New York Liberty extinguish Indiana Fever, 102-66

Thursday night’s contest between the New York Liberty and Indiana Fever — the first of a home-and-home series — was not the Caitlin Clark Show.

Perhaps much of Indiana’s sell-out crowd expected it to be, and perhaps some of the media did too. The first five questions asked to Liberty Head Coach Sandy Brondello in her pregame presser were about Clark, only a couple of them about the X’s and O’s challenges the rookie star would present.

And Clark is a star, to be sure, but Brondello soon had to make it clear that Clark “is a great young talent, but I think you have to realize the other players, the great players we have around. It’s unfair for Caitlin, for it to be just about her. It’s really unfair, it’s not right. She’s young, she’s gonna have highs and lows. Let’s celebrate all the great players in our league, not just one player.”

Brondello’s case unfolded before our eyes over the next two hours, in a game dominated by some truly great players. Fortunately for the sea foam, most of them were on New York’s side.

It started with Breanna Stewart, who exceeded her nine-point performance from the season-opener in the first quarter of Thursday’s action. The first play New York ran was to get Stewart to her spot, and she cashed a signature pull-up jumper. It was on from there...

An 11-point first quarter became a 20-point first half, which turned into 31 on 12-of-21 shooting for Stewie. One of the league’s great players played great, shaking off any rust and memories of her subpar 2023 post-season.

“It’s Breanna Stewart,” said Brondello. “We ran some plays for her early. The first play, it was good for her just to see the ball go through the hole.”

And as the Liberty kept a steady, single-digit lead, two other stars were busy battling it out. A Caitlin Clark-Sabrina Ionescu duel didn’t quite pan out — the two didn’t even guard each other — but the Jonquel Jones-Aliyah Boston battle sure did.

From the get-go, it was the physical battle you’d expect between an MVP center and a potential successor, and it took all of six minutes for tensions to boil over. Skilled lip-readers will confirm Jones wasn’t repeating words of encouragement to her fellow Caribbean big...

Jones didn’t replicate the monster scoring performance she had in the opener, but was a force down low nonetheless, recording a double-double with 12-and-10, with two blocks. After the first quarter quarrel, which somehow didn’t result in any technical fouls, neither big got into too many extracurriculars, though both scored minor victories.

Jones blocked Boston on a couple post-ups, Boston later returned the favor, and the fans who paid the price of admission to see the other stars got their money’s worth.

Maybe less so if they were rooting for the home team. The Liberty blew the game open going into halftime, with Brondello returning to her starting five early in the second quarter after various bench units couldn’t get it going. The decision didn’t mesh with Brondello’s stated desire in the preseason “not to kill” the starters too early with big minutes, but hey, it won New York the game.

Over about a dozen minutes of game-time, New York’s starters stretched their lead from 32-27 to 67-44. Defensively, Betnijah Laney-Hamilton hounded Clark as soon as they crossed half-court, with help from the Libs’ dominant front-court, which could trap Clark’s ball-screens and still blow shot-attempts up on the back-line...

Clark missed a couple open shots, but really, her lack of statistical production was about the Liberty’s front-court, which limited her to just 9/7/6 with three turnovers on 2-of-8 shooting.

“I thought we executed our scout really well,” said Brondello. “I mean, Caitlin demands so much respect out there and attention and that’s what we did and we have Betnijah Laney. I mean, what more could you ask?”

Offensively, New York’s size showed up as well, with bigs burying switches under the basket for layups and offensive boards, allowing New York to cross the century-mark despite shooting just 8-of-27 from deep.

So no, Sabrina Ionescu didn’t go crazy, but she played a pristine game, posting 14/7/3/1/1 on 6-of-14 shooting, including another floater showcase that had her probing the lane as she did at Washington to open the season.

“I thought it was great,” said Brondello. “We’ve spoken about it: To be great, you have to not just settle for the three ... I think anytime we can two feet into the paint, we’ve got really aggressive guards, and most players that can get in there, they’re high percentage shots.”

Better yet, New York dominated so thoroughly in the middle periods that the starters earned themselves some rest in the final frame: No Lib reached 30 minutes on Thursday.

The team’s biggest runs, though, always coincided with Laney-Hamilton’s minutes; she did the dirty work of chasing Clark through every screen, and was rewarded with a plus-minus of +43, a Liberty single-game franchise record.

The bench had another fine, if unspectacular night. No one unit really impressed, and while Kayla Thornton and Kennedy Burke hit shots and made some nice defensive plays in garbage time, respectively, the standout reserve was Nyara Sabally.

After playing many of her minutes on Tuesday next to Jonquel Jones, she backed Jones up on Thursday, playing the center position next to Stewie. And once again, she made athletic plays that raised the eyebrows of her coach, whether it was sprinting the floor for a layup or switching on to Kelsey Mitchell and stonewalling the shifty guard...

“I mean, last year she was coming back from having a year out with surgery, and it takes time to get your body back where you want to be,” explained Brondello. “She’s playing with a lot more confidence ... it’s exciting. You know, we talk about our bench, and I thought we had some good pockets from a few of them, but Nyara, we can continue to build on that. But yes, she does look quicker, which is nice to see.”

As the Liberty look for some reliable units to build their bench around, Sabally emerging as a viable backup-big option would be huge, and her play on Thursday night was the cherry on top of a dominant performance from a team who showed Caitlin Clark and the Indiana Fever:

There’s levels to this.

Final Score: New York Liberty 102, Indiana Fever 66

Next Up

Photo by Elsa/Getty Images

The Fever will not have to wait long for another crack at the reigning Eastern Conference Champions. The second half of this home-and-home mini-series will be New York’s home-opener, set for 1:00 p.m. ET on Saturday afternoon at the Barclays Center.