The Liberty might have figured out their blueprint to stop Caitlin Clark before she even plays at Barclays Center.
When Clark checked out for the final time Thursday, her numbers were jarring.
Nine points, with seven of those stringing together across an 81-second stretch.
Just two made shots, and just eight attempts.
Clark’s night ended with Indiana down 29 and with 3:16 remaining in their eventual 102-66 loss.
For the second time in as many Fever games, there weren’t crunch-time moments.
The Liberty’s key for making it all possible subbed out at that same fourth-quarter juncture.
Betnijah Laney-Hamilton served as her primary defender for most of the game, shadowing Clark and finishing with a plus-43 — a Liberty record.
Laney-Hamilton’s individual defensive rating (71.4) marked the fourth-best of her career in games where she logged at least 20 minutes.
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So when the Fever and the Liberty meet for the second time in three days Saturday, this time in Brooklyn for the home opener, the 40-minute sample will serve as an early-career litmus test for Clark and an early-season one for the Liberty.
She had 40 hours to figure out a solution to what went wrong against Laney-Hamilton.
And the Liberty, which head coach Sandy Brondello described before Thursday’s game as still a “work in progress” defensively, had 40 hours to decide whether what succeeded against Clark could work again.
“She always guards the best player night in and night out and does what she does offensively,” Sabrina Ionescu said of Laney-Hamilton, who added 12 points, “and so we know that that’s nothing new to us. But I’m just so happy that she was able to go out there and do that [Thursday], kind of put everyone on watch to what she’s really able to do.”
Laney-Hamilton’s reputation as a strong defender has followed her throughout a nine-year career.
She made All-Defensive First Team in 2020 — the same season she earned Most Improved Player — with the Atlanta Dream, and when she signed with the Liberty that offseason, the only piece of the eventual superteam already intact was Ionescu.
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But Laney-Hamilton survived the Liberty’s gradual roster turnover and carved out a role even after Breanna Stewart, Jonquel Jones and Courtney Vandersloot arrived.
The first stage of the 2023 season included a developing role on offense.
The final stage was defined by her scoring burst, posting at least 15 points 13 times across 17 games at the end of the regular season and start of the postseason.
Still, everything still connected back to her defense. Laney-Hamilton always guarded an opponent’s top player.
She made the All-Defensive Second Team in 2023. “Defensively, she’s our anchor,” Stewart had said Sept. 7, and three days later, Laney-Hamilton signed an extension through 2025 that prevented her from reaching free agency.
That ensured Laney-Hamilton would be in the Liberty’s lineup for a game such as Thursday.
Clark started by driving and scoring on Laney-Hamilton on the first possession, but midway through the first, she mirrored Clark as the rookie attempted to execute a step-back 3 and forced her to cycle the ball.
The sequence still ended with a Fever 3, but Laney-Hamilton managed to slam Clark’s shooting window shut.
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“She’s a vet in this league,” Vandersloot told The Post, “and she’s been a defensive-minded player. She goes hard. She plays smart. And she’s tough.”
Clark will eventually get her points, her wins, her classic 3-pointers.
At one point, inevitably, the all-time leading scorer for men’s and women’s college basketball will generate enough made shots for a breakthrough game.
It could happen as early as Saturday, in the Liberty’s first game at Barclays Center since their season-ending loss in Game 4 of the WNBA Finals. It could take longer than that.
Clark’s first two professional games have captured that, even for her, there’s a transition that will take time to complete.
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But in the short term, the Fever’s overarching concern revolves around ensuring Laney-Hamilton’s defensive masterpiece — and everything else the Liberty tossed at them — doesn’t get replicated as the buzz surrounding Clark’s WNBA games hits New York City for the first time.
“It’s a process, and [Clark’s] going to be fine,” Fever head coach Christie Sides told reporters Thursday. “I think she’s taking some shots that she normally would knock down.
“But Betnijah [Laney-Hamilton] is one of the best defenders in the league. They’re making it really hard on her.”
