Liberty Far From Satisfied Despite Historic Effort
One would think that Chicago produced a new brand of untouchables on Thursday night, but the New York Liberty were anything but.
The Liberty's first championship defense has gotten off to strong, historical start: nuggets of history dotted the box score of the latter triumph, a 99-74 takedown of the Chicago Sky, a triumph headlined by the Liberty successfully sinking a WNBA single-game record 19 three-pointers.
Elsewhere, Natasha Cloud added nine more assists to her seafoam total of 17, a new New York record for most in a debut couple. Combined with a 14-point win over Las Vegas in last weekend's opener, the Liberty own the best point differential in this infantile season at 19.5 through the two.
That didn't save the Liberty from the relative wrath of head coach Sandy Brondello, who wasn't pleased with certain lapses in the shellacking of Chicago.
"I wasn't happy at halftime, wasn't happy at all," said Brondello, who became the third-winningest head coach in Liberty history on Thursday. "I just thought we were all clunky. Regardless of the score, we didn't have the pace and the urgency and the spacing which we need as we move forward."
"A lot of areas we can get better at. Obviously, I'm going to have joy because we won a game, but we're nowhere near where we need to be on the offensive end and defensively, I thought we were solid, but we still had breakdowns there too."
To Brondello's point, the Liberty (2-0) let Chicago somewhat linger in the early stages: despite shooting over 52 percent in the opening period, the Liberty lead stood at only five and featured eight fouls called against the bearers of seafoam. The Liberty recovered well enough to outscore the Sky 25-9 in the second period but an early timeout was needed in the third when Chicago put in first eight tallies.
Cloud's second-half outburst, which saw her earn 14 of her game-best 18 points, set the tone for the rest of the way, as did a perfect latter 20 for Kennedy Burke off the bench. With 17, Burke is the first New York reserve to open her season with consecutive double-figure games since Han Xu earned five in 2022.
Brondello credited the second unit effort headlined by Burke for providing "a little bit more urgency" in Thursday's win. Beyond Burke (who also swiped three from the Sky), Marine Johannes sank two threes and was a game-best plus-24 (tied with Breanna Stewart) while Rebecca Gardner was 3-of-4 with two assists in an expanded role from Saturday.
"I thought we played really slow and methodical in that first quarter and a half, until we went to the bench," Brondello said. "They brought energy. Sometimes that's all you need, just change something up. We got more aggressive defensively, we were running and moving the ball quickly, just got back to our identity."
Cloud, the Liberty's lauded newcomer, appeared to take Brondello's words to heart, seeking to improve her defensive work as the Liberty wrap up a mini-road trip on Saturday against the Indiana Fever (1 p.m. ET, CBS).
"One thing that I love about coach Sandy [is that she] sets a precedent before every game and it's about us," Cloud said. "Obviously, we're going to prepare for the team that we're playing against ... But even though we're playing against the Sky, it's still about us, it's the Liberty."
"We want to be better in all of these areas, especially when game is getting tight. We know we need to lock in a little bit more, be more intentional on both sides of the ball, but especially, I would say, argue, to be more locked in defensively, so then our offense can come from our defense. We're really good in transition. Just getting back to who we were was a big part of the second half, especially after [Brondello] called that timeout after they just threw the first punch at us."
Geoff Magliocchetti is on X @GeoffJMags
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.