Game of the week New York at Indiana, Saturday. The defending champion Liberty will visit Clark and the new-look Fever. Indiana made a ton of offseason moves to bolster their roster, including signing DeWanna Bonner and Natasha Howard. It will be a chance ...

The reigning WNBA champion New York Liberty start their season 2-0 after a win over the Chicago Sky on Thursday. Here's a recap of the contest.

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It really was. The defending champion Liberty set a WNBA record with 19 3-pointers (in just 34 attempts) and shot 55.2 percent for the game in, yes, a 99-74 victory in the Sky’s home opener at Wintrust Arena. Chicago did have a plan, Vandersloot said, but you know what Mike Tyson used to say about those.

The Liberty and Fever grabbed rebounds at nearly the same rate last season (36.6 and 35.1 boards per game, respectively). The Fever's 46.5% shooting percentage from the field this season is 11.4 percentage points higher than the Liberty have allowed to their opponents (35.1%).

Vandersloot made her Chicago homecoming this season after signing with the Sky as a free agent. Her return was a welcome move on both sides. The Sky needed Vandersloot as much as she craved comfort. Vandersloot was coming off a challenging season with the Liberty that came to a bittersweet end.

When Clara Wu Tsai, an owner of the New York Liberty, and Keia Clarke, the chief executive, were deciding on the look of the team’s first championship rings — the ones unveiled to great fanfare on Saturday in a televised ceremony just before the Liberty’s first game of the season — they wanted three things.

The New York Liberty, reigning WNBA champions, continue to win on and off the court. According to The Athletic, the franchise has completed a significant capital raise, boosting its valuation to a record-setting $450 million—the highest ever for a professional women’s sports team.