The defending champions and the team that knocked the Indiana Fever out of the playoffs last season just gave them a reality check. Following the Las Vegas Aces dominating the Fever and winning Game 1 of their first-round playoff series, Caitlin Clark gave her team an “F” on her report card. However, called the loss an experience.

White claimed at her press conference that the young Fever core needed to be “humbled” by the experienced reigning champions to understand the seriousness of their situation. Sitting beside her was Caitlin Clark with half her face wrapped in a towel. Clark looked in front of her for a second and proceeded to bury her face in it further after White’s comments.

Watching the segment, ex-ESPN host Linda Cohn reacted to Clark’s body language during Stephanie White’s comments.

“Did you catch Caitlin? I mean, it was hilarious. Like, I’m like pointing it out like, ‘Oh! My god,'” Cohn said with a chuckle during the latest episode of the Linda Cohn Show on YouTube.

“And by the way, I think the Fever would have exchanged the fact of being humbled for winning game one. You don’t have to be humbled. It’s not written in the coach’s bylaws that it’s important to be humbled before you win,” Cohn added.

This isn’t the first time Clark and White’s dynamic has grabbed attention. Other instances have had fans doing double takes on any suggested friction between the player-coach duo. One such instance occurred in the game against the Aces itself.

Along with the loss, another talking point of the game was how White subbed Clark off for rookie Raven Johnson in only the third quarter, that too while the Fever were trailing the Aces. Clark was visibly frustrated upon her substitution, as she flailed her arms and went off with a disappointed look on her face.

Another moment between the player-coach occurred in their 93-77 September 20, regular season defeat to the Washington Mystics. With less than a minute remaining in the first quarter and the Fever trailing 31-17, Clark was seen shouting something in the direction of head coach White while waiting for the play to resume. She again frustratedly flailed her arms while taking the ball to resume play.

In fact, Linda Cohn herself criticized Stephanie White when a clip of Clark’s exchange with assistant coach Briann January went viral during their penultimate game against the Minnesota Lynx.

“Stephanie White, this ultimately falls on you. You’re the head coach. How can you allow one of your assistants yelling at your star player when that star player was having a great game, even if she was having an awful game – You don’t do that,” Cohn said on X.

So it’s not a surprise the veteran journalist is displeased with White’s latest comments, so much so that she went back in time to last year. She recalled the moment when Stephanie White said Caitlin Clark being injured was a blessing in disguise for the rest of the team, who at that point had won five games in a row in Clark’s absence.

“I mean, that was just as horrible as when Caitlin Clark got injured, and she called it a blessing in disguise on national TV. This is insanity. This lady (White) has no idea what she’s doing,” Cohn said.

Cohn believes White’s latest comments would have been more apt during the regular season, not the beginning of the playoffs.

Speaking of the regular season, the Indiana Fever have had a pretty good record against the Aces this year, winning twice along with a two-point loss in overtime. Granted, Wilson was not present in one of those games, and the four-time MVP made it up on Sunday afternoon with a dominant 38-point and 16-rebound display.

Caitlin Clark, Aliyah Boston, and the players tried their best, but it was not enough. With the Fever playing their do-or-die game on Thursday night, Clark and co. need to learn from their regular-season outings against the Aces and throw the kitchen sink at Becky Hammon’s side if they hope to keep their postseason hopes alive.