The Indiana Fever have not had it easy to start the season. Sunday night’s matchup with the New York Liberty marked their 11th game in 20 days, the previous ten giving them a 2-8 record and a whole, whole lot of scrutiny and media attention, much of it directed toward a player you may have heard of: Caitlin Clark.

Sunday night even marked a back-to-back for the Fever, 24 hours after securing their second win of the season, a game that was overshadowed by the reaction to a hard foul by Chennedy Carter on Clark.

Everything about their season — injuries, their subpar pay, the media circus around Clark and its inability to prevent itself from turning into said circus — has been exhausting.

But before they could enjoy four precious off days before their next game on Friday evening, they had to face the Libs at the Barclays Center. And the WNBA is not a league that prizes sympathy.

New York took the lead four seconds into the game after Jonquel Jones directed the opening tip-off to Breanna Stewart in the front-court, igniting a one-woman fast-break. That was it. With 39 minutes and 56 seconds of game to play, the Liberty scored the game-winning bucket, refusing to let the score approach even.

Sandy Brondello’s team had taken early double-digit leads in their last two victories as well, but unlike those games, the Libs didn’t take their foot off the gas pedal in quarters 2 and 3. Indiana’s Kelsey Mitchell and NaLyssa Smith, whose respective seasons have been choppy thus far, combined for 38 points and made some nice plays to cut their deficit from 21 points to 14, but their efforts were ultimately a speed-bump.

The Liberty were completely locked in on defense, and held Caitlin Clark to just three points, five assists, and three turnovers on 1-of-10 shooting. They switched pick-and-rolls, trapped them, hedged them, and everything in between for 40 minutes, with Jones executing whatever was asked of her…

Jones posted a monster 18/13/4/2/1 stat-line, but was merely the centerpiece of a defense that got contributions from everybody wearing sea foam. Betnijah Laney-Hamilton took the Clark assignment and aced it, while getting help from a flurry of limbs every time the ball entered the paint…

“I think it’s our job to help B out,” explained Jones. “She has a tough responsibility every night to guard the best perimeter players, and she does a great job of that. Teams are definitely going to try to do what they can to get her away from those players, to make the game a little bit easier for them … as much as she’s doing a great job, we have to make sure that we’re backing her up.”

New York recorded more blocks and steals than Indiana, but the turnovers were even at 13 apiece, and there was hardly a difference in transition offense. But Indiana just couldn’t get clean looks in the half-court while the Liberty stumbled into them by accident, ending the game shooting 57.6% from the floor to Indiana’s 37%,

Laney-Hamilton led the way with 20 points on a hyper-efficient 7-of-9 performance, while Sabrina Ionescu added 16/6/6 (though her turnover problems continued with four) and Stewart contributed a calm 13/6/5 on 5-of-11 shooting. The only starter who didn’t crack double-digits was Courtney Vandersloot, who returned after a one-game absence with back tightness, and she still put up nine points and seven assists on 4-of-4 shooting.

Nobody had more than 11 shot attempts, and yet, the Liberty recorded 30 assists on their 38 made baskets, passing up good looks at the rim for great ones…

Brondello described the team’s offensive philosophy after the game: “How do we get the best looks every single time? When we’re sharing it and playing selfless like that, that’s beautiful basketball. It’s fun to watch, it’s fun to play. But then, just making sure we have good inside-outside attack. I think that’s critical for us. We established B, we established JJ early in the game and that kind of opens up the outside.”

Their domination on Sunday wasn’t about any one player, and even the bench turned in their best performance of the season to date. They combined for 28 points — a season-high — despite Nyara Sabally’s absence with a back injury.

“I thought we had great production from the bench,” said Brondello. “We created for each other, I thought we played poised and we got two feet in the paint, we got some open looks near the end, too. It was fun to watch them play that way, and we’re getting there.”

Without Sabally to rely on, the Libs turned to Kennedy Burke in an extended role, and she delivered: ten points on 2-of-2 from three, in addition to three steals and three blocks.

“I felt like today, I had I had more time on the court, so I was able to get in the flow of everything,” said Burke of her performance.”

Along with Leonie Fiebich and Kayla Thornton, she was part of a trio of wings off the bench that kept the Liberty’s 5-out spacing principles flowing while bringing the length and defensive versatility the team envisioned in the preseason.

Burke credited the group’s success to “the trust that we have with each other. There were some lapses where it was a miscommunication, but I feel like throughout the season, it’s gonna get better, it’s gonna get stronger. We just got to keep building off each other and trusting each other.”

No, the Fever were not the most fearsome opponent, especially not on the second half of a back-to-back. But if the Liberty can keep building off this type of performance and indeed get stronger, as Burke predicts, the whole league has to watch out.

After two grind-it-out wins that had the Liberty talking about winning ugly, their Sunday night beatdown of the Fever was a two-hour celebration in front of a sold-out Barclays Center that opened up the entire second deck for Clark’s second trip to NYC.

And, if nothing else, it was a reminder to the 17,401 fans in attendance that New York can still put teams in the dirt.

Final score: New York Liberty 104, Indiana Fever 68

Commissioner’s Cup begins with a bang

Sunday marked the first day of Commissioner’s Cup play for the Liberty, who now sit in a tie with the still-undefeated Connecticut Sun in the Eastern Conference Cup standings.

As a reminder, each team will play the other five teams in its conference once. The team in each conference with the best record in those five games (with point differential as a tie-break) will advance to the championship game on June 25.

New York is the defending Cup champion after their win over the Las Vegas Aces last season, in which they took home the $500,000 prize pool. This season, they will be playing for Women Creating Change, an organization that would receive more money from the W based on how well the Libs do.

Next Up

The New York Liberty begin a three-game road trip on Tuesday, seeking revenge against the Chicago Sky, who handed them their first loss of the season on May 23. Tip-off is scheduled for 8:00 p.m. ET from the Windy City.