The New York Liberty closed out the 2025 regular season with a ho-hum victory over the Chicago Sky. Their 44th and final game before the real test begins was one of the least eventful, least stressful games of the four-month tune-up. Sandy Brondello had her whole lineup, including mid-season arrival Emma Meesseman, available for just the second time in 2025, and nobody got hurt.
The Chicago Sky, with a seemingly inevitable Angel Reese trade request hanging over their dysfunctional operation, were
ready for the offseason. The Liberty walked into about ten layups via a backdoor cut in the first half, exerting just a little bit more effort than they would in a pregame walk-through to take a 56-44 lead into the break.
New York did hold a 17-point lead at one point, but then, again, their opponent made a run as Breanna Stewart headed toward the bench. If there’s one shining positive from the Liberty’s uneven close to the season, it’s that Stewart has proven she is capable, post-injury, of forcing herself on every corner of the game for art least 30 minutes a night. Transition, help defense, even hitting a couple jumpers — she put up 24/6/3 in this one on a tidy 9-of-14 shooting.
But the Liberty are struggling when she heads to the bench, in no small part because Jonquel Jones has not played well since returning from her own injury post All-Star break. She’s still Jonquel Jones, shooting well above 40% from three at 6’6”, still drawing attention when she steps into the paint, still capable of putting up big numbers on any given night, and she’d be forgiven for toning down the effort in the final game of the regular season. Except, this wasn’t her toning it down; this is her new normal…
I love me some Jonquel Jones, but much of New York’s postseason fortune hinges on whether she’ll snap out of it, starting this weekend.
If not, Brondello may be forced into tough decisions between Emma Meesseman, who again looked great on Thursday, and Jones. At least for stretches. Or, she could just take take the fork in the road by playing a triple-big lineup, which she vowed to do against the Sky, and sure enough, the Aussie stayed true to her word.
We saw Stewie, Jones, and Meesseman share the court for nearly four minutes on Thursday, in which the Liberty outscored Chicago 10-8. (Izzy Harrison later replaced Jones in that lineup, with the idea of three bigs staying intact.)
“I think what worked is we gave each other space to operate, and that’s the most important thing,” said Stewart postgame. “You know, we tried it earlier on, it seemed like we were on top of each other, but now letting one action develop on one side and then moving to the second side.”
Brondello thought the lineup was “successful,” and now, it seems to be a playable card for her in New York’s first-round matchup against the Phoenix Mercury. The same cannot be said for Marine Johannès, who once again did not appear until garbage time, behind Meesseman, Kennedy Burke, and Rebekah Gardner as the favored reserves off the bench.
Gardner scored a season-high 15 points on a perfect 5-of-5 from the field to end her up-and-down season, which is ending with an undeniable ‘up’ after the veteran 2-guard nearly fell out of the lineup entirely in August. After watching the Liberty march to the title last season as she nursed an achilles injury, Gardner is set to be an active participant in their title defense.
She can’t wait: “I just use what I learned during that year, often. Even throughout the year, there’s been times where other, different players are out, and I’ve just tried to step up where I can and help the team where I can. So, I try to continue to do that. And looking back, I feel like it’s been great, but I’m looking forward to winning another championship.”
After Jones checked out midway through the third quarter, we headed steadily toward garbage time. The benches wrapped up the season, and even though Chicago’s bench thoroughly outplayed New York’s deep reserves, it was okay. Everybody was healthy, and Nyara Sabally even got to score a couple points…
What an odd regular season that was for New York. They didn’t have a championship hangover, but after steamrolling every competitor for the first three weeks of the season, their glorious victory tour, fresh off the first championship in the franchise’s 28-year history, never regained its footing. Even the wins were struggles, but the losses were aggravating. Emma Meesseman was not just a luxury, but a vital appendage.
The New York Liberty did not find a new identity this season, beyond that of a tired team capable of infrequent brilliance. Maybe they will be brilliant over the next month of playoff basketball and go back-to-back; watching the top eight players demolish a mopey Chicago Sky team in the first half is enough to make the heart flutter, to hope against hope.
All that is over now. It’s time for the playoffs. Given that the Liberty never truly built a rhythm this year, you wish the 2025 regular season could have lasted just a little longer. But it damn sure won’t be missed.
Final Score: New York Liberty 91, Chicago Sky 86
Next Up
The New York Liberty will take on the Phoenix Mercury in round one of the WNBA playoffs, a best-of-3 format traveling between cities for each game. The Mercury, as the #4 seed, will host the #5 seed Liberty on Sunday evening at 5:00 p.m. ET.
