What is the story about?
The New York Liberty, as slight underdogs, will take on the Atlanta Dream in the semifinals of the WNBA Playoffs after not just defeating, nor even just sweeping, but destroying the #1 seed Minnesota Lynx in the first round. They won each matchup by 16 points, the two-game set slightly more competitive, I guess, than the whooping my New York Yankees just put on that disgraceful bunch of Bostonians.
Here is a video breaking down the most important plays from Tuesday night’s series-clinching victory,
as well as a couple insights into that Atlanta matchup:
And here are some more insights:
- The Minnesota Lynx could not fix their biggest defensive issues from Game 1 to Game 2. The Liberty once again ran wild in transition, at nearly 20% frequency in the first half before intentionally bleeding clock in the second. They ended the series, per my hand-tracking, scoring an eye-popping 1.75 points per transition possession, running more frequently than their regular-season average. It’s not like the Lynx weren’t aware of the challenge. In all five matchups this season, the Liberty exceeded their average transition-frequency. Chris DeMarco kept it simple: “It was just one of our keys. One of our keys, I mean, when you get into a playoff series, you look at what’s worked this season, where we’re at our best, and it’s one of the things we wanted to do. No matter if we were down ten, up ten, just continue to push the tempo.”
- The Lynx also couldn’t stop straight up pick-and-roll, particularly from that flat alignment (filling two corners and the dunker spot, rather than a wing). After Game 1, I wrote that the Libs “ran base pick-and-roll (meaning the possession began with one of their four main PnR spacings, no frills necessary) on 19 of their 61 half-court possessions, or 31.15% of the time. That is their second-highest mark of the whole season, nearly 10% more than their average. Better yet, they scored a whopping 1.32 points per possession.” Well, in Game 2, they ran base PnR 31.25% of the time and scored 1.15 points per possession. Some more pops, some more Sabrina drive-and-kicks, but a similar result.
- Sabrina Ionescu only had four turnovers combined in the series. For how much pick-and-roll she ran, that alone is a feather in her cap, not to mention that she found her outside shot. I described in the video above that she took better shots, yes, but given how many points Atlanta scores off turnovers (the league’s most during the regular season), if she can just amass PnR volume while protecting the ball and giving NYL a chance at second possessions, that’ll be huge by itself.
- I picked the Lynx to win the series in three games. And yet, I noted repeatedly that the Liberty had the personnel to defend Olivia Miles well, and that they had done so just a week before the start of the playoffs. I noted that Breanna Stewart would be best player in the series, and that I trusted the team to play hard, if nothing else. Perhaps I didn’t assign enough weight to those factors. Olivia Miles was overwhelmed by New York and ultimately benched. Breanna Stewart wasn’t just the best player in the series, she was a God, playing every second of non-garbage-time hoops. And the Liberty played hard, meaning Jonquel Jones played hard, meaning the undersized Lynx had no answer for her in the paint. New York did not need any flukiness to win this series; they were the far better team. The Dream are a tougher stylistic matchup, but if New York brings the same energy and composure, they can beat Atlanta too.
- Rebecca Allen on the much-maligned coaching staff: “I think that you’re seeing — you’re leaning into your stars a lot in this in these games, and today you had to lean into your bench in other moments as well. And I think it’s playing that game. But I like the way that they’re speaking to us. It’s about making sure that we’re staying calm. I think you can get caught up in the emotions of playoff basketball because it is all heightened. But that calm is so important. So I think they’re doing a great, great job of managing that. They’re just so focused.”
- Breanna Stewart, facing the same question, said that Chris DeMarco, on his birthday, “had meetings all day with the staff, with the players, making sure everybody was locked in on what we needed to do. So I think they accepted the challenge that this is their first rodeo here, and I think they did incredibly well.”
- Will that continue against at Atlanta side that surely won’t let them run in transition with the same ease, that won’t be quite as helpless (you’d think) against pick-and-roll offense? We’ll see.
