If a healthy version of the New York Liberty are going to return to the WNBA Finals for the third straight year, it’s going to be on the backs of their defense.
The offense is not going to be a worry. In a lineup so star-powered that Emma Meesseman — the 2019 WNBA Finals MVP — is coming off the bench to average 13 points and five rebounds, the points will be there.
Head coach Sandy Brondello said it herself after New York defeated the Washington Mystics, 75-66, in its home finale on Tuesday night.
“How we feel that we're gonna move forward and be successful in the playoffs is as a defensive-minded team and [that] allows our offense to come out of that,” she said.
The second half of the Liberty’s season has been a series of fits and starts as players cycle in and out of the lineup due to injuries. But over their last seven games, they’ve held their opponent under 80 points six times.
Against the Mystics, they also got Sabrina Ionescu back after she missed four games with a toe injury.
“Our defense has to create our offense to get easy baskets in the early stages. That's when we're at our best,” Brondello added before the game. “You add someone like Sabrina and it makes it all easier.”
Ionescu only had six points but also had nine assists in the win.
“I feel like our best offense is our transition [offense] and so for us, it's just being active and making sure teams feel us on the defensive end,” she said. “Knowing when we get stops, we're the best team and when we get out and get easy looks and don't allow defenses to get set.”
When the Liberty are forced to play in the half-court for long stretches, they tend to make mistakes. Turnovers have been a problem most of the year, and they have rarely come from pushing the pace.
Brondello added that even against the Mystics, she wasn’t thrilled with how the Liberty set screens and did not think they were able to get Meesseman and Jonquel Jones enough touches inside.
How the Liberty talk about defense has changed
Listening to Breanna Stewart talk about the Liberty’s defensive effort against Washington, it sounded refreshingly similar to how the team talked about defense last year.
Like their 2024 championship team, Stewart said the defense “played on a string” over their last two games — perhaps the product of the team finally having all its regulars together at the same time.
“Knowing that sometimes, defensively, when you’re putting yourself out of position, but you're there to have your teammate’s back, and then you have to trust someone else that's gonna have you,” Stewart explained. “It's really coming together and especially playing at home and being able to be aggressive defensively.”
Unfortunately for the Liberty, team defense requires chemistry, which requires reps. With only one game left before the playoffs begin, New York needs those reps. The core of this team was together last year for its championship run, but there are new, equally important pieces like Meesseman and Natasha Cloud.
“The chemistry is there, just getting the reps between practice and games and stuff like that,” Stewart added, “it's just knowing that whether we make mistakes or not we're going to be on the same page and be able to cover up one another's mistakes on the court.”
The Liberty close the regular season on Thursday night in Chicago against the Sky.
