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The New York Liberty led the Chicago Sky by 21 at halftime on Thursday night and their head coach, Sandy Brondello, wasn’t happy.
“It just got real clunky and, regardless of the score, we didn't have the pace and the urgency and the spacing that we need as we move forward,” she said after the Liberty finished off a 99-74 victory.
Never mind that the Liberty set a WNBA record with 19 made threes on 56% shooting from beyond the arc. Or that New York had 25 assists on 32 made field goals. The defending WNBA champions have set a standard for themselves.
Not living up to it early on didn’t come back to bite them, but that doesn’t mean it can’t.
“Obviously I'm going to have joy because we won the game, but we're nowhere near where we need to be on the offensive end,” Brondello continued. “Defensively, I thought we were solid, but we still had breakdowns there too.”
Overall, 10 Liberty players scored and five hit double-figures. Natasha Cloud led the way with 18 points and eight assists.
The Liberty newcomer also seems to have bought in to what Brondello is preaching.
“Coach Sandy sets a precedent before every game is like it's about us,” Cloud explained. “We're going to prepare for the team that we're playing against…but even though we're playing against the Sky, it's still about us as the Liberty. So we want to be better in all these areas.”
Cloud added that she thought the team needed to be more locked-in on defense. And that’s on a night when the Sky shot 36% overall, committed 23 turnovers and had zero made field goals from Angel Reese.
The Liberty were strong in the second half, but only after Chicago scored the first eight points of the third quarter, forcing Brondello to call a quick timeout.
“After she called that time out, like, they just threw the first punch at us again,” Cloud said. “We got to get our s**t together.”
Liberty reserve Kennedy Burke’s offseason work is paying off
Kennedy Burke told reporters after the Liberty’s season-opening win over the Las Vegas Aces that she worked tirelessly on her three-point shot in the offseason and overseas in Turkey.
She went 2-3 from three against the Aces and was a perfect 4-4 on Thursday. Her last make was the Liberty’s record-breaker.
This @MarineJ5 dish to KB for the TR3 BALL WAS MONEY💰 pic.twitter.com/qA59hwczF2
— New York Liberty (@nyliberty) May 23, 2025
“I got the ball and I just shot it because I was wide open,” Burke said, adding that she wasn’t aware her team was on the brink of history. “That’s my role on the team, just to shoot when I'm open and just make the big plays.”
Brondello and Burke’s Liberty teammates spent training camp talking up how great the former UCLA Bruin looked. It was encouraging for fans to hear, but without seeing it translate to meaningful games, their comments offered nothing more than cautious optimism.
After consecutive double-digit scoring games off the bench, Burke is 9-13 from the field this season. She is playing with a level of comfort and confidence that wasn’t possible last year when she missed most of training camp with an injury.
“It's come from all the work that she's done leading into training camp and in training camp, and her teammates trust her,” Brondello said. “It’s fun because she played an important role for us last year, but I just knew it was gonna be bigger one [this year].”
As for Cloud, who played with Burke on the 2022 Washington Mystics, she’s happy her friend is getting some credit.
“She doesn't always get the flowers that she deserves,” Cloud said. “That's my dawg and I really love her.”
The Liberty are back in action on Saturday against Caitlin Clark and the Indiana Fever. The game will tip at 1p.m. in Indianapolis.
