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The New York Liberty could be excused for losing a tough game to the Los Angeles Sparks last weekend without Breanna Stewart, Kennedy Burke and Nyara Sabally. Maybe even for losing a road game to the Dallas Wings.
But not like this. The Liberty trailed by as many as 30 to a team that came into the game 7-19, allowing 30-plus points in each of the first two quarters. The final score was 82-72, but that didn’t begin to tell the whole story.
Once again, head coach Sandy Brondello blasted her team’s effort after the game — something that became a theme when the Liberty lost six of nine in June.
“It's an effort thing,” Brondello said. “It's just how we come out of the gate and we're not competing at a high level, and we've got to get back to playing what we know we're capable of, like in the second half.”
In the second half, the Liberty cut their deficit down to six, limiting the Wings to just seven points in the fourth quarter. It was a flash of what the team is capable of, even with three players sidelined.
“It’s never on the coaching staff, right?” Sabrina Ionescu said. “We're the ones that go out and play, so we're a team full of leaders that are always gonna take accountability for the way that we come out.”
Ionescu was 1-5 from the field in the first half with three turnovers and a -30 plus-minus. On the other side, Arike Ogunbowale had a 15-point, 10-assist first-half double-double as the Liberty had just nine assists as a team.
The Wings shot 59 percent from the field and, as Brondello pointed out, the Liberty did not have a single kill (stops on three straight possessions) in the entire first 20 minutes.
“Embarrassing, frustrating, a bit disappointing because we know the level of play that we hold ourselves to and the caliber play that we played at in the past,” Jonquel Jones said, summarizing the team’s effort.
The Liberty held another team meeting after Wings loss
The media waited nearly 40 minutes after the game for the Liberty to arrive at the postgame press conference. It’s a stark difference from after the Sparks loss Saturday where not even the entire media contingent had arrived yet before the team took the podium for a speedy six-minute presser.
The reason, we learned, was that New York held a team meeting after the game. It was their second in three weeks, which is never a great sign.
“We've got to dig a little bit deeper and we have to take a little bit more pride in the defensive area,” Brondello said. “It doesn't matter that we have players out. Everyone does. So you've just got to be more committed to that side of the ball and not allow their offense to dictate our defense.”
Earlier in the season, the Liberty had a problem starting third quarters slowly. The last two games, it’s been the first quarter, as New York has allowed more than 30 in the first frame both times. For context, Breanna Stewart said last year that the team’s goal is to score 20 a quarter and give up less than 20.
“It’s just more effort,” Jones said. “I think it's really nothing that [the Wings] did, it's just the way that we came out and we can be better with that.”
There was also the personnel problem, though Ionescu insisted that even with their available players, they had enough to win the game.
“We just have to come out with a little bit more purpose, and obviously we’re getting tested now, especially defensively,” she said. “They brought JJ up in a lot of pick and rolls. We don't have anyone at the rim to be able to contest like JJ does and usually we have Stewie, and so I think it's just understanding when people are.”
That was also an issue against the Sparks, so even with the Liberty expected to contend for another championship and the Wings far out of the playoff picture, it matters. But the team also likes to say — quite often — that nobody is going to have sympathy for them because they have injuries. Everyone does. And they don’t expect sympathy for playing a condensed schedule over the next few weeks. Every team does.
“It wasn't about scheming and anything,” Brondello said. “We just know we didn't play well, so, what are we gonna do about it? We can't be happy that we got [the deficit] back to six.”
The Liberty have almost no time to lick their wounds. They travel to Minnesota for a 2024 Finals rematch with the Lynx on Wednesday.
