Liberty face early litmus test against Caitlin Clark, Fever — here are the keys to watch

CHICAGO — The Liberty have looked the part of defending champions through the first week of action. 

New York beat the Aces by 14 points in its season opener Saturday before throttling the Sky by 25 points Thursday in Chicago. 

Saturday, though, may provide the Liberty (2-0) their toughest test yet. 

The Liberty are set to enter the hostile environment of Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis to play the 2-1 Fever. 

Will New York make a statement against a team that may be one of its main competitors down the stretch?

Or will Caitlin Clark & Co. expose the Liberty’s imperfections? 

Here are three things to watch: 

Liberty stress test 

New York has looked dominant in stretches of its first two games. 

There’s no denying the offensive firepower of the Liberty’s starting lineup. 

The addition of Natasha Cloud and the permanent promotion of Leonie Fiebich bolstered the Liberty’s opening lineups’ defense and made New York possibly the scariest starting five in the league. 

But the Liberty have been far from perfect, and there’s plenty of things that need to be cleaned up.

Coach Sandy Brondello admitted as much in her postgame press conference after Thursday’s blowout victory. 

“I wasn’t happy at all,” Brondello said. “We were all clunky. And regardless of the score, we didn’t have the pace and the urgency and the spacing that we need as we moved forward.” 

All three of those traits will be important against a high-functioning team like the Fever. 

Indiana leads the league with an 88.9 defensive rating and holds teams to the second-fewest points per game (75.) 

Against a team such as Chicago, the Liberty can live with those lapses. But that won’t fly against the Fever. 

3-point barrage 

The Liberty set a WNBA record for 3s in a regular-season game Thursday. 

Eight of nine Liberty players who attempted a 3-pointer made at least one from behind the arc as they finished 19-for-34. 

Cloud and Kennedy Burke each drained four treys. 

Burke believes the Liberty coming off a hot shooting night should bode well for Saturday’s game. 

“It builds momentum to the next game,” Burke said. “We got a tough matchup coming up and we just have to stay prepared offensively (and) defensively, we got to be better.” 

Clark’s bounceback 

The Liberty’s game at Indiana is succeeding an uncharacteristic off night for Clark. 

The second-year Fever star scored 11 points on 11 shots and went 0-for-5 from deep Thursday.

It marked the first time as a pro Clark failed to record a made-3-pointer. 

Despite that, though, the Fever, powered by Natasha Howard’s 26 points, beat the Dream 81-76. 

Clark will be looking to rebound from a shaky performance against the defending champions.