The Liberty\u2019s 109-102 win against the Indiana Fever on Saturday wasn\u2019t just another regular-season victory.<\/p>\n
Amid a season in which there have been continuous questions about the Liberty\u2019s ceiling, New York proved it can not only hang with the best, but beat them.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s big, especially for us as a group,\u201d Rebecca Allen said. \u201cIs it a statement to the league? I think it was more something for ourselves.\u201d<\/p>\n
Saturday not only had standings implications in a tight race for playoff seeding, but it was also a chance to send a message.<\/p>\n
At least that was the talk out of practice Friday.<\/p>\n
But there seemed to be a deeper layer to Saturday\u2019s marquee matchup against the Fever.<\/p>\n
The Liberty\u2019s pride was on the line, especially after Indiana beat them in each of their past two meetings.<\/p>\n
The Liberty, playing on national television and in front of a sold-out Barclays Center crowd, almost lost it late. But they ultimately held off a late Fever push for the win.<\/p>\n
\u201cI wouldn\u2019t say we needed it, but it definitely felt good to get it tonight,\u201d said Jonquel Jones, who had 19 points and 10 rebounds. \u201cI think we\u2019ve had really tough matchups with them and they\u2019ve been able to kind of have our number in the previous matchups so for us to be able to come in tonight and really kind of set the tone and I think really put a great 40 minutes together.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Fever-Liberty matchup, billed as the greatest game of the weekend, lived up to the hype.<\/p>\n
Each basket generated raucous cheers.<\/p>\n
Caitlin Clark looks to make a pass as Leonie Fiebich defends during the first half of the Liberty\u2019s 109-102 win over the Fever on Aug. 22, 2026 at Barclays Center. AP Photo\/Angelina Katsanis<\/p>\n
The Liberty led the entire second half, but the Fever never backed down.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was fun,\u201d Allen said. \u201cIt was a good atmosphere. You got a lot of fans from both teams there, too, so you felt like there was that battle going on and it was a close game. \u2026 Both teams, we had our pushes and then we had to sort of constantly weather them.\u201d<\/p>\n
That included in the fourth quarter when a 7-0 Fever run led by Kelsey Mitchell and Caitlin Clark cut the Liberty\u2019s lead to one point with 4:08 left in the fourth.<\/p>\n
Breanna Stewart shoots over Catilin Clark during the Liberty\u2019s
109-102 win over the Fever on Aug. 22, 2026, at Barclays Center. Michelle Farsi\/New York Post<\/p>\n
A Sophie Cunningham steal led to a Mitchell 3-pointer that tied the game at 100 apiece with under two minutes left, though the Liberty ultimately regained the lead for good.<\/p>\n
Barclays Center started to fill up well before tipoff.<\/p>\n
Aside from the gray court with seafoam accents, one would have thought this was a Fever home game during warmups.<\/p>\n
Aliyah Boston looks to make a move on Jonquel Jones during the Liberty\u2019s win over the Fever. Michelle Farsi\/New York Post<\/p>\n
On the Liberty end, a modest number of fans gathered in the lower rows to try to snag autographs.<\/p>\n
On the other end, though, was triple the number of spectators. Iowa and Fever jerseys hung over the railings, with fans eager to get autographs.<\/p>\n
One fan said she flew from Spain to watch Clark play. Another young fan in Fever gear held a sign that said she drove 901 miles for the game.<\/p>\n
Fans hold signs before the Liberty\u2019s win over the Fever at Barclays Center. Michelle Farsi\/New York Post<\/p>\n
But this was the Liberty\u2019s house. And the team \u2014 as close to full strength as it had been in seven weeks with Leonie Fiebich and Jones back \u2014 wasn\u2019t going to get embarrassed on its home floor.<\/p>\n
\u201cI mean [the Fever fans] weren\u2019t loud for very long,\u201d said Sabrina Ionescu, who had a quiet night with 12 points, four assists and five turnovers. \u201cI\u2019m happy our cheers overpowered their cheers, but that\u2019s something that we knew.\u201d<\/p>\n
New York looked nothing like the team that got embarrassed in Indiana twice this season.<\/p>\n
Han Xu (left) and Breanna Stewart high five during the Liberty\u2019s win over the Fever. NBAE via Getty Images<\/p>\n
Liberty fans should savor this win. Maybe it even absolves a few of the bad losses New York suffered when Fiebich was out.<\/p>\n
The Fever are legitimate title contenders. If New York can build off Saturday\u2019s victory, the Liberty are, too. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Liberty\u2019s 109-102 win against the Indiana Fever on Saturday wasn\u2019t just another regular-season victory. Amid a season…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":327653,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[98,100,99,9,24,8915,63,319,11452],"class_list":["post-327652","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn-headlines","tag-brooklyn-news","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-new-york-liberty","tag-nyc","tag-sports","tag-wnba"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/327652","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=327652"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/327652\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/327653"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=327652"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=327652"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=327652"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}