The vibes around New York City are unmatched as everyone’s on a high following the Knicks’ championship sealing victory last night. There’s plenty of more basketball to take place in New York, and the Liberty were back in action looking to keep up their recent success in front of a sold out Barclays Center crowd.
Coming in to Sunday’s matchup with the Washington Mystics, the New York Liberty were riding a six game winning streak. They’ve been able to solve some of their early season struggles and
are finally at full strength for the first time all season.
The game started a bit slowly as a clock malfunction 13 seconds in to the game. Once things got going, Breanna Stewart had things under control.
Stewart had a career high seven blocks as her timing on the weak side destroyed whatever driving lanes and shots at the rim the Mystics may have been able to generate for themselves.
Timing on defense is so critical, and it’s a topic Stewie spoke about in postgame media:
“I think just having a good awareness, basically who you’re guarding, knowing kind of what they want to do [helps] And the blocking? I don’t know. You can’t teach timing. You just have to have a good sense of when to go up and get it.”
Indeed. The Liberty held the Mystics to a season low 33.8 percent from the field as they consistently forced them into difficult possessions and 18 turnovers on the night. Han Xu’s efforts were especially noticeable as she was flying over the court on defense and hitting various catch and shoot jumpers on offense. Her efforts haven’t gone unnoticed and we’re starting to see one of the team’s youngest players grow in real time.
“She’s a very good WNBA player,” Chris DeMarco said. “She can shoot. She’ll post up. Defensively, she has a lot of size. She’s rebounded well in man coverage and in zone. I just think she continues to get better, and we wanted to be a little bit more aggressive today. I think she did a good job of that as well.”
On offense, the team was able to consistently find driving lanes to the basket and converted numerous catch-and-shoot opportunities against a Mystics team that was trying to limit New York’s paint touches. Put it all together and Ellie the Elephant got to have a fun filled birthday. And for basketball fans in New York, they were treated to another victory by the home team.
Final score: New York Liberty 86,Washington Mystics 64
With this win, the Liberty extended their winning streak to seven. More importantly, they secured their third appearance in the Commissioner’s Cup championship game. It’s their third trip there in the past four years. And if you’re looking for a trend…
Maybe one more championship will be coming to New York?
Welcome back, Sabrina
It took some time, but Sabrina Ionescu made her return following a back injury. Ionescu came off the bench in her first game back and gradually eased her way into things. In pregame, DeMarco noted that her minutes total would be around 20, give or take. Ionescu played 25 and started to regain the rhythm with her teammates after being out of action for so long.
“Obviously not being tentative,” Ionescu said of her approach. “Kind of having the mentality of ”I’m healthy, I’m good to go”, and just read the game. I felt like I read what the defense gave me, knowing they’re going to chase me, try and use my shooting ability to open up passing lanes for everyone else. I think some of them weren’t ready for some of the passes because we haven’t played a lot together yet. And so, just trying to build that chemistry back with the players on the floor.“
With Ionescu back, we get to fully see the vision Chris DeMarco has for this group. They’ve withstood some early difficulties and had to experiment with various combinations. Now that everyone is here, we’ll start to see how various lineups and build out the rotation going forward.
Next up
Now the goal is to secure home court advantage for the Commissioner’s Cup championship game. The Liberty close out Cup play with a road game in Chicago against the Sky. Tip off after 8:00 p.m. ET on Wednesday.
