Leonie

Fiebich

The New York Liberty will only have one player missing time for EuroBasket as Leonie Fiebich left to play for the German National team in EuroBasket on Wednesday. As a result New York temporarily suspended Fiebich’s contract, a procedural action general managers take when players miss time for international commitments. Fiebich made a different decision than Liberty and national teammate Nyara Sabally. Sabally withdrew from the tournament to prioritize her health as she just recovered from a knee injury. Fiebich’s decision came as a result of the tournament being hosted in her home country Germany. With Fiebich not with the team for at most until the Liberty’s July 3 home game against the Sparks, expect forward Kennedy Burke to earn most of the starts in her place with guard Marine Johannès playing more minutes when the Liberty want to play smaller.

The Liberty will be without 2024 Finals MVP Jonquel Jones on Tuesday, prompting a starting lineup change that will see third-year center Nyara Sabally enter the opening unit. Sabally has dealt with her own injuries this year and has not played since the second game of the season, but her return against the Sky will mark the first start of her career. She will look stay healthy and help New York extend its winning streak to nine games while remaining undefeated on the season.

Stewart looked a little gassed in the second game on a back-to-back where in the first she played in 34 minutes and made 15 free throws in the Liberty’s 82-77 tight win over the Valkyries. While Stewart’s shot wasn’t there on Friday night, she was playmaking at an incredibly high level dishing out a season-high seven assists to four different teammates. She found Leonie Fiebich, Kennedy Burke and Jonquel Jones on corner pocket threes in addition to finding Sabrina Ionescu in situations where she could cut to the basket. While Stewart made just three field goals at the rim, she reached double digits by how she drew contact and got the foul line.

After six games played, Fiebich finally cracked double-digit scoring on Friday night. Natasha Cloud and Breanna Stewart found her early and Fiebich scored 8 of her total 12 points on open three pointers and moving without the basketball. But Fiebich’s impact also came on the glass where she used her 6'4 frame to help the Liberty gang rebound especially since New York has struggled in the early going to rebound the ball at a high level. Four of Fiebich’s nine rebounds came in the third quarter when New York went on a 19-5 run that blew open the game after the Mystics cut the Liberty’s lead to as many as 4 points with 6:56 left in the third.

Sykes’ shots struggled to go down, which was both the result of the Liberty’s defense forcing her to take mostly contested mid-range twos and rim protection mainly from Breanna Stewart, Jonquel Jones and Leonie Fiebich. But that didn’t mean Sykes didn’t find a way to score. Once again almost half of her points came at the foul line and according to WNBA Advanced Stats 42.3 % of Sykes’ total points have come at the line this so far in this young season.

Jones rejoins the Liberty’s starting lineup — which includes Breanna Stewart, Sabrina Ionescu, Leonie Fiebich and Natasha Cloud for Friday night’s game in Washington against the Mystic — following a one-game absence due to hamstring discomfort. With Jones back in the fold, the Liberty look to counter the size the Mystics pose with rookie Kiki Iriafen and Stefanie Dolson in their starting front court.

The Liberty are without Jonquel Jones, who’s sitting out the first game of New York’s back-to-back with a hamstring injury. She’s been replaced in the lineup by Burke, who has provided solid contributions off the bench thus far. Burke is worth streaming in deep leagues, as is Fiebich if available on your league’s waiver wire.

Sabally remains out with a right knee injury and could miss a few more games. Liberty head coach Sandy Brondello said during her pregame availability that the team hopes to get its backup center back toward the end of this week. While starters Breanna Stewart and Jonquel Jones logged heavy minutes in Saturday’s win over the Fever, that was also a game in which Leonie Fiebich exited early with a shin injury. Fiebich is available for Tuesday’s game, which should lighten the workloads for Stewart and Jones.

Due to a right knee injury, Sabally did not play in Saturday’s win over the Fever. The Liberty center was not at Monday’s practice, as she was scheduled to undergo a checkup on the knee, which was operated on in 2022. New York employed an eight-player rotation on Saturday, with Jonquel Jones and Breanna Stewart logging 36 minutes. A healthy Leonie Fiebich will help distribute the frontcourt minutes on Tuesday if Sabally cannot play. Fiebich exited Saturday’s game after seven minutes due to a shin injury, but is not on the injury report for Tuesday.