Facing an uphill climb, the New York Liberty put forth their best effort and sucked us all in. Then they crumpled.
The New York Liberty got the job done against the Los Angeles Sparks on Tuesday night. It wasn’t always pretty, but they survived a shootout to secure at least a split in a brutal back-to-back that would conclude against the Las Vegas Aces on Wednesday night. Three games and a cross-country flight in four days doesn’t always lead to the most inspired basketball.
Then the Liberty gave the Aces a hell of a game on Wednesday night, on ESPN, and pulled us all in. Of course, they are not some scrappy underdog, tired as they may be. They are better than a shallow Aces side that has clawed their way back up to an 18-14 record entering the night, mainly thanks to Jackie Young and A’ja Wilson’s heroics. New York, no matter their schedule and laundry list of injuries, can’t earn much sympathy.
But a blowout would have been excusable. Maybe not a truly pathetic loss, but an inspired first quarter followed by the team with rest, a home crowd, and A’ja Wilson on their side running away with things. Something like that. Instead, the Liberty led for the majority of the first three quarters, even threatening to break the game open periodically. They shot just 7-of-25 from deep; tired legs or natural regression after making 50% of their threes in LA, who’s to say? But it prevented them from escaping Las Vegas’ reach.
Kennedy Burke returned from her eight-game absence, giving Sandy Brondello a functional nine-woman rotation. Burke often replaced Leonie Fiebich at the 3, but occasionally played next to her; despite the lack of rest, backups Stephanie Talbot and Rebekah Gardner combined for just 12 minutes.
Burke looked spry, missing all her 3-pointers but shooting 4-of-5 inside the arc and maintaining the Liberty’s advantage whenever bench units stepped on the floor…
“Being able to have KB back, just, for us she played amazing,” said Sabrina Ionescu. “To be able to see how she’s kind of picked up where she’s left off, and now we’re integrating her back in, and so it’s like, there is this hope of little by little, we’re going to continue to add the pieces that make this team whole.”
But Las Vegas’ own reserve answered all of KB’s buckets, and more. Jewell Loyd, now coming off the bench in quite the fall from grace, only looked washed on the defensive end on Wednesday night. She made the Liberty pay every time they left her open, especially from three, hitting five long-balls to score a team-high 21 points. In the first half, New York would build a possession-or-two lead, then Loyd would find an open catch-and-shoot three or Chelsea Gray a midrange pull-up…
It was immediately clear that, if the Liberty were to lose, they weren’t gonna make it easy. Not when they built a seven-point lead in the third quarter thanks to a few of their 40 points in the paint, a great handful scored by the plodding-but-never-slow Emma Meesseman.
NaLyssa Smith couldn’t guard her. Chelsea Gray couldn’t either. And forget about a switch. Slowly but surely, Meesseman and her teammates recognized it, and New York’s offense gravitated toward the newcomer on nearly every possession; it was the right choice…
With Meesseman hooping and A’ja Wilson on her way to one of her worst shooting performances of the season (3-of-14), the Aces seemed ill-equipped to make a game-deciding run. Jackie Young didn’t make it easy for Sabrina, but the All-Star guard fought her way to 18 points anyway; Jonquel Jones’ 11/7/5 doesn’t jump off the screen, but after a poor defensive effort against the Sparks, her battles with A’ja do.
The Liberty let go of the rope in the fourth quarter. Give them an excuse and blame the travel. Or feel disappointed, gut-punched by blowing a winnable game, that’s up to you. New York just didn’t get it done.
Jackie Young hit some major outside shots, but the Liberty drowned in a parade of whistles, with Vegas shooting 18 free-throws in the fourth quarter, only a couple on intentional fouls. The referees won’t get much scrutiny; the Aces forced fouls. Consistently deploying aggressive pick-and-roll coverages…
…meant that A’ja Wilson rolled to the rim and even when she didn’t get the ball, often had to leap over smaller players for o-boards, and very capable she is. Wilson would shoot 11-of-11 from the line and grab five of the Aces’ eight offensive rebounds in the fourth quarter, the best player in the WNBA diving into the mud to find a way to win. She leveled up. The Liberty are not her first victim…
…but fans could only be infuriated. The Liberty were down by a possession or two for most of the final frame, and every flailing grasp at momentum was halted by allowing an offensive rebound and a foul. Their offense faltered too, with Ionescu unable to escape Young’s clutches and Meesseman throwing a few unsightly turnovers; still, finding a single spark in transition might have helped, and the Aces, the WNBA’s most passive offensive rebounding team for years now, made that impossible. Like a great offensive line, Wilson and the Aces pushed the Liberty back, back, back, and back, until they were gone.
Said Brondello of her 12th-ranked defensive-rebounding squad: “That’s just something we have to get better at. If we want to get back to where we were last year, we have to be a better rebounding team.”
Indeed they do. The Liberty won’t beat themselves over losing to the Aces, but they might cringe at how they lost it. Forget the recent history, they lost to a less-talented team because they made correctable errors.
“It’s just the same, discipline. But I think that sometimes we just — as we’re tired, we probably just move less, and they’re physical, and then they just stop it. And then, you know, just a matter of probably almost giving it to them,” said Emma Meesseman.
Can the Liberty be proud of a game they “gave” to the Aces? Can a championship team really show championship mettle in a loss or is that for young, upstart teams who don’t have half the ambition of a squad trying to repeat?
”A bit of both, Lucas. It’s hard playing back-to-back, you know, especially with our schedule and going on to the West Coast. And I’m proud that they -- you know, I had to play them big minutes again to try and get it done. I suppose it was just our execution down the end. But with things like ‘I should have/could have,’ you know, we didn’t … But yeah, we’re a resilient group. We’ll all hang in there and get on to the next one,” said Sandy Brondello.
Liberty fans should believe her, the winningest coach in franchise history. Kennedy Burke has returned and Breanna Stewart is on her way back. Emma Meesseman is awesome. This team is still one to be proud of.
But that loss really stings.
Final Score: Las Vegas Aces 83, New York Liberty 77
Catalina Fragoso/NBAE via Getty Images
Yes, another date with the Minnesota Lynx, the last game of this three-game road trip. Tip-off is scheduled for Saturday afternoon at 2:00 p.m. ET.