8/24/26
Liberty vs. Fever
On a late summer Saturday when the city left for the beach, everybody else was at Barclays Center.
Atlantic and Flatbush were loud. The plaza, before tip-off, held two competing demonstrations. Inside, the factions were more straightforward.
The sold out arena at capacity (17, 581) was a sea of seafoam disrupted by Fever people, usually in pairs – lots of Clarks and Cunninghams.
This is a playoff run, this is the heart of the zeitgeist, this is Liberty’s house and, while everyone should be welcome, some must be losers.
So long, Fever people, we’re glad it was you.
Liberty needed this. The Fever won the last two games against Liberty by 20 and 14 points. The win split the season series, and the Liberty are now within a game of Indiana.
And to cross the toll bridge to the playoffs, you have to pay the FIEBICH.
The postgame chorus was unanimous. Coach said Fiebich “unlocks a lot of stuff.” Jones credited Fiebich with setting the defensive tone and doing everything at a high level. She guards up and down the lineup. She is the connective tissue with a three-point shot.
It felt as though one out of every three people cheered for Fiebich during warmups. At halftime, after the DJ and the Lil Torches, Fiebich came onto the court to practice her 3 point shot. It was a magic few minutes in Barclays outside of gameplay. She worked her way around the arc, a step at a time, making a full half-circle of threes in one direction and then the other. Our eyes watered trying to keep count. When she finally missed, we sighed and relief came over us. She is human after all.
In her first three-point attempt of the third quarter, she missed at 8:17.
Then, 27 seconds later, she got the three.
57 seconds after that, another.
Gold coins rained down from the rafters on the Liberty in feats of premium-grade togetherness as all nine players who entered the game, scored.
The sentiment was mental fortitude, toughness, tenacity. Fiebich was typically stoic until the 1:42 was left in the third. She powered an and-1 and yelled into the crowd, flexed, and put the Liberty over by 9 points.
Barclays lost its shit and we won.
Meanwhile, Ellie was fire, precision, high-energy entertainment. And in keeping with the evening’s theme, Grammy-winning R&B singer Durand Bernarr (who performed with Kehlani at Barclays the night before) joined Ellie for a glorious dance duet disguised as a dance-off. Their chemistry, like the Liberty, looked effortless.
It was the kind of game that turned screaming fans into jellyfish, flouncing up with flailing arms in every direction, bending over backwards to warn everyone behind that yes, this will happen throughout the game and sorry sorry sorry for raising the roof so often, but this is freakin’ incredible, isn’t it?
Fever finished 11 for 22 at the line and missed four free throws in the fourth quarter. For free Shake Shack burgers, Fever only had to miss two. We got our burgers. The Liberty got a 109-102 win. Feed a cold, starve the fever.
It all tastes better when we’re together.
