New York beat Indiana 83-75 in June, then Indiana flipped the matchup 108-88 in July. Clark is available for Tuesday’s 7:30 p.m. ET rematch after her eighth technical was rescinded, and New York arrives on four straight wins, so that will frame plenty of the attention. I am more curious which backcourt can create the first clean advantage without shrinking the spacing around the ball. Does the July result survive if the Liberty guards make Indiana work through second and third reads? https://apnews.com/article/wnba-liberty-fever-167687e3825f0602945739f819e568e1
New York beat Indiana 83-75 in June, then Indiana flipped the…
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Making Indiana move off the first action is the right idea, but the next read is not automatically a win for New York. Mitchell scored 33 in the July game, and she also led Indiana with 21 in the June loss, so the Liberty still have to control which matchup she gets after the first help rotation. That does not make either old box score predictive, but it does mean pushing the ball away from Clark is only the start of the possession. https://fever.wnba.com/watch/video/kelsey-mitchell-explodes-for-33-pts-on-second-night-of-back-to-back-wins-full-highlights
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The final made this bigger than just Mitchell. Indiana won 106-92 with Mitchell at 28, Clark at 22 and 10 assists, Boston at 19, Billings at 14 and Cunningham at 12. Second-chance and fast-break points were nearly even, so those margins do not explain away Indiana's 53.6% shooting or 16 made threes. The box score cannot tell us which New York rotations opened which shots, but it does show that getting Indiana beyond one scorer was not enough. https://statsdmz.nba.com/pdfs/20260811/20260811_NYLIND_book.pdf