A couple of months ago, Team USA made the very unpopular decision to leave Indiana Fever rookie Caitlin Clark off of the 2024 Paris Olympics team. In the end, it didn’t matter as the USA cruised to their eight-straight gold medal.

After the decision was made, Fever head coach Christie Sides revealed the message Clark had for her.

“The thing she said was, ‘Hey, coach, they woke a monster,’ which I thought was awesome,” Sides said on June 9.

It turns out that Team USA did, in fact, wake a monster, as Clark has been one of the best, if not the best, players in the WNBA since the Olympic break ended.

Before the month-long hiatus, Clark averaged 17.1 points, 8.2 assists and 5.2 rebounds, leading the Fever to an 11-15 record. Her play was good enough to earn a spot on the WNBA All-Star team, but after a month off, Clark has turned it up a notch.

Since the league’s return, Clark is averaging 24.7 points, 9.3 assists and 5.8 rebounds, increasing all of her statistics by a fair margin. Indiana has been awarded by Clark’s performances with eight wins in ten games, a playoff spot secured and their first winning record in over five years.

Since mid-August, Clark has won multiple awards, including back-to-back-to-back Player of the Week honors and August’s Rookie and Player of the Month. She, along with the rest of her team, has peaked at the perfect time with the playoffs looming. If they keep playing this way, the Fever could have a lot of teams on upset alert in the playoffs.