Caitlin Clark Wins WNBA Player of the Week Again: The MVP Race Just Got Interesting
Caitlin Clark is the WNBA Eastern Conference Player of the Week for the third time this season. She won it in back-to-back weeks. She is now tied with A’ja Wilson for the most Player of the Week honors in the league in 2026.
Over the last seven days, Clark scored 77 points, the third-most in the WNBA behind teammate Kelsey Mitchell (91) and A’ja Wilson (97). She averaged 25.7 points per game. She also led the entire league in assists over the week with 27 total and 9.0 per game, which is what Caitlin Clark does even on scoring streaks.
The Indiana Fever are 22-9 and they are the clear No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference. That is a stunning turnaround for a franchise that was 20-20 the year Clark was drafted and 13-27 the year before that. She has personally transformed the ceiling of this team faster than any player in modern WNBA history.
Here is what is different about Clark in year three. She is finally comfortable in the midrange. Rookie Clark was almost exclusively pull-up threes and drives to the rim. Sophomore Clark added the floater. This version of Clark can score from anywhere on the floor, and she is even working off the ball better, which unlocks the offense in new ways when defenses are constantly shading toward her.
She is a legitimate MVP candidate. Wilson has been the best player in the sport for four years and is still averaging 25.7 points, 2.0 blocks, and leading the league in field goals made. Wilson is probably going to win the award again because she plays for a team with a better record and because voters lean toward the reigning MVP. But Clark is closing the gap.
The real conversation is about the Fever as a title contender. Nobody thought Indiana was going to be here in year three. Stephanie White has developed a coaching identity that plays to Clark’s strengths, Mitchell has become the perfect complementary star, and the roster has enough depth to compete with the Aces and Liberty in a playoff series.
The bad news is that Indiana just announced a minor injury to Aliyah Boston that has been complicating the frontcourt rotation. She is expected to play through it, but any long-term Boston issue would be a real problem for a team that leans on her defensively.
What the WNBA is watching is whether Clark can carry a Fever team past the Aces in a seven-game series. That is the actual test of MVP-caliber play. Regular season awards are nice. Playoff basketball is where legacies get built.
The 2026 WNBA Finals could be Indiana against Las Vegas, and it could be Clark against Wilson for a championship. That is the exact matchup the sport has been building toward.
Clark is not just the best player Indiana has ever had. She is turning them into a franchise. Three Player of the Week awards in a season is not a fluke. It is a preview.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.
