"We just played a crappy game" - Caitlin Clark refuses to use black eye as excuse for her playoff struggles vs Sun

Many thought that Caitlin Clark's poked eye affected her in her first playoff game. However, the Indiana Fever guard didn't use it as an excuse as they suffered a 93-69 loss against the Connecticut Sun on Sunday.

In the opening quarter, the Sun's DiJonai Carrington accidentally poked Clark's eye, and many assumed that it was the reason for her disappointing game.

Clark finished the game with only 11 points and had difficulty shooting the basketball. She only made four shots, despite having 17 attempts from the field. Her efficiency from beyond the arc was also disappointing, only making two out of her 13 3-pointers.

Luckily, she contributed in other areas of the game. She grabbed four rebounds, dished out eight assists, and stole the ball three times. Following her frustrating playoff debut, Clark told reporters what she feels about getting poked in the eye.

"Obviously got me pretty good… I don’t think it affected me. I felt like I got good shots, they just didn’t go down," Clark said. "Obviously a tough time for that to happen. But I got some good looks, I felt I had two pretty wide open threes in the first half that I usually make.

"I felt like I battled and tried my best, took care of the ball better than I usually do, which is a positive... We were right there, I felt like we just played a crappy game. The flow of the game was really bad."

Overall, Clark was firm in what she said that it didn't affect her. Game 2 of their playoff series will be on Wednesday, which will be a must-win game for the Indiana team. If they lose Game 2, their season is over.

Watch the video below to see the moment when Clark got her eye poked.

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Caitlin Clark's coach talked about the Sun's defensive strategies against them in Game 1

The Fever struggled to make shots in their first game because of how the Sun played defense. Their defensive matchups weren't the ones that the Indiana team prepared for.

Following their loss, Caitlin Clark's coach, Christie Sides, talked about being ready with what defensive strategies their opponent came up with.

"I think they were going to make adjustments. They were going to change up their schemes. They were going to change the matchups. We talked about getting the matchups that we want, that we thought would be helpful for us," Sides said. "I agree with [what] Caitlin just said... I still think we had some good looks, we just have to do a better job of getting 50 points in the paint."

In their first game, the Fever only finished with 36 points in the paint and only made 21.4% of their shots from beyond the arc. On Wedesday, Sides shared that Indiana will focus on making the most of their shots from inside the paint.