Liberty Endure Nightmare vs. Dream Without Sabrina Ionescu
Dealing with the walking dread once it was confirmed Sabrina Ionescu would sit out, the New York Liberty couldn't overcome a nightmarish start against the Atlanta Dream on Saturday afternoon.
Atlanta solidified its hold of the runner-up spot on the WNBA leaderboard with a 78-62 win over the severely shorthanded Liberty, who have now dropped five of six as the regular season enters its final stanzas. The loss denied the Liberty (22-15) a chance to secure a vital tiebreaker in the standings and kept them stationed in fifth place on the current leaderboard, two games behind Atlanta for second.
Allisha Gray had 19 points for the Dream, while Brionna Jones put in 17 while tying for the team lead in rebounds with Naz Hillmon and Rhyne Howard, all of whom pulled in eight. The Dream defeated each of last year's WNBA finalists this week at home, previously prevailing over the league-leading Minnesota Lynx on Thursday.
Playing with eight women with Ionescu joining Isabelle Harrison, Nyara Sabally, and Breanna Stewart in the infirmary due to a foot injury, the Liberty were by Kennedy Burke's 13 tallies off the bench while Jonquel Jones put in 11.
Rebounding was once again a fatal flaw for the New Yorkers, who were outboarded 17-4 on the offensive glass, as Brionna Jones matched the Liberty's total on her own. New York has endured a minus-47 disadvantage on the offensive glass in their last nine, their worst in any such single-season stretch since 2004.
Atlanta (24-13) took a lead it would never relinquish from the get-go, leading 24-14 after the opening period. Attempts at generating metropolitan momentum were done in by careless turnovers and struggles to obtain early boards: a near-permenent double-figure lead was created when three offensive rebounds allowed Maya Caldwell to sink a corner triple, for example.
From there, the Dream only extended its lead further, going up by as much as 26 before the Liberty mounted a futile comeback. Two home wins over Atlanta had previously been earned through double-figure comebacks and a run of 13 straight narrowed the gap to as little as 11 with just over three minutes gone by in the final frame.
The hosting Dream, however, got momentum back through an and-one opportunity for Gray, which was earned through a Hillmon offensive board. The ensuing 10-0 run placed momentum firmly in their corner and doomed New York to another dire defeat.
To its credit, the Liberty did manage to crack down defensively in the second half, winning the latter 20 by a 33-30 output. New York also lost only four turnovers in that span (after nine in the first half yielded 14 Atlanta points) and posted an assist on all but one of their 14 successful sinks.
The Liberty will look to regain momentum at home next week, as a two-part defense of Brooklyn begins on Monday against the Connecticut Sun (7 p.m. ET, My9).
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.