It’s tough to be Chris DeMarco right now. Sabrina Ionescu and Satou Sabally were game-time decisions for Wednesday night’s home game against the Phoenix Mercury. Neither played. Curiously, Sabally was on the floor for layup lines, minutes after being ruled out, before a team staffer politely pulled her to the sideline.
Meanwhile, Betnijah Laney-Hamilton was questionable for this one and did play, returning from a three-game absence due to a personal reason. At least Leonie Fiebich made her season
debut and started; she scored New York’s first five points on a corner three and this baseline cut…
Fiebich also brought some much-needed animosity toward the Mercury, cutting right to the point when asked if the Liberty were still feeling sore over the Mercury eliminating them from the playoffs last season: “Of course. Of course.”
Fiebich and Laney-Hamilton gave him some more ammo to work with, but eight games into the season, DeMarco has to deal with the same aggravation night in, night out, not knowing who’s available until 30 minutes before tip-off and dealing with minutes restrictions for the players that do escape the injury report. Breanna Stewart shouldn’t play 35 minutes a night in May, lest she burn herself out by the fall? Well I agree, but I didn’t just take the job of a championship-winning coach who got the boot one season later.
Monday night’s loss was the ultimate Marine Johannès Giveth, Marine Johannès Taketh experience, but Wednesday night was just the highlight reels. She hit four of her seven triples in the first quarter, threw another over-the-head pass, and only turned it over once en route to a 21/3/5 performance.
“Before the game, I can’t lie, I was thinking about last season,” admitted Johannès. “It was a tough time for me, so playing Phoenix tonight, that was really motivating. But also losing was not easy for the team.”
Stewie was quite proud of her teammate, and clarified that even during the game, she can still sit back and enjoy the spectacle of a Marine Johannès heater: “Oh yeah. When she was next to me on that corner three, I’m giving it to you, like, ‘Go for another one.’ But really, really happy for Marine. I think that — listen, to have the two games where she struggled, and then for her to bounce back like this shows who she is as a player, but also a lot of growth, you know?”
Unnerving, though, was the score despite her harebrained brilliance. The Mercury took a one-point lead into halftime and extended soon into the third quarter. DeMarco was once again in scramble-mode. Laney-Hamilton played just two minutes in the first half, picked up two fouls, and sat right back down on the bench. Rebecca Allen was again given a chance to play her way into rhythm, but shot 0-of-5 with a turnover in 11 minutes. Han Xu again pulled her weight, scoring eight points on 3-of-6 shooting as DeMarco graciously mixed in a triple-big lineup for the nerds.
Jonquel Jones fought admirably, cleaning up the glass and protecting the rim, posting a 17-and-12 double-double, while Stewie was busy dealing with Alyssa Thomas’ physicality every possession. Alas, the two were mortal, shooting a combined 9-of-26, and without monster scoring from each of them, it seemed like the Libs were headed for another exasperating loss. Then, divine intervention.
Well, perhaps I shouldn’t call it that. New York, pardon the cliché, dug deep and flipped the game and maybe the season on its head. Following a timeout, they closed the third quarter on a 23-0 run, playing their best ball of the season. The Liberty pressed the Mercury, trapping and torturing ball-handlers in the backcourt….
“Play some f*****g defense,” according to Fiebich, was the message from Chris DeMarco in that timeout. They listened.
From a six-point deficit to a 17-point lead entering the fourth quarter, the rest was cosmetic. Phoenix made a couple shots, New York made a couple more jumpers and effort plays (Pauline Astier blocked a 3-pointer!), and Barclays Center tried to recover from, or preserve, whatever the hell had just happened in the third. Let’s just say the fans quite enjoyed Ellie the Elephant’s fourth quarter performance.
“I just it felt like it was time for this group,” said DeMarco. “And you can just see it, like, we have these great spurts, but it just felt like it was time.”
Riding a three-game losing streak and facing their playoff tormentors from the previous fall, the Liberty were clearly playing with a little more angst from the jump. Han Xu pumped her first after an and-one, Marine Johannès bickered over a foul call, and when they started to fall behind, I was already dreading the vibe of postgame interviews. The players might have been too.
The 23-0 was, indeed, divine. The Liberty hadn’t won a game in two weeks, and in five minutes, all that angst became euphoria. What had been done to them during this miserable homestand, they did to the Mercury, not just turning them over but embarrassing them. Alyssa Thomas finished with 9/7/9, and in the game’s most critical stretch, she couldn’t get the ball over half-court!
Pregame, Chris DeMarco said, “Sometimes you have to deal with adversity earlier than you’d like, and you see what you’re made of, and it builds character. I think our players will be better off for it going forward.”
Over the next two hours, his words proved prophetic, and by the end of it, everybody could breathe a bit easier.
Final Score: New York Liberty 84, Phoenix Mercury 74
Milestone Watch
A bit of cherry-picking but we’ll let it slide!
Breanna Stewart also passed Lisa Leslie on the WNBA’s all-time made FTs list, moving into 7th place.
Injury Report
Postgame, DeMarco said that Satou Sabally will be questionable going forward, but maintained that her absence was illness-related and not concussion-related.
“Satou, you know, she tested it out, she didn’t feel well, but she wanted to be out there as a teammate, so she’s out there for the game, she was great throughout the game,” said DeMarco.
This begs a natural follow-up question: What non-contagious illness is Sabally dealing with, considering she’s spending all this time with her teammates at shootaround and on the bench? Perhaps we’ll soon find out.
Though Sabrina Ionescu missed another game, this time with a back ailment, she and the team maintain it is not expected to be a long-term absence.
Next Up
Let’s do it again. Friday night, 7:30 p.m. tip.
