The New York Liberty entered Saturday’s home-opener 2-0, but hadn’t really exploded out of the gate just yet. They squeaked by the Washington Mystics on Tuesday in a disorganized game, both on the court and in the first broadcast of New York’s new over-the-air TV deal.

And while they rolled in Game Two, a wire-to-wire victory defined by Breanna Stewart’s excellence, it was over an Indiana Fever team that hasn’t lived up to the Caitlin Clark-induced hype. No, the team who just had the #1 pick getting rolled by the Eastern Conference’s two best teams to open their season isn’t surprising, but a -57 point differential in the first 80 minutes of their season set a new WNBA record. It’s been bad.

The growth of the WNBA is priority #1 for the league, as it should be, as it needs to be, but it’s become too present in the league itself, with every individual performance and travel experience between games becoming a referendum on the existence of women’s sports, rather than letting the game speak for itself. Still, fact remains that two of the W’s high-profile teams ? in the most-anticipated season in league history until next season and the season after ? haven’t shown everything everyone expected.

That all changed on Saturday afternoon. In about five minutes, no less.

Barclays Center got loud for introductions and pregame festivities, and the volume only increased after the first few possessions of the game went like this...

Caitlin Clark then played the hits, dropping a couple of deep threes before quarter’s end to officially introduce herself to a national ABC audience.

After an eight-point performance on Thursday when Betnijah Laney-Hamilton was in her grill and the Liberty sent two defenders to nearly every ball-screen, Clark was just better on Saturday, winding around Jonquel Jones’ hedge on one possession and then splitting Stewart’s hedge minutes later...

It was a Caitlin Clark Performance through and through, evidenced by her 22/6/8 stat-line on 9-of-17 shooting. The eight turnovers too, many of them coming on audacious, full-court outlet passes.

And that was nice and all, but the Liberty made sure Clark’s performance served as a treat for the handful of #22 jerseys in the crowd, and not the centerpiece of a big road win for Indiana, who really did come to play, at least compared to Thursday.

That’s a wild thing to say about a team that trailed 57-37 at halftime, and while Christie Sides’ team certainly had some defensive breakdowns, it was a sea foam onslaught from the jump. Every Liberty starter hit multiple threes, and the team made 13 of their first 19 shots from deep.

New York tied a record with 12 first-half threes, a half in which they shot 66.7% from deep, an impressive feat even if shooting in a gym by yourself. The Fever showed up for a track-meet, but just couldn’t sustain a marathon-pace when presented with one of the world’s best offenses firing on all cylinders. Even when Sandy Brondello’s team didn’t create an open shot, they could just hand the ball to Stewart, who continued her reign of terror over Indiana with another 24 ridiculous points...

The only bug-a-boo for New York was the usual one: turnovers. But despite coughing it up 19 times to Indiana’s 16, they dominated the battle of fast-break points, 28-to-2. Both teams pushed the pace, but only the Libs were ready to get back and match up, a quality that Jones praised postgame.

“I think everybody just being matched up, understanding that sometimes in transition, you have to get the closest player and just build that wall behind the ball ... our chemistry is building, we understand how to trust each other, and it’s showing up there,” she said, not even mentioning their own proficiency on the move, whether off turnovers or rebounds...

Jones switching out and blanketing Kelsey Mitchell ? who added 17 points on 18 shots for Indy ? was one of countless winning plays the Liberty made on the margins of Saturday’s contest. They screened well, their bigs buried switches for quick-hitting post-ups and offensive rebounds, extra passes were thrown unless pass-fakes worked better, and their reserves even added 18 points, a new season-high for the unit.

Once again, 6’5” Nyara Sabally led the charge off the bench, scoring seven points while adding two steals and two blocks in her 15 minutes of play. It was hard to determine which end of the floor she excelled, getting the best of Aliyah Boston on a few possessions down low...

“We trust her to go out there and make plays,” said Jones of her backup. “We understand that she’s a really quick post player and that can go buy a lot of other post players in this league, and I think she did that tonight. I think she was really locked in defensively, making an extra effort to get rebounds, to get back into plays, whether it was Boston or any of the other post players.”

Sabally, like Stewart and Jones in front of her, exemplified the biggest advantage the Liberty have over most of their opponents, especially the Fever: a combination of size and skill that is nearly unprecedented in the W.

If Stewie is a unicorn, then we need a new word for Jones, who flew off a screen to hit a corner three on a designed baseline-out-of-bounds play, while grabbing 12 boards and generating five fouls on Boston in about as impactful of a six-shot performance as you’ll get. It marked Jones’ 100th career double-double, including the playoffs.

The rebounding demigod called being able to hit the boards like that something “I pride myself on.”

Said Jones: “It means a lot to have that level of consistency throughout my career. It feels good to be healthy and moving the way that I want to move and being able to help contribute to this team and moving us in the right direction for sure.”

New York’s 20-point halftime lead ebbed and flowed throughout the second half; though Indiana cut their deficit to a dozen early in the fourth quarter, it was the closest they’d get until a garbage-time run that made the final score a respectable 11-point difference.

After completely duffing the Fever in the fourth quarter on Thursday to notch a 102-66 victory, Saturday's final score won’t widen the eyes as much. But New York’s third win to open the season was their most joyous yet, a 40-minute party at the re-opening of the Barclays Center, and a confirmation that most of this league can’t mess with them when they have it rolling. Not even Caitlin Clark.

“We really created such great buzz last year, and we appreciate the fans,” said Brondello. “They’re coming out to watch us. You know, maybe some watching Caitlin Clark too, but coming to watch us and we should take pride in that, in how we perform. So that was our focus. We want to protect our home-court.”

Final Score: New York Liberty 91, Indiana Fever 80

Next Up

Photo by Scott Eklund/NBAE via Getty Images

Ah. Caitlin-mania is over for the time being, as the New York Liberty will stay at home to face another new-look opponent on Monday night: The Seattle Storm. Tip-off is scheduled for 7:00 p.m. ET.

• Box Score: New York Liberty 91, Indiana Fever 80 - WNBA
• Game Highlights: New York Liberty 91, Indiana Fever 80 (Video) - WNBA
• Highlights: Caitlin Clark scores 22 in her New York debut (Video) - WNBA