Following their Ring Day victory against the Las Vegas Aces, the New York Liberty will be heading on the road for two. They’ll be in the Midwest for a few days, starting with an evening game against the new look Chicago Sky. On May 20, the team met with media after a session of practice.
The Liberty manage physicality
The Sky feature two rising young bigs in Angel Reese and Kamilla Cardoso. The duo were one and two in the WNBA in offensive rebounding in 2024 as their activity and physicality kept the Sky in many a ball game.
“They’re a really physical team,” Jonquel Jones told reporters at practice on Tuesday afternoon. “They use their physicality to kind of mask some of the other ways that they may not be there yet. And I think that if we go in there and we think it’s just gonna be a cakewalk and it’s just gonna be an easy game, then you look up and you’re down 20 points and you’re wondering why. “
So we just have to be ready for that level of physicality. We have to be ready and understand that like we gotta hit first. We can’t just wait for them to indicate or show us like what the level of physicality will be for that game. We have to set the tone and set the standard.”
New York led the WNBA in rebounding in 2024 and were able to match opposing teams’ toughness and physicality. That starts with Jones, who was able to collect ten rebounds against the Aces. They’ll also need her interior scoring against the duo of Reese and Cardoso as well.
Chicago underwent big changes in the off-season as they brought in Rebecca Allen, Courtney Vandersloot, and Ariel Atkins to pair with their dynamic duo. The Sky had a frustrating loss to the Indiana Fever, but this is their home opener and their energy levels will be high. If the Liberty want to improve to 2-0, it will start with the defense.
“We want to be the best defensive team in this league,” Sandy Brondello said. “And it is the physicality [that will help us get there].”
One of the major keys to this Liberty defense will be the presence of their super sophomore.
The continued evolution of Leonie Fiebich
It’s been a busy month of May for Leonie Fiebich. She competed a won a championship with Valencia in Spain last week. She flew straight from Spain and was in the starting lineup on Saturday afternoon. Although she only scored two points, she did a tremendous job defending Aces point guard Chelsea Gray.
Rebekah Gardner previously against with Fiebich in Spain and is impressed with the work of her new teammate.
“She’s definitely a big guard. I feel like I’m usually a big guard, but she’s a little bit bigger [and a] little bit stronger. But no, she’s great. In Spain she was amazing and obviously that carried over here in New York. So I’m excited to learn from her with her being one year in, and play with her too.”
“She’s relentless,” Brondello said. “She takes pride in [defense], that’s what we want. Offensively, she’s more than just 3 and D. We want to put her in a little bit more actions and get her off the dribble as well.”
As Fiebich gained more experience in 2024, we got to see more of her skills on display.
With even more experience and an offense that’s designed to work with as much space as possible, it will be exciting to see how Leo takes her game to a new level.
The Liberty enjoy the moment
May 17 will go down as one of the best days in Liberty franchise history. In addition to beating their rivals the Aces, they got to celebrate the 2024 championship one more time in front of a raucous, sold out crowd at Barclays Center. The players received their championship rings and saw the banner raise to the rafters. The title serves as a standard going forward and a lasting memory of all their hard work and sacrifice.
“Honestly, it was a full circle moment,” Fiebich told reporters. “We could finally end the chapter, get the ring, and it’s done and we can move on. But also, we were standing there and I got a bit emotional because it was super special and it finally sank in, what we did and that we deserve that ring. So I [was feeling] two things at the same time.”
If the Liberty want to hang another banner, they’ll have to continue building on the work they’ve been doing thus far in 2025. So far, so good.