Liberty Not Panicking Amidst Early Summer Swoon
BROOKLYN—The New York Liberty certainly hope there's no place like home.
Entering a Thursday night tilt against the Los Angeles Sparks (7 p.m. ET, Fox 5), the defending WNBA champion Liberty has lost five of seven. A good bit of that stretch has been staged without the services of starters Leonie Fiebich and Jonquel Jones but the Liberty haven't embraced excuses in the early summer swoon.
"Everyone faces adversity, so you've got to stay together," head coach Sandy Brondello noted. "This is where your characters shows. We've been our worst enemy, you know what I mean? We're without Leo and JJ, people have to put that in perspective ... In the end, we didn't play hard enough, and so that's what the last few days have been about: getting back to who we are, and demanding more."
Having spent almost two weeks on the road, the Liberty are now due for hearty helpings of home cooking, set to play their next eight under Barclays Center's grassy roof in a stretch that will sandwich the WNBA All-Star break. Liberty reps kept the good vibes rolling as they engaged in a Wednesday practice before Los Angeles' visit.
"Vibes are really good. It's really nice to be home. Ten days on the road is a long time, so I think everyone's just re-energized and really happy to be back in New York," point guard Sabrina Ionescu said. "It's definitely been tough. But I think everyone kind of sees big picture and isn't really panicking. I think it's just that understanding of that we need people to step up. We need people to continue to try and make up for the players that aren't here. And those are really big shoes to fill and so we just need to continue chip away."
"You take any two missing starters away from any other team in this league, I want you all to play seven games, four of them being on the road and see what you all do," dared Natasha Cloud. "So there is no f***ing panic. We're missing about 35 points off our scoreboard, we're missing about 20 rebounds off the board. So we are fine. We we've been trying to make due. There's accountability that we can take in these losses, of like, our defense needs to be f***ing better. Our offense is still scoring at the at the point that we wanted to. We're still getting shots that we want, but it's that defensive end [that's hurting us]."
To those points, the Liberty (11-5) has not lacked in the offensive department, as they're still fifth in scoring in the WNBA over the last seven games. It has enjoyed sterling contributions from the second unit, with Marine Johannes rediscovering her shooting groove (over 59 percent from the field, including 50 percent from three over the last four games) and Isabelle Harrison providing a Jones-free boost (team-best plus-21 in the last trio).
Adding to the "good vibes" is the return of Fiebich, who is set to take to metropolitan hardwood after a month in Europe repping the German women's national team in the EuroBasket Women's competition. The Liberty are a perfect 9-0 when Fiebich takes the floor this season and, while refusing to burden the WNBA sophomore with all of their problems, there's a palpable excitement with the lucky No. 13 back in seafoam, especially with the defensive woes well-documented (allowing over 11 threes a game in the last seven, albeit just one in the first three periods of Sunday's loss in Atlanta).
"Just what I do: always defending, being physical, knocking down my shot, making good decisions, not making mistakes, just what I always do," Fiebich said when asked what she'll bring to the floor upon her return. " I was here and watched practice yesterday, and I thought it was a really good practice. We had lots of energy, even though we were down players and it just carried over to today. I thought we had really good energy. We had pace. Everybody put their bodies on the line, so it was just good to be back."
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.