The Indiana Fever’s season tipped off with fireworks — and not just on the scoreboard. In their opener against the Chicago Sky, things got physical fast when Angel Reese shoved past Aliyah Boston for a rebound. Then, Caitlin Clark fired back with a hard foul and an extra push, which was later upgraded to a flagrant. Two games later, if anyone thought that was the most, the Fever star is making them think again.

For Game 3 versus the Atlanta Dream, Clark entered the court to dominate. And she did. Late in a tight second-half sequence, CC was trying to create some space to make a play. But, it was Rhyne Howard on top of her, crowing her moment. So when Howard made contact, the refs immediately called a defensive foul on her for the body check.

And that didn’t sit well with Clark, who got visibly frustrated by the tight defence. Things quickly escalated as Clark and Howard got into a bit of a scuffle. “I’m not scared of you,” Indiana Fever sensation told the opponent in the first quarter, right in the heat of that moment. And, Howard, she didn’t take kindly to it. She snapped back with a glare, and for a second, it looked like things might boil over. But players from both teams rushed in, and the moment passed before it could turn into something bigger. No technicals were called. But the energy in the building shifted.

Well, that’s Caitlin Clark in a nutshell. She’s not backing down — not from veterans and definitely not from anyone questioning if she belongs on this stage. In fact, the fire’s always been there, passed down by her father, Brent Clark. “I was a pretty emotional player. I even recall fights in a couple of games. I wasn’t the instigator, but the competitive juices just flowed. Caitlin and I see a lot of me in her in that way,” he had said. Now Caitlin may not have showed up the same in her rookie campaign, but she was shown enough to come charged up for year 2.

Remember how she was often the target of the W’s physicality in her rookie season? From a brutal shoulder check by Chennedy Carter to Aari McDonald’s aggressive closeouts on three-point attempts, Clark endured it all. In fact, she was on the receiving end of five Flagrant 1 fouls during her first year—nearly 17% of the league’s 30 Flagrant 1s for the entire season.

“I think everybody is physical with me; they get away with things that probably other people don’t get away with. It’s tough, but that’s just the fact of the matter,” Clark said at the time. So when her sophomore season came around, Clark knew exactly what to expect. And that’s when she started showing the league something else: resilience and adaptability.

After a gruelling offseason, Caitlin Clark refuses to let opponents shut her down

You have seen the photo of those biceps. That’s the result of consistency. After having had no time to prepare prior to her rookie campaign, Caitlin Clark wanted to put every minute of her off season to good use. “I don’t know the last time I’ve had an athlete in the W, or even on the men’s side, really, where you have a consistent four- to five-month period where you get to just work together,” Sarah Kessler had said.

Now with a little bit of fire inherited from her father and months of strength and conditioning loudly visible, the reigning ROTY isn’t holding back.

Brent had admitted the similarity their traits after Caitlin had racked up six technical fouls. Well, that competitive spirit hasn’t gone anywhere. Especially since Clark kicked off her sophomore campaign with a heated moment against Chicago Sky star Angel Reese.

And now, she’s back in the spotlight following a tense scuffle with Atlanta Dream’s Rhyne Howard. In this case, though, the context adds more weight. The Fever were coming off a tough loss to the Dream in Game 2—a game in which Rhyne Howard played a huge role. She dropped 20 points and hit the go-ahead free throw with just 9.1 seconds left, sealing a dramatic 91–90 win for Atlanta.

Howard’s defensive pressure was also key, especially in how she disrupted Clark’s off-ball movement and threw off Indiana’s offensive rhythm. But Clark wasn’t going to let that happen again. Not this time.