Leonie Fiebich connects the dots for playoff-bound Liberty in return vs. Fever

NEW YORK — After missing 16 games with a left foot injury, Leonie Fiebich returned to the New York Liberty’s starting lineup for Saturday’s game against the Indiana Fever. Behind 22 points from Breanna Stewart, Fiebich helped lift New York to a 109-102 victory at home. The forward was the exact connective tissue that the Liberty had sorely been missing on both ends of the court.

Caitlin Clark saw it all coming, from a certain point of view.

“I think she’s a player they’ve really missed. She doesn’t get enough credit for what she does defensively, and she makes a lot of shots for them, and spaces the floor really well. People don’t realize she’s 6’3, she’s long, she’s athletic, she can guard. She just makes the right basketball play. She’s smooth, I’m a big fan of her game…obviously, we need a little more size on her,” the superstar explained ahead of the game.

Clark was right. The Liberty have largely been without their expected depth at the wing and forward spots as a result of various injuries throughout the season. It hasn’t made first-year head coach Chris DeMarco’s job returning New York to a championship level any easier.

DeMarco was hesitant to imply before the game that one player’s return could magically solve any of the Liberty’s lingering lags. The coach, though, was clearly still excited to have Fiebich back.

“6’4, shooting 40 [percent] from three with a crazy motor doesn’t grow on trees,” DeMarco noted.

Fiebich may have missed competing just as much as the Liberty missed her. The 26-year-old was the first player out of either team’s locker room for shootaround at halftime. In the third quarter, she followed up an and-one finish with a loud roar. And only Clark and Breanna Stewart spent more time on the court than Fiebich in her return.

DeMarco was asked after the game about potential minutes limits for his players; Jonquel Jones suffered an ankle injury against the Chicago Sky on Tuesday. He didn’t mince words with the WNBA standings still in a crunch — and postseason looming.

“We’re trying to win. Leo looked good out there, and J was dominating. So as long as they felt good, we’re gonna let them roll,” the coach responded.

“Oh, minute restriction,” Stewart said after asking for clarification. “Yeah, he don’t believe in that,” she added, waving her hand in DeMarco’s direction. The coach grinned through a guilty shrug. He had been caught Fever-red-handed.

DeMarco says Fiebich ‘unlocks a lot’ after Liberty beat Fever

Saturday night was far from perfect for the Liberty. While they made 57.8% of their field goal attempts, they allowed the Fever to make 57.1% of their own. It was microcosmic for the pair of offensively dynamic ball clubs with questionable defensive track records. New York also turned the ball over 14 times — six more than Indiana.

Regardless of the results, DeMarco was hired to optimize the Liberty’s process. The head coach seemed to like what he saw in Fiebich’s return, going as far as to say that even the team’s “mistakes felt right.”

Fiebich tallied 20 points, five rebounds, and five assists herself. How she got there, though, was perhaps most important. She made seven of her 10 field goal attempts, including 3-5 from downtown, and was responsible for just two of her team’s turnovers. Fiebich proved Clark right on both sides of the court by making the right basketball play.

Playoff basketball boils down to teams answering their opponents’ schematic questions while simultaneously trying to stump them in return. No one player answers every kind of question, but Fiebich’s size and feel are welcome additions to the Liberty’s toolbox. DeMarco knows it.

“I do think going forward it’s going to be somebody different every game,” the coach told ClutchPoints after the game. “So it just depends. I think Leo unlocks a lot of stuff. We’re able to play her at the 4 a little bit, give Stew a little bit of a rest, so that’s important too.”

Stewart will need the extra rest as the only member of the Liberty on the United States’ roster for the 2026 FIBA Women’s Basketball World Cup. The WNBA is taking a 17-day mid-season break on August 31 to allow players like Stewart and New York’s trio of French players — Marine Johannès, Pauline Astier, and Marine Fauthoux — to compete in Berlin.

Afterward, the Liberty’s postseason push will officially begin with the playoffs set to start on September 27. DeMarco’s group has just over a month left to iron out as many flaws as possible. Fiebich’s return and the win over the Fever were a leap in the right direction.

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