The New York Liberty have made it a point over the past few weeks to explicitly state that their goal is to cement their status as the best team in New York, or, at the very least, take care of business to set up a likely WNBA Finals matchup against the Las Vegas Aces. However, their performance in Game 1 of their WNBA Semifinal series against the Connecticut Sun did not help matters at all when it comes to achieving those goals. They ended up having a nightmare of a game as they suffered a 78-63 loss to fall behind in the series.

Of all the times to have this putrid offensive night as a collective, this is the very worst; in the playoffs is where a team that aspires to win a championship should be peaking, not falling flat on their faces. Even Liberty head coach Sandy Brondello acknowledged that this was her team's “worst game of the season” and that her team did not have the right energy to match up with the Sun's “at all”, per Alexa Philippou and Michael Voepel of ESPN.

“[We need] more energy, more effort. I don't know, I just feel like mindset-wise it just wasn't there today,” Jonquel Jones said.

Murphy's Law was simply in effect for the Liberty on Sunday night. Breanna Stewart, one of the best players in the league who shot 46.5 percent from the field during the regular season, shot an absolutely horrendous 7-25 from the field. Sabrina Ionescu was also inefficient from the floor, shooting 4-14 (28.6 percent) during the defeat.

Overall, the Liberty were unable to find a semblance of offensive rhythm. They were unable to take care of the basketball as well; all starters turned the ball over at least twice, with Ionescu, Courtney Vandersloot, and Betnijah Laney all coughing it up thrice.

“[We] didn't handle [Connecticut's defense] well,” Stewart said.

Of course, it's not yet the end of the world for the Liberty. Their series against the Sun is best-of-five, so they'll have a few more opportunities to right the ship. But they'll have greater sense of urgency to do so given their terrible performance in the series opener.