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Caitlin Clark’s gauntlet levels up Saturday. The soaring WNBA star takes on her most notable challenge of the nascent 2025 season — her Indiana Fever host the undefeated and defending champion New York Liberty for a national broadcast. Yes, another Indy vs. NY basketball game this weekend.
How to watch New York Liberty at Indiana Fever
One day before the Knicks and Pacers tangle on this floor for Game 3 of the NBA’s Conference Finals, the Liberty and Fever give it a go on network television. The reigning champs are rolling thus far. They lit the torch, raised the banner and then beat rival Las Vegas last Saturday. The follow-up was a 25-point thrashing of Chicago, leaving Sandy Brondello’s team with an absurd net rating of plus-23.8. Granted, we are just five percent through this regular season, but the title-tested Liberty core looks more than capable of running things back.
Finals MVP Jonquel Jones is averaging 14 points and 2.5 blocks in the first two wins, while Breanna Stewart is up to 18.5 points on 59 percent shooting. But the standout is newcomer Natasha Cloud in her age-33 season. A defensive specialist for Washington and Phoenix, Cloud is suddenly activated as New York’s lead initiator. She dropped a 22/6/9 line against the Aces, adding three steals and two swats, then followed up with eight dimes and four made 3s in the blowout of the Sky. The career-high usage may not be wholly sustainable, but the veteran’s game is clever, charismatic and unflinching. “Cloud 9” is one of the best nicknames in all of basketball.
The seafoam squad set a WNBA record with 19 treys last time out. The clinical ball movement was joyous to watch:
Get into this ball movement tho!!! 🤌
Stew York City knocks it down from the corner 👌 pic.twitter.com/9FyIqEXmi6
— New York Liberty (@nyliberty) May 23, 2025
Indy fields the league’s top-rated defense through three games, and it leads all teams in paint points. Clark’s long-range prowess aside, this offense likes to get to the rim and score with its size. Clark is looking MVP-worthy, but her last outing was her worst so far (4-for-11 from the field versus Atlanta, with season highs in turnovers and fouls).
Instead, the Fever beat the Dream off the strength of a Natasha Howard bounce-back. The three-time league champion and former defensive player of the year is back for another stint in Indiana, after landing with the franchise in the 2014 Draft. She was an unsightly 3-for-9 with four turnovers in her second game, but finished Thursday with 26 points and seven boards.
The Fever also have All-Star level hoopers Kelsey Mitchell and Aliyah Boston in tow. Sophie Cunningham and Lexie Hull each buried two 3s off the bench Thursday. Though two-time All-WNBA star DeWanna Bonner looks decidedly off with her new team, Indiana has constructed a tremendously talented roster that should push the champs come Saturday. They have the lengthy defenders and positional discipline to counter New York’s movement and spacing. If anything, this could be the Liberty’s true inside-first alignment, as both Boston and Howard struggled with foul trouble last game.
Clark versus Sabrina Ionescu in the backcourt is must-watch stuff. Both heat-checkers will want to make it rain in such a prominent spot.
Best player to wear both jerseys: Natasha Howard. The three-time champ and former DPOY is in Fever threads Saturday, but she had a 2022 All-Star bid with the Liberty.
Updated win total odds
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(Photo of Caitlin Clark and Leonie Fiebich: Michael Hickey / Getty Images)
