Liberty at Fever Preview: Caitlin Clarks Welcomes New York

The New York Liberty will look to have some better luck against Boston than their metropolitan pinstriped counterparts carried on Friday night.

New York faces the Indiana Fever for the third time this season on Saturday afternoon, going up against All-Stars Aliyah Boston and Caitlin Clark. Saturday’s game will tip off the second half of the Liberty’s regular season and they’ll look to secure their lead on the top spot gained after the opening 20.

With Las Vegas’ late loss to Los Angeles in the wee hours of Saturday morning, the Liberty own the WNBA’s longest active winning streak at five games. The latest entry was an emotional 76-67 victory over the Minnesota Lynx on Tuesday night at Barclays Center, a triumph made personal after they dropped the first two meetings. Jonquel Jones had a 21-point, 12-rebound double-double while Breanna Stewart posted 17 points and rebounds each.

Behind the expanded efforts of the rookie Clark and the sophomore Boston, the Fever has somewhat recovered from a slow start, currently holding the eighth and final spot on the WNBA playoff bracket entering the weekend. Three losses in the past four have followed a four-game winning streak, including an 88-69 defeat at the hands of Sin City on Tuesday. Saturday will mark Indiana’s first home game since June 19, as the visit to Vegas ended a five-game road trip.

The Liberty will go for a season sweep of the Fever, winning the first trio of get-togethers by a combined 83 points. Five different New Yorkers reached double-figures in the win, paced by 20 tallies from Betnijah Laney-Hamilton.

What: New York Liberty (17-3) @ Indiana Fever (8-13)

Where: Gainbridge Fieldhouse, Indianapolis, IN

When/Watch: Saturday, 1 p.m. ET, CBS

Who’s Favored: NYL -8.5

Keep An Eye On: Nyara Sabally

For the first time in nearly two months, Sabally has a designation other than “out” in the daily injury report, as a back injury has kept her out since May 31. She’s listed as questionable for Saturday’s game and, while the Liberty have survived her absence and then some, they could use all the help they can get in the interior now that they have to deal with the rebounding antics of Boston, NaLyssa Smith, and even Clark, all of whome are averaging over five boards a game. Sabally pulled in at least two rebounds in each of her last seven games prior to her injury and it’ll be interesting to see if she’s able to sustain any sort of momentum to help stabilize her young metropolitan career, which has been frequently interrupted by medical woes.

Fever to Watch: Caitlin Clark

Why mince words? Clark is starting to get a hold of this WNBA thing and she has since been rewarded with her first career All-Star berth. Clark may have some work to do when it comes to chasing down Angel Reese and her frequent double-doubles for the Rookie of the Year Award, but she’s leaving her mark by reaching double-figures in each of her last seven. While her success rate from the field still leaves plenty to be desired, she’s averaging a near triple-double with 16.7 points, 9.3 assists, and 7.3 rebounds. The Liberty have mostly held Clark in check over the first three meetings, as she has averaged 11.3 points in three meetings. She has mostly been trailed by the physical yet deathly legal efforts of Laney-Hamilton, who limited her to one tally from the field in the last showdown on June 2.

They Said It

“This game (was huge), just being able to see how much we’ve grown in terms of just understanding what we want to get in being able to use a size advantage on JJ but not back to the basket, more just faceup. She was able to catch, rip, drive right by, get into the paint, get offensive rebounds, and do what she does really well. Stewie was able to catch the ball at the nail and, again, shoot and rip from there. I think it was playing almost like a ballhandler position through our bigs because our bigs are able to also dribble, shoot, and move really well without the ball.”-Sabrina Ionescu on the importance of Tuesday’s win

Prediction

This is a different Fever team than what the Liberty faced at the beginning of the season but New York is clearly still the better group at this point in time. As if to highlight the dangerous world of the WNBA’s penthouse, the Liberty have won five in a row and it feels like they’ve only lost ground in the battle for the top seed. With one last opportunity to extend some ground … second-place Connecticut, one game back, awaits on Wednesday … expect the Liberty to once again take advantage.

Liberty 76, Fever 73

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