. Hines-Allen and Sophie Cunningham together on the wings and in the front court give Indiana something they flat out didn’t have last season. Cunningham hit 43% from three during her peak stretch in 2025.
So, she’s not just standing in the corner spacing the floor. She’s a real shooting threat that defenses have to respect and she plays defense with the kind of edge that makes life genuinely uncomfortable for whoever draws her assignment. Hines-Allen handles the post physicality and the enforcer role and together those two give Clark a support system that simply wasn’t there before.
Teams that want to target Clark now have to look past two forwards who will make them pay for it IN DIFFERENT WAYS. QUITE A BIT OF FOUL TROUBLE IN THIS HALF. To put it in perspective, Mabry has three and Aliyah Boston has three fouls, Brianna Hartley has three fouls. That’s your wing depth.
Yes. The bigger shift is mental, right?
The past two seasons, Clark spent real energy managing threats on the court because nobody was going to step in front of them for her. That’s not a small drain on a player who’s also running an entire offense, reading defenses, and trying to take over games in crunch time. Now, Hines-Allen is already moving toward the problem before Clark even has to think about it, and that changes how Clark can play.
She can put all of that mental energy back into basketball, and a fully locked-in Clark with a healthy roster and a full season of chemistry with this group is a genuinely scary thing for the rest of the league to think about. The MVP conversation gets real if Indiana stays healthy and keeps winning games like this one. Clark nearly put up her third straight 20-point, 10-assist game while getting fouled, scratched, technicaled, and flagranted all night.
That’s not a player who needs perfect conditions to perform at that level. The 2026 championship path runs straight through games exactly like May 22nd, physical, contested, and emotionally charged from the opening tip. Indiana just proved they can win that kind of game, and Golden State proved they can’t rattle this team no matter how many elbows they throw.
Do you think Caitlin will win MVP this season? Comment down below. Don’t forget to like, subscribe, and turn on all notifications so you don’t miss out on all things basketball.
Click the video on the screen, and we will see you in the next one.
—
Caitlin Clark’s ENFORCER DESTROYS Golden State Valkyries BULLIES & Makes Them LOSE THEIR MINDS! #caitlinclark #wnba #caitlynclark #basketball #indianafever #womenssports #basketballplayer #caitlinclarkhighlights #caitlinclarknews #wnbanews #goldenstatevalkyries The WNBA Golden State Valkyries spent 40 minutes hacking, grabbing, and scratching Caitlin Clark of WNBA Indiana Fever so badly that her arms looked like she’d been dragged through barbed wire, and Sophie Cunningham went live after the game just to show off the marks on her own face. Myisha Hines-Allen, Caitlin Clark and Indiana Fever’s new enforcer just destroyed the Golden State Valkyries bullies and made them lose their minds! 🔔 Click the LINK To Show Your Love For Caitlin Clark : https://www.youtube.com/@BasketballTopStories?sub_confirmation=1 🏀 At Basketball Top Stories, we bring the hottest and best features from across basketball. LIKE the video, SUBSCRIBE now, and TURN ON all notifications for more Women’s Basketball, WNBA, and Caitlin Clark Content, Commentary, and Stories. Click the link BELOW if Caitlin Clark should win the MVP! https://www.youtube.com/@BasketballTopStories?sub_confirmation=1 _________________________________________________________________ About Basketball Top Stories: 📺 Videos about Women’s Basketball, WNBA, and the amazing women in the league 🎥 Written, voiced, and produced by Basketball Top Stories team 🔔 Subscribe now for more Women’s Basketball, WNBA, and Caitlin Clark Content, Commentary, Analysis, and Stories. For any inquiries or concerns, email us at basketballtopstories1@myyahoo.com ⚠️ Copyright and Fair Use Disclaimers • We use images and content in accordance with the YouTube Fair Use copyright guidelines. • Section 107 of the United States Copyright Act 1976 states: “Notwithstanding the provisions of sections 106 and 106A, the fair use of a copyrighted work, including such use by reproduction in copies or phonorecords or by any other means specified by that section, for purposes such as criticism, comment, teaching (including multiple copies for classroom use), scholarship, or research, is not an infringement of copyright.” • This video may contain certain copyrighted video clips, pictures, or photographs, the use of which were not explicitly authorized by the copyright holder(s), but which we believe in good faith are protected by US federal law and the fair use doctrine for one or more of the reasons noted above. No copyright infringement intended – ALL RIGHTS BELONG TO THEIR RESPECTIVE OWNERS. • We clearly understand that we are not allowed to use clips of moments from your favorite show edited together with little or no narrative. In our content you would clearly see that this is not the case. All the clips we use are of similar subject, and we clearly explain how they are connected together, not only that we also add our own personal opinion, context, analysis, and commentary to each clip we show. These clips are mainly used to drive the discussion with our viewer. • The videos are made in compliance with YouTube’s Fair Use Policy because we ideate, script, and produce a concise story, adding value through additional information, analysis, and / or subjective commentary. We aim to celebrate and give the spotlight to the incredible athletes across the WNBA, to be enjoyed around the world. Whether you’re a long-time fan or new to the league, our content is designed to entertain, educate, and inspire. ⚠️ Content Disclaimer: • Content Context: This video may include discussions of theoretical perspectives that have been circulated on the internet and reported by various outlets. This content is provided for educational and informative purposes and should not be considered as endorsed facts or absolute truths. However, we have taken great lengths to research key facts and statistics up to the publishing date. • Intention of Content: This channel does not intend to defame, slander, or discredit any individuals or organizations or groups mentioned in this video. The information is presented to stimulate thoughtful discussion and critical thinking among viewers. • Educational Purpose: The content in this video is intended to foster understanding and discussion around topics that may be complex and controversial. It is designed to encourage viewers to critically analyze and seek out additional authoritative sources for further clarification.
