New Opportunity Awaits on Liberty Road Trip
Many have heralded the start of summer with a road trip and the New York Liberty are doing the same.
No visit to Wally World awaits but the Liberty are still seeking W's in their championship defense, which faces a new test in form of a four-game road trip that tips off on Sunday evening in Seattle (7 p.m. ET, WWOR). That task becomes a little more arduous this time around, as New York doesn't know whether it'll be working with Jonquel Jones, who left Thursday's loss against Phoenix early with an ankle injury.
"We don't know what's going to happen with JJ, so that's just like the next person has to step up," reserve Kennedy Burke said after the 89-81 loss to the Mercury on Thursday. "We have to dig deep on the defensive end, because it's going to be really hard."
It stands to reason that Jones will likely miss at least the first part of the trip but New York has refused to pin all woes on the reigning WNBA Finals' MVP's ailments. After all, Jones made her return from a prior ankle injury on Tuesday but the Liberty fell behind by 17 before staging a furious comeback against the Atlanta Dream.
"We didn't respond very well at all," head coach Sandy Brondello said of a week that saw the Liberty face consecutive opponents with winning record for the first time this year. "I've got to find ways to to get us going a little bit more aggressively in the beginning here ... When we lose JJ, that obviously takes a little bit of the energy away from us for a bit. That's normal, but we got to find a way to rebound. We just can't just put it all on her. So it's all about all of us."
"We're seeing what we're lacking, kind of focusing on that and just continuing to get better every single day, every game, and kind of focusing on the things that we need to get better at," forward Nyara Sabally added. "We still have a lot of time to get better of those things. So it is actually good that we are faced with that issue now."
Looking to avoid consecutive losses for the first time in over a calendar year, the Liberty face Seattle and Golden State before opening next weekend with a rematch against the Phoenix Mercury. The trek concludes against another familiar foe, as they'll go to Atlanta in eight days. Each member of the quartet carries a record of no worse than .500.
Beyond the obvious four wins, a Liberty group with plenty of new pieces appeared to relish an opportunity to gain further chemistry both on and off the floor.
"I love road trips. I think it's going to be a good one, especially because it's so long," said Sabally, set to step in for Jones' minutes. "We hit a couple cities, they're cool cities too, so I think we're all excited. I think everybody loves playing in Seattle, and then the new franchise in Golden State, I think everybody's excited for that game, too and then we get to go to Phoenix and play them again."
This is the longest road trip slated on the 2025 Liberty docket, matching one that spans late July and early August (which follows an eight-game homestand that sandwiches the All-Star break). New York has conducted itself well on the road in the Brondello era, posting a .703 win percentage away from Brooklyn since her takeover in 2022 (90-36, second-best behind only Las Vegas in that span).
"We have a 10-day road trip coming up, can't hang our heads," Natasha Cloud said on Thursday. "We've got to go home and pack and get ready. We leave at 11:30 tomorrow. We're going to get on this road and Seattle is our next opponent to just get back to it. The blessing to being able to play is there's [always] another game."
Geoff Magliocchetti is a veteran sportswriter who contributes to a variety of sites on the "On SI" network. In addition to the Yankees/Mets, Geoff also covers the New York Knicks, New York Liberty, and New York Giants and has previously written about the New York Jets, Buffalo Bills, Staten Island Yankees, and NASCAR.