“This is obviously a learning opportunity, but we’re kind of running out of opportunities for growth at this point. We need to just actually be better,” said Breanna Stewart after the New York Liberty got knocked out by the Phoenix Mercury on Saturday night.
That was the tone of New York’s postgame presser. Not “no excuses BUT,” not “we have time,” even with Sabrina Ionescu missing her second straight game with a toe injury.
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“This is not championship level basketball at this point, and everybody needs to recognize that, and understand that we need to get there and that starts with the mindset, and then putting it onto the court,” said Stewie.
It started decently enough. The Liberty led the Phoenix Mercury, their most likely first-round matchup, by two points after the first half. New York’s defense, despite a heater from Kahleah Copper, was locked in. Breanna Stewart, whose minutes-limit neared 30 in her third game back from injury, made it all work per usual…
Without Ionescu, the Liberty were facing an uphill battle against a surefire playoff team, a healthy one at that. Next to Leonie Fiebich and Natasha Cloud, masked up due to a slight nose fracture, New York started their three All-Star caliber bigs in Stewie, Jonquel Jones, and Emma Meesseman. The regular season is ending, the three had played just two minutes together entering Saturday. It was time.
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But while Stewie hit two threes and Emma Meesseman ultimately led the team in scoring with 17 points on 7-of-9 shooting, it wasn’t enough to bury the Mercury. Jonquel Jones missed Thursday’s game with an illness, and it looked like it was still weighing her down on Saturday.
The Liberty did not have such a room for error. They scored a brutal 24 points in the seance half, each open look the result of a seemingly miraculous possession that Phoenix could not switch to death. The Liberty turned it over 19 times, and scored just one point in the final four-and-a-half minutes of the third quarter…
That stretch decided the game. On a team level, New York’s offense wasn’t going to lead a double-digit comeback — the floor was not there, nor the pace nor the counters to Phoenix’s ball-pressure, leading Brondello to take culpability in the postgame presser.
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But the Liberty had many more problems than coaching; on an individual level, they got shoved in a locker. Many of the turnovers were sill lapses of focus; they were slower to 50/50 balls and couldn’t make shots at momentum-shifting inflection points. Though it wasn’t, it felt like a blowout.
Phoenix took the lead in the third quarter and never looked back. Rebekah Gardner and Marine Johannès both entered off the bench to try and provide as spark but neither could; Isabelle Harrison saw just four first-half minutes given all the other bigs, but checked in by the second half to get some cardio in.
After seizing the lead in the third quarter, the Mercury never looked back. Alyssa Thomas carried her non-Copper teammates, nearly triple-doubling again, and New York never quite figured out how to defend inverted pick-and-rolls. But this game wasn’t about tactics, really; the Liberty just didn’t have it, that same old song. They should have Ionescu for the playoffs, but best be sure no opponent will be afraid.
Nor should they be. After Saturday’s loss, it appear the Liberty are destined to fall backwards into the playoffs, praying for healthy and going for broke. But Saturday night proved yet again it doesn’t feel like their year. Slow, sloppy, soft against a team looking right at them in the standings.
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“Obviously, today was huge for seeding implications and things like that. But, you know, aside from that, we want the game to feel better. You know, we want to play better, we want to be peaking and today wasn’t a good choice.” — Stewie
Phoenix built the lead to ten, then dawdled around before building it up to 20. In the meantime, they did not let Natasha Cloud hit the paint enough to break their defense, they allowed Leonie Fiebich just one made field goal, and Meesseman did her best to close out to shooters but still watched as they hit threes over her head. Sandy Brondello must explore the three-big lineup. but the mercury had no trouble on Saturday.
Said Sandy: “I think they were very physical, and we weren’t on our front foot and started turning the ball over. We weren’t quick to our next actions, and then defensively, you know, we weren’t very good there.”
Can the Liberty get it right? It’s unclear, and now the players are feeling the heat. This is not good enough. Not to win yet again, with Jonquel scoring six measly points and Ionescu out again. There is nothing else to do but wait and see, but man is it frustrating.
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Final Score: Phoenix Mercury 80, New York Liberty 63
The Price is Wrong
The New York Liberty — the franchise that has most exemplified the WNBA moment, the league establishing itself as a cultural mainstay as the Liberty establish themselves as a true New York institution, Barclays Center as the place to spend a summer night in the city — are again raising season-ticket prices. Surprised?
On Friday, the New York Post’s Madeline Kenney published a (paywalled) feature covering the newest round of price increases for Liberty loyalists. As we’ve covered, The New York Liberty are a business, and now that their product is in greater demand, they will charge more for it. But Kenney does capture how many fans view this as an inevitable pill to swallow.
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“It’s a tough transition, but I just hope to see the women get the money out of it … If they do that, then I can live with watching on TV,” goes one quote.
Still, long-time fans have seen the team — and by extension, league — leap into the spotlight, only to bear the brunt of the consequences. Prices have steadily increased while in Brooklyn, and while New York has transformed themselves from lottery-dwellers to championship-winners stocked with star power in that time, many fans are at a financial breaking point…
Prices are going up. Water is wet. And though season-ticket price increases are tiered — long-time fans pay a bit less — many fans who were around before Liberty home games became the best environment in sports, will no longer get to partake in that environment.
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Next Up
The Liberty continue their three-game road trip on Tuesday night, with tip-off against the Golden Sate Valkyries on Tuesday night at 10:00 p.m. ET.
