Liberty tasked with cooling off Caitlin Clark’s Fever who are now ‘way tougher’ to beat

This isn’t the same Fever team that the Liberty crushed, 104-68, just over a month ago.

It’s not the same one that had its home opener — which doubled as Caitlin Clark’s regular-season debut at Gainbridge Fieldhouse — spoiled by the superteam, or that lost by a combined 83 points in their three meetings this season.

The players haven’t changed.

There wasn’t any firing, either.

When Liberty coach Sandy Brondello spoke with Christie Sides, she told the Fever head coach, “You just gotta go through the process now. This is a new team.”

It would take time, just as it did for the Liberty in 2023.

And at some point, a juncture impossible to predict, everything would start to mesh.

Since the last Liberty-Fever matchup June 2, Indiana has crawled back into playoff conversations with a 6-4 run entering Saturday’s game in Indianapolis.

Some of that connects back to Clark, averaging 16.0 points, 7.1 assists and 5.7 rebounds.

Brondello and Breanna Stewart said the Fever’s post players — as well as Clark’s ability to orchestrate the offense alongside them — have contributed to their about-face, too, which adds a layer of complexity to the Liberty’s quest to sweep the season series.

“They’re a way tougher team now than they were in the beginning,” Brondello said.

Over the last 10 games, the Fever’s offensive rating sits tied for third in the WNBA — behind just the Aces and Liberty — after possessing the second-worst number across their first three weeks of the season.

Aliyah Boston and NaLyssa Smith have nearly averaged double-doubles (15.5 points and 9.7 rebounds along with 11.5 and 8.5, respectively) during that stretch.

Guard Kelsey Mitchell (16.6 points per game) leveraged her strong first half into an All-Star Game appearance, too.

There have still been losses and defensive growing pains, but the Fever’s strides have been concrete.

“We’ve seen them three times already,” Stewart said Thursday. “Obviously know that each time they’ve gotten a little bit better, but still using what we do defensively to kind of impose our will.”

That, as always, will start with Betnijah Laney-Hamilton, who helped limit Clark to nine points and three points, respectively, in two of the games.

But for about six minutes Tuesday, in the third quarter of their win against the Lynx, the Liberty encountered a scare when Laney-Hamilton’s leg tangled with Napheesa Collier and she eventually limped toward the bench.

Laney-Hamilton returned to play nearly the entire fourth quarter, and in the Liberty’s practice Thursday she was a full participant, Brondello said.

Saturday will also mark the first game since the All-Star participants were announced and Laney-Hamilton — whom Brondello vouched for in a press conference Tuesday — wasn’t one of them.

Brondello messaged her to “just use it as motivation.”

Laney-Hamilton didn’t need to change anything, Brondello said.

Nothing would change about her role as the Liberty’s defensive anchor, either.

But it’s fitting that the Clark matchup will be Laney-Hamilton’s first following the All-Star roster getting announced.

Laney-Hamilton finished plus-43 on May 16.

And since they last met, Clark nearly recorded her first WNBA triple-double.

There was the debate about wanting Clark to be more aggressive, about Clark playing Diana Taurasi and then beating her role model.

There was Clark getting left off the Team USA roster for the 2024 Olympics.

There was Clark making the Team WNBA roster for the All-Star Game.

Such is five weeks in the Caitlin Clark news cycle.

But that time frame has also coincided with the Fever’s starting to reverse their season’s spiraling trajectory.

Everything has clicked for them — and it involves more than just Clark.

The individual pieces have started to fall into place.

“And that,” Brondello said, “always takes time. That’s chemistry.”