Liberty vs. Fever: Breanna Stewart's 30 Points and 18 Free Throws Fuel New York's 83-75 Comeback

Indiana made five more field goals than New York. Indiana made six more 3-pointers than New York. Indiana led for 82 percent of the game. Then Breanna Stewart walked to the foul line again and again in the fourth quarter at Barclays Center, and the whole night got repossessed.

The New York Liberty came back for an 83-75 win over the Indiana Fever on Saturday night, with Stewart scoring 30 points on just six made field goals because she went 18-of-21 at the stripe. That is twice as many free throws as the entire Fever roster made. New York has now won four straight, and this was easily the strangest win of the bunch.

Indiana Had the Wheel for Three Quarters

Caitlin Clark opened cold, missing her first five shots, and the Fever still led 25-21 after one. Her floater in the lane finally broke the seal, and a long 3 from her about a minute later started a 12-4 Indiana surge that made it 40-31 with 1:47 left in the half. The Liberty scored the last six points of the period to keep it at 40-37, a small thing at the time that mattered plenty later.

The third quarter went the Fever's way right up until it very much did not. A 57-45 lead with 3:27 left looked like the moment Indiana would finally shake free. Instead, New York rattled off 10 straight with Satou Sabally leading the charge. Nine of those points came before the horn, cutting it to 57-54, and the 10th was a Stewart free throw after Aliyah Boston drew a technical as the period ended. A 12-point lead had become two before the fourth really got going.

Indiana steadied, as good teams do, and still held a 66-62 edge with five minutes left. Then the game turned into something closer to a tax audit.

Stewart Goes to Work in the Most Annoying Way Possible

Stewart shot 6-of-15 from the field and 0-for-2 from 3. She also finished with 30 points, eight rebounds, four steals and a game-best plus-17 in 33 minutes. That is what it looks like when a star decides the jumper is optional. She kept getting to her spots, kept making contact and kept making Indiana pay for it. Boston, Clark and Myisha Hines-Allen each ended up with five fouls, and the Fever committed 27 as a team.

Pauline Astier was the quiet closer, scoring 12 on 4-of-6 shooting with a perfect night at the line and a pair of huge late buckets. Jonquel Jones only scored eight but pulled down 12 rebounds and handed out four assists. Sabally gave the Liberty 13 off the bench, and Marine Johannes hit both of New York's 3s. Both. The team went 2-for-18, and she took five of those attempts.

They did all this without Sabrina Ionescu, who sat again with back soreness and has played in just one game this season. Coach Chris DeMarco said it bothered her a little after Friday's practice, which was also the first session this season with New York's full roster in the gym.

Kelsey Mitchell led Indiana with 21 points and seven rebounds, though it took her 21 shots to get there and she missed six of her eight 3s. Clark's line of 10 points, nine assists and seven rebounds looks tidy until you see the 4-of-14 shooting and the five fouls. Monique Billings might have been Indiana's best player on a per-touch basis, going 6-of-7 from the floor for 15 points and eight rebounds. Boston had 13 points, nine boards and three blocks, plus a 26-foot 3 with 16.8 seconds left that made the final score look friendlier than it felt.

Nineteen to Four

Here is the stretch that swung Brooklyn. Down 66-62, New York went on a 19-4 run, and Stewart made 11 of her 12 free throws inside it. She hit a pair, Jones hit a pair to tie it at 66 with 4:28 left, and Stewart hit another pair for the lead. Mitchell tied it with a drive, so Stewart simply went back to the line and made two more with 3:36 left. New York never gave that 70-68 lead back.

Astier drove for a basket at 2:55, and when Mitchell answered to make it 72-70, the Fever still had a pulse. They did not score again until the outcome was settled. Jones finished a layup off an Astier feed, Astier scored again, and Stewart added five more free throws in the final 1:06 of that sequence to push it to 81-70 with 36.6 seconds left. Indiana's only points during the whole run came from Mitchell, who was out there trying to bail water with a coffee mug.

Stats That Matter

• 33-of-40 vs. 9-of-15: The free-throw split. New York made 24 more from the line in a game it won by eight.
• 2-of-18: Liberty 3-point shooting, 11 percent. Indiana went 8-of-25 and lost anyway.
• 29-18: New York's margin in the fourth quarter, the only period that really decided anything.
• 15-4: The Liberty's edge in points off turnovers.
• 47-41: New York's rebounding advantage, with 13 offensive boards extending possessions when the jumpers would not fall.

Where Everybody Stands

New York climbs to 7-4 and 5-3 at home. All four wins in this streak have come at Barclays Center, right after a run of three straight home losses in May. The Liberty hit the road Monday night at Connecticut.

Indiana falls to 5-5 and 1-3 away from home, slipping right back to even after beating Atlanta 83-71 on Thursday. The Fever visit Washington on Monday night, and this one will sting a little more than a standard road loss. They made more shots than New York and spent most of the night in front.

The Costco Receipt Game

Indiana will look at the shot chart and feel robbed. It should spend more time with the foul column. Stewart's fourth quarter read like a Costco receipt: long, itemized and somehow more expensive than anyone planned on when they walked in. She was not spectacular in the highlight-reel sense. She was relentless in the way that makes opposing coaches stare at the ceiling on the bus ride home, and in a league where stars are judged by their 3-point barrages, there was something almost rude about beating a team this thoroughly from 15 feet with nobody guarding you.

Stats from the official box score via ESPN. Game details as reported by the Associated Press.