Ask Sabrina Ionescu and she’ll tell you that the mood in the locker room after the New York Liberty defeated the Las Vegas Aces on Sunday afternoon was not celebratory.
The Liberty won, 75-71, clinching a regular season sweep over the team that beat them in the WNBA Finals last year. It also brought their magic number toward clinching the 1 seed in the WNBA Playoffs down to three.
But the Liberty have been here before, and Ionescu, Breanna Stewart, Jonquel Jones, and company did not like how their win happened. They let a 20-point lead turn into a fourth-quarter deficit. New York also scored only six points in the first 9:17 of the fourth. Ionescu had another poor game from the field (6-21 FG, 1-9 3PT) and the team’s prolonged second-half scoring drought let the Aces come back without MVP favorite A’ja Wilson.
“Not everything is going to look great and we hold ourselves to a really high standard,” Ionescu admitted after the game. “Which is why the morale might be a little bit low with a win like this.”
In a way, it was eerily similar to Game 4 of the WNBA Finals last year. The Aces, down starters Chelsea Gray and Kiah Stokes, erased a double-digit deficit to come back and beat the Liberty in Brooklyn and claim their second consecutive championship.
“It’s that understanding and that feeling of the last time they were on this court, they won a championship,” Ionescu said. “We have to come out and take care of business and win. We don't want to feel that again.”
The game had a playoff atmosphere. The plaza outside Barclays Center was buzzing two hours before tip-off as 15,393 eventually made their way inside. A sizable Aces contingent upped the intensity of the Liberty fanbase, making each momentum swing feel that much more important.
And the stars were courtside again. Devin Booker, Klay Thompson, Stephen Curry, Paige Bueckers, Azzi Fudd, WNBA commissioner Cathy Englebert, Dawn Staley, and Jordan Chiles were all at Barclays Center.
The atmosphere was not lost on the teams.
“It feels like a playoff game. Everyone’s asked for tickets and there’s none available,” head coach Sandy Brondello told the media before the game. “You know, we’re a hot ticket and it helps when Vegas comes.”
Betnijah Laney-Hamilton’s injury casts shadow over Liberty win
The good news for the Liberty is that they escaped with a win. But the concerns run even deeper than a second half to forget. With just under seven minutes to play in the game, Betnijah Laney-Hamilton collided with Kelsey Plum and fell to the ground holding her right knee — the same one she had operated on before the Olympic break.
Laney-Hamilton did not return to the game and Brondello did not have an update after, other than to say the medical staff is evaluating her.
The Aces had cut the Liberty’s lead to eight at that point and suddenly the veteran team faced a situation that is always a challenge, no matter how many years of experience it has. New York had to lock in and stave off an Aces run without knowing the extent of a critical player’s injury.
It was difficult on a professional level — Laney-Hamilton matters to the Liberty on both ends of the court as the team’s best defender and a real three-point shooting threat. It’s also difficult personally. The Liberty are a close-knit group — as they love to show on social media — and they’ve seen Laney-Hamilton go through a surgery, rehab, and return already this year. It’s tough luck.
“Obviously, to see anyone like that, there’s concern,” Stewart said. “But we know that what she wants us to do is focus and win.”
That focus, however, did not come easy.
“That was the tough part,” Ionescu said. “She’s strong. She’s dealt with this the last couple years and she’s always been able to bounce back.”
With five games remaining in the regular season, the Liberty are 29-6. They head to Dallas next to play two games against a Wings team that was eliminated from playoff contention on Sunday. The goal will be to keep winning and clinch that 1 seed. But the Liberty must also stay healthy.
Brondello will have to be careful with how she allocates minutes, though the emergence of Leonie Fiebich and the rest of the bench will make her job easier. Even without knowing Laney-Hamilton’s status and knowing how well the Liberty have weathered injuries this year, now is not the time to tempt fate.
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