Regardless of who they choose, WNBA award voters can say the following when choosing between Indiana’s Caitlin Clark and Chicago’s Angel Reese in this season’s Rookie of the Year voting:

“She did things that the competition has never seen before.”

The latest examples of that came Friday night, when Clark and Reese went head-to-head for the fourth and final time this regular season. The game, and the individual race, were both one-sided: Indiana won 100-81, with Clark leading the way with 31 points and 12 assists — the first such game in WNBA history.

Clark has said she’s not too fixated on individual awards, but her performance on Friday night did indicate she’s the heavy favorite to win Rookie of the Year; BetMGM Sportsbook recently put her odds of winning the award at -5,000, meaning bookmakers are almost certain to drop her.

Indiana went 3-1 against Chicago this season, with Clark (20.5 points, 10 assists per game) leading Reese (13.5 points, 13.3 rebounds per game) in the stat lineup in those meetings. And the Fever are now 16-16, while the Sky are 11-20.

A look at the numbers:

Clark’s season averages so far: 18.4 points, 5.7 rebounds and 8.3 assists per game.

That has never been done in an entire WNBA season. By anyone, rookie or otherwise.

For context, only two other players — Sabrina Ionescu (twice) and Alyssa Thomas — have averaged 15 points, five rebounds and five assists in a full season. Candace Parker averaged 19.4 points, 10.1 rebounds and 6.3 assists in 2015, but appeared in just 16 games.

Clark also holds the WNBA record for three-pointers made by a rookie, with 93 and counting. In 2023, she has a chance to tie Ionescu’s single-season record of 128. Only six players in WNBA history have made 100 three-pointers in a season. At her current pace, Clark is within two or three games of that milestone.

Clark also has 14 games this season with 20 or more points. Everyone else in the rookie class, combined, had nine entering Saturday.

Yes, much has been made of the way Reese often gets the ball back when she misses it, including four times in one possession against Las Vegas on August 25.

Regardless, she grabs more rebounds per game than anyone in WNBA history.

With 12.9 per game, she is poised to break the WNBA record for rebounds per game. Sylvia Fowles grabbed 11.9 per game in 2018.

That’s a significant margin statistically. Reese is so far ahead of the record pace that she averaged “only” nine rebounds per game the rest of the game and still set the league record.

If Clark maintains her league-high eight assists per game, she will become only the third player in WNBA history to finish a season with such an average.

Courtney Vandersloot has done it six times, the first time at 28. Ticha Penicheiro has done it once, at 27. Clark is in position to join them — at 22.

Also well within reach: the single-season record for total assists. Clark already has 264. The WNBA record is 316, set last season by Thomas. And Clark already holds the WNBA single-game record for assists, with 19 against Dallas.

Here’s another unprecedented feat for Clark: She’s had three games this season with at least 23 points and 12 assists. No other WNBA player has accomplished that in her entire career.

Reese is the first rookie to have 23 double-doubles in a season. She scored her last five points in the final minutes of Friday night, again deciding the game with at least 10 points and 10 rebounds.

Reese broke the rookie record of 22 games, set by Tina Charles in 2010. The regular season was shorter then — 34 games instead of the current 40 — but Reese still passed it in 31 games.

And Reese had 15 consecutive double-doubles earlier this season, three games longer than any other streak in WNBA history.

Next up: the overall WNBA record of 28, which Thomas set last season. Reese would need six double-doubles in her final nine games to pass Thomas’ mark.

This is the stat Clark’s detractors point to most often: No one in WNBA history, thus far, has had more than 137 turnovers in a season.

Clark is already at 174, with eight games left.

The question is to what extent this matters.

Point guards tend to have more turnovers than anyone else because they have the ball in their hands more than anyone else. The six best single-season totals in NBA history belong to James Harden, then Russell Westbrook, then Harden, then Westbrook, then Harden, then Artis Gilmore.

All six seasons of turnovers were All-Star seasons for those players. Gilmore is in the Hall of Fame. Harden and Westbrook will probably go there too.

Let’s be clear: Averaging 13.2 points and 12.9 rebounds per game is exceptional. Only four NBA players have finished a season with such averages in the last four seasons — Rudy Gobert did it three times, and Nikola Jokic, Domantas Sabonis and Clint Capela all did it once.

But Reese’s shooting percentage is clearly something voters will take into account.

Reese is shooting 38.6% from the field this season and has shot 31% or worse in 14 of her 31 games. That’s despite nearly all of her shots coming from inside the paint; only 12 of her 376 field goal attempts have come from beyond the 3-point line.

Of the 30 players with at least 300 shots attempted this season, Reese ranks 28th in field-goal percentage.

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AP WNBA: https://apnews.com/hub/wnba-basketball