Liberty Sends Message With Shorthanded Win
BROOKLYN — In the face of countless injuries endured during the franchise's first championship defense, New York Liberty head coach Sandy Brondello has vowed not to panic — at least until the day she's forced to suit up for her ailing squad.
"We're in real trouble, if I do," Brondello quipped mere seconds after revealing that the Liberty's injury report would resemble its usual packed state on Thursday against the Washington Mystics with the late additions of Sabrina Ionescu and Jonquel Jones.
Humor is one way to deal with the uncontrollables. Nothing, however, beats performance, and the Liberty were happy to prove it in front of an enthused crowd at Barclays Center.
New York lost four women, including three starters, as it faced a relative must-win against Washington, one that would allow it to keep pace in the race for homecourt advantage in the upcoming WNBA Playoffs. It secured, however, one of its most dominant triumphs of the season, an 89-63 mastering of the Mystics that brought further festiveness to an already jubilant crowd engaging in the team's West Indian Night celebration.
"I wanted them to focus on what we did have and who was here," All-Star forward Breanna Stewart said of her pregame message to those left behind. "All of these players are super important to our team, and we have that fight. [Washington] is a team that's fighting for a playoff spot or whatever they're fighting for, and these are the hardest teams to play right now, the ones that are are having a sense of desperation."
"But so did we."
The Liberty (24-15) won consecutive games for the first time since Aug. 3-8 and earned its largest margin of victory since June 1. Other landmarks set during the excursion including the best rebounding margin of the campaign (plus-13) and the second-fewest turnovers (7), all while still missing the legendary talents plus depth stars like Natasha Cloud and Nyara Sabally.
A night of absences was, ironically, saved with a return: back from concussion protocol after two weeks off, Isabelle Harrison solidified her case for a rotational spot with a 16-point showing, more than half of that coming in a second period that helped the Liberty find its footing after a mediocre opening frame.
Harrison had relief in relief from Rebekah Gardner and Stephanie Talbot, who united for 19 points in the cause. Talbot's day proved quite unique, as she became the first New York backup to post a 10-5-5 day (11 points, 6 assists/rebounds) since Han Xu did so in 2022.
The Liberty had three backups with eight points each for just the second time this season, brilliantly complementing starting efforts from Marine Johannes, Emma Meesseman, and even near double-double from a reduced Breanna Stewart, who needed a relatively brief 23 minutes to put up 12 points and nine boards while continuing to ramp up after a 13-game absence with bone bruise on her knee.
"It felt good to play like that," Johannes, she of 14 points, said. "We know missing players is not easy for us, but I think it was a great team win. Seeing players like Izzy, like Steph have a great game felt really great and good. We are all happy for them."
New York has frequently sugarcoated the dreary stretches of injury with the idea that thrusting backwall reps into high-profile situations will pay off with a deeper team come playoff time. To see it bloom against a team that still had plenty to play for carried a sense of lingering sweetness.
"It's a great game to have at this time," Gardner said. "The luxury of our team is that it doesn't matter who's out there. It was a great win for us, especially being that we haven't got a win that we really felt good about [in a while]. So this is one where I think we can build off of."
Like its prior win over Connecticut, the Liberty wouldn't impress anyone from a hypothetical selection committee forming the WNBA playoff bracket but waxing a Washington group fighting for its postseason life with eight women to work lends a sense of accomplishment and a chance to start making a statement en route to potentially becoming one of the teams no one wants to face once the playoffs start.
But controlling the controllables, of course, requires one's eyes and mind to reside solely in one's locker room. New York thus sought to send a message to its own locker room — the remaining five games left on its regular season docket will show if it has succeeded.
"We're not looking at other teams at this point," Meesseman declared. "We're just looking at ourselves, to send a message to ourselves. What we can do, when we're locked in, when we play together, we make the ball move. We see that if we do that, it makes it so much easier about being locked in."
"It's hard [when] you're trying to find some rhythm and chemistry, and it's hard when you've got people in and out and playing all these different opponents," Brondello said in the postgame. "But I'm just really happy with how this team just remains together and just works, and how they played together as a team. I think that's good. We had a lot of people out tonight. Now we just got to build on that, and go to Phoenix. That's all we need to focus on and get the win there."
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.