"Sometimes you just got to put her in place" - Fever teammate jokingly dubs Caitlin Clark a 'kid', discusses rookie's technical foul troubles

A teammate of Caitlin Clark on the Indiana Fever playfully called out her behavior as she reflected on how the team tried to prevent the rookie from earning a one-game suspension due to accumulating technical fouls.

In the WNBA, seven technical fouls result in a suspension, and Caitlin Clark was sitting at six as of Sept. 13, with two games left in the regular season.

Katie Lou Samuelson joked that the Fever players were doing their best to “put Clark in place” to keep her from hitting that suspension threshold.

“You know, she's just such…she's a kid sometimes, and she keeps everything light, but sometimes you just got to put her in place,” Samuelson joked during Saturday’s practice.

Their efforts paid off, as Caitlin Clark managed to finish the regular season without reaching seven technical fouls. The technical-foul counter resets as the playoffs begin.

“We made it through without getting to seven, so I think that was our goal as a group and we did it,” Samuelson said. “I mean, she's just always always chirping, but it's good, and she knows it, too. So it's easy to like laugh about it and play off of it.”

With Caitlin Clark leading the way, the Fever are preparing for their first postseason since 2016, as they take on the Connecticut Sun in a best-of-three series starting Sept. 22.

The Fever struggled in their first three meetings with the Sun earlier in the season, losing by 21, four and 17 points. However, they turned things around, winning 17 of their last 27 games, including a narrow 84-80 win over the Sun on Aug. 28.

Caitlin Clark raises questions about referees over certain technical foul calls

While Caitlin Clark acknowledged she could do a better job managing her emotions, she suggested that some of her technical fouls were not the result of outbursts but questionable referee calls.

“It stinks because I feel like half of my technicals this year, I got one for that inadvertent contact to the face in the Minnesota game and then two for hitting the stanchion of the basket,” Clark said ahead of Thursday's game against Mystics(per FOX40).

“One was a complete accident, and then the other two were just a little frustration with myself.”

She said she could do better but also expressed disbelief that she got called for them.

“So, I think I could have done a better job keeping my emotions in check, but at the same time, like, … really?”

Clark’s six technical fouls tied her for second-most in the league alongside Phoenix’s Kahleah Copper and Dallas’ Arike Ogunbowale.

Three players reached the seven technical fouls threshold and were handed one-game suspensions, namely Phoenix’s Diana Taurasi and Natasha Cloud and Dallas’ Teaira McCowan.