The New York Liberty faced the Chicago Sky on Tuesday night. With the third quarter and the shot clock winding down, Natasha Cloud caught the ball five feet behind the top of the key. She had no choice but to heave a skying 27-footer over Rebekah Gardner, a low-percentage shot that everybody watching the game, whether on television or from the Liberty bench, thought was going in. To that point, Cloud had scored 24 points on 10-of-14 shooting, 4-of-5 from deep.
“She had a rhythm,” said Head Coach Chris
DeMarco. “She was playing hard in that first half, and found it obviously. I think it was three or four transition threes before our defense was even set, she just — she played really well.”
The Liberty were playing their last game of a physically grueling though competitively light stretch: A win would bring them to 10-2 in their last 12 games. Then three days off before facing the Indiana Fever. Then four days off before facing the Golden State Valkyries. New York, clawing for one more win, some rest, and then an opportunity to beat legitimate playoff teams. Chicago, already out of the playoff picture but led by a vengeful Natasha Cloud, was no walkover. Especially not after Jonquel Jones left the game with an ankle injury…
Jones returned to the bench wearing her warmup at halftime. It doesn’t appear the injury is too serious, it is not the ankle she injured last season, so one would think she has a decent chance of playing in four days. Still, Head Coach Chris DeMarco had no update postgame, so it’s best to stop speculating right here.
Neither her injury nor Cloud’s hot shooting was the only reason the Liberty were trailing 54-43 at halftime. New York turned it over 17 times on Tuesday, with most of those coming in the first half. They also surrendered 14 offensive boards to Chicago, immediately falling into a hole from which they could not dig out when Jonquel Jones got hurt.
Let’s be fair now. Han Xu tried her best. She logged a season-high 26 minutes and scored a dozen points. The Liberty won her minutes by three points, and Han even made a couple important defensive rotations late in the ballgame when it looked like New York was going to make another improbable comeback…
But Han could not keep Kamilla Cardoso off the glass. She did not provide much rim protection, nor could Chris DeMarco mix up coverages with her, forced to hope that Cloud (and Courtney Vandersloot and Sydney Taylor) would start missing pull-up jumpers vs. her drop coverage. And again, in the interest of fairness, Vandersloot and Taylor combined to shoot 6-of-18.
“Second chance opportunities, I think that, off rip, that was the more glaring thing,” said Breanna Stewart. “You know, our ice [coverage] was pretty good. Like, I feel like our ice was good, our high tags were good, but Chicago’s a good team. You know, they’re better than what their record says, and they make the right reads depending on how the defense shifts. And a few times we we kind of missed that cutter, and they got an easy o-board or layup.”
Raquel Carrera played six second-half minutes in place of Han. Stewie and Sabrina took brief breaks. Anneli Maley got four minutes. The Liberty played the hand they were dealt, trusting their bench and tightening up the turnovers and rebounding in the second half, and nearly stole another win against the Sky.
Recall the last two meetings. New York won each of them by one point, the latter requiring Sabrina Ionescu’s miracle minute at home. A couple days prior, Ionescu did the same thing to the Dallas Wings. On Tuesday, they were set to steal another one. Rebecca Allen made a trio of triples in the third quarter to cut into Chicago’s lead. Breanna Stewart got that look in her eye, forcing her way to floaters and finishing with 22/7/3/3/1 on 8-of-13 shooting. It prompted her former teammate to say this postgame…
Of course, Cloud was in a good mood because she got the last laugh. Sabrina Ionescu scored 18 points and had 12 assists, the last of them on a go-ahead triple from Marinè Johannès. The Liberty finally clawed in front. Then Cloud tied it at the line, Han missed an open three, Cloud hit a jumper, Marine missed a jumper, Cardoso made a layup, and that was essentially it.
Natasha Cloud scored a career-high 35 points with nine rebounds and six assists. You knew she was going to get her revenge on the Liberty at some point this season, that’s who she is…but damn, like this? It stings for many reasons, but for Rebecca Allen, who publicly did not love her season with the Sky and nearly buried them with perhaps her best performance of the season. Alas, no loss is fun. Even with Breanna Stewart becoming the first player in WNBA history to score 3,000+ points with two franchises, the fastest in Liberty history to achieve that mark.
Said Stewie: “I mean it’s it’s definitely tough with a loss, but I’ve really enjoyed playing in New York and representing the Liberty … so it’s a cool thing. It would have been cooler if we would have won.”
Yeah. Probably.
Final Score: Chicago Sky 93, New York Liberty 86
Standings Watch
It’s that time of the year:
In my opinion, the ideal scenario for the Liberty was to be the #6 seed, but Las Vegas has lost two straight while Indy has won five…so maybe not. In any case, the Liberty do have the inside-track for the #6 seed, and have two more games against Atlanta this season. To me, the ideal scenario is still finishing at #6 and drawing the Aces in the first round, followed by the winner of Valkyries-Mystics. Is that possible? Well, their next game will go a long way in letting us know…
Next Up
Indiana Fever. At Barclays Center. Nationally televised. 7:00 p.m. ET.
