Liberty Seeks Answers After Another Shocking Loss
BROOKLYN — If the WNBA Playoffs were decided by an NCAA Tournament-style committee, the New York Liberty's tournament resume could've put them on the bubble.
New York, obviously, has earned some sterling victories amidst its title defense. After all, the team is but just about 72 hours removed from a monumental WNBA Finals rematch triumph over the Minnesota Lynx while missing injured icon Breanna Stewart and depth stars Isabelle Harrison and Nyara Sabally.
Minnesota, to be fair, was missing presumptive MVP Napheesa Collier due to an injury of her own (and beat the Liberty three other times, twice without Collier), but it was the type of win that could create a launching pad for a turning point for an ailing group playing .500 ball since a 9-0 start.
"We've known for a while now that we have another level that we can take it to," forward Jonquel Jones said of the "great" win over the Lynx. "We've been in close games, not being able to pull them out. But I think what we learned from those games is really going to be vital for us going into the playoffs and finishing off this part of the season."
"We know that we can play at that level, and now it's about consistently doing that, bringing it every night, and being able to stack those wins."
Alas for Atlantic Avenue, the question cabinet is restocked for New York (22-14), which followed up the Lynx's visit with a 91-85 defeat to the woebegone Chicago Sky, a group whose postseason elimination was still fresh. Within hours, the Liberty plummeted from second to fifth on the WNBA leaderboard, though wound up back in fourth by the end of the night thanks to Phoenix's loss to the re-surging Las Vegas Aces.
New York has held its own with a revolving door roster: the Liberty is 12-10 against their seven sisters currently stationed on the current WNBA playoff bracket and a prime opportunity to earn a vital tiebreakers lands on Saturday afternoon when they face the Atlanta Dream (2 p.m. ET, CBS), who now sit in second following an upset win over Minnesota as Brooklyn endured its shocking loss.
Handling business against the Association's bottom-dwellers, however, has proved to be a challenge: with the exception of 10th-place Washington, the Liberty has dropped at least one game to each of the five teams teams out, including Thursday's shocker from the Sky (9-26), who were officially eliminated from playoff competition less than 24 hours prior.
That cursed sisterhood also includes Los Angeles, Dallas and Connecticut. Last season, the Liberty lost only two games to non-playoff competition en route to winning a franchise-best 32 regular season games for the second straight year.
"I'd say, in the first half, we made things way too easy for them, and that gave them hope going into halftime, knowing that they could hang with us," All-Star guard Sabrina Ionescu said. "Chicago is a good team. They just haven't put it together, but they beat Minnesota, they've beaten us like that."
"They're a good team and a tough team if you don't go out with the right mindset and mentality for 40 minutes. We didn't do it for 40 minutes, and it gave them enough hope to go out there and kind of outexecute us and outhustle us. It's a team that's playing with nothing to lose, and that's really tough. You got to be able to bring your A-game no matter who you're playing."
A 92-82 loss to Paige Bueckers and the rebuilding Dallas Wings on July 28 prompted a lengthy team meeting and the latest defeat prompted another discussion where Marine Johannes described Brondello as "mad" after letting another game against outmatched competition slip away. Brondello let her feelings out during her own statements, hoping her was "[ticked] off" after Thursday's defeat.
"Sandy was like saying really interesting stuff after the game," reserve shooter Johannes said. "I think we have to be ready. We can't play against Minnesota and have a great game and come back two days and not be ready. It's not putting us in a good spot for the playoff situation, [so] we understand, it's honest."
"We've known this for a long time, but everybody's going to give us their best effort," noted Jones after the loss to the Sky. "When we come out and play that way, it's going to be hard to beat teams, because teams are ready to play us. We have to be ready to play everybody that we step on the floor against."
The weekend showdown against Atlanta is the tip of a fateful eight that could place New York in or out of dangerous territory: catching the league-leading Lynx (28-7) is likely out of the question but the second seed is still there for taking.
In their current setting of fourth place, the Liberty would be on pace to not only face the Lynx again, albeit this time in the semifinal round, but would also draw a best-of-three set with the Phoenix Mercury. Phoenix has won two of three in the interconference set between original franchises with one more battle in the desert set to close out this month.
Beating Atlanta would give New York a vital tiebreaker in the head-to-head set. Fully aware that their issues go beyond mere injuries at this point, the Liberty vowed to take advantage and accept the fleeting silver linings of a compacted schedule featuring a WNBA-record 44 games.
"You can't play as well as we did against Minnesota, and then come out and not do the same against this team," Brondello said. "We've lost to teams down the bottom of the standings. Anyone can beat anyone this league, anyone can win this championship. It's wide open."
"But our inconsistencies are mind boggling at times, because we play so great. We have really ride this really big wave of highs and lows. But we have a opportunity to go into Atlanta now and beat them, which is a big game for us. We know that, so that's the great challenge for this team, to see what we've got, to go out there and not make the same mistakes we did today."
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.