Back in the winners circle. The New York Liberty took on the Minnesota Lynx Tuesday night at Barclays Center. Minnesota put up a heck of a fight, but New York was able to do just enough to come away with a much needed victory. New York enters tonight’s action in second place in the increasingly crowded WNBA standings.
The opponent tonight is looking ahead to 2026. It’s been a rough season for the Chicago Sky and although they lost to the Seattle Storm on Tuesday night, it was their best in effort
in quite some time. Gotta start from somewhere and rookie head coach Tyler Marsh hopes that it can be start of a more hopeful stretch of games.
Where to follow the game
My9 on TV. Liberty Live and FOX Local for the local streamers. Amazon Prime for the out of towners. Tip after 7 PM.
Injuries
No Breanna Stewart, Nyara Sabally, or Isabelle Harrison.
Courtney Vandersloot is out for the season. Hailey Van Lith is probable with an ankle injury.
The game
New York won the first and second meetings. The season series concludes on the last day of the regular season.
The Sky were officially eliminated from the playoffs last night following Kelsey Plum’s buzzer beater to get the LA Sparks a win over the Dallas Wings. It’s been a truly disastrous season for Chicago on many fronts, and the challenge for Chicago this off-season will be finding the right mix of talent to help them get back into respectability going forward.
Considering where the Liberty are in the standings, they can’t afford to overlook the Sky tonight. Any team can get beat on any given night and as they know all too well, if you don’t bring the proper energy to start a game, you WILL get embarrassed.
New York loves to get out in transition, and the Sky are the perfect team for that. Chicago leads the WNBA in turnover rate and allows the most points off of turnovers and most opponent fastbreak points. It’s a byproduct of not having Vandersloot for the Sky as she would help keep the offense moving along while reducing the team’s turnover issues. If the Liberty play their cards right, they can jump out to an early lead and put them on the defensive.
I’m a bit surprised Rebecca Allen hasn’t had a bigger role with the Sky this season. Bec is only averaging 19.5 minutes per game, her lowest since the 2019 season with the Liberty. On paper, Allen checks a variety of boxes. Rangy defender, good cutter off the ball, respectable three point shooter, etc. It’s a mystery and something we’ll watch closely this evening.
Sabrina Ionescu’s shot hasn’t been there recently, but when you’re doing a great job of setting your teammates up, you keep the offense humming. On Tuesday, Sabrina had more assists (11) than the entire Lynx team (ten). She’s gotten better as a decision maker over the years and as she continues to see a variety of defensive coverages, that knowledge and trust in her teammates will continue to pay dividends.
Player to watch: Angel Reese
It’s a great time to be Angel Reese. She’s one of the cover stars of this year’s edition of NBA2k and has her debut sneaker coming out in September. She’s a superstar off the court, and on the court, you see the growth start to show. A big problem in her game last year was her lack of success finishing at the rim. She shot 44.5 percent on shots inside of five feet in 2024, and early on this season she struggled there again. Reese has continued to work hard at it and is now shooting 50.5 percent on those shots this year. She has a relentless motor and great timing on the boards, and if she’s able to develop more of a touch on the inside, she can climb even higher heights. Angel was on a minutes restriction last game and figures to be on one tonight as well.
She had been out for a while due to a back injury, and apparently things didn’t go so smoothly in the recovery process? She was asked about her return a few days ago and said
“Put all the bulls— to the side, I wanna hoop.”
We’ll stick a pin in that for a later date.
Emma Meesseman is getting more and more comfortable with her team. She finally got a chance to have a real practice with the group and she’s been looking solid most times she’s on the court. When the offense for the Liberty stalls, they know they can throw it in to Emma in the painted area and trust that she’ll do something good with the ball in her hands.
It pays to have so many high level basketball players on one squad.
From the Vault
Ones in the air for John Wall as he announced his retirement.
More reading: Chicago Sun Times, Chicago Tribune, Swish Appeal, Breakaway, SB Nation, Women’s Basketball Roundup, The Local W, New York Daily News, Newsday, New York Post, NY Liberty Fan TV, No Cap Space, The Athletic, Fansided, Just Women’s Sports, Winsidr, Her Hoop Stats, Yahoo Sports, ESPN, CBS Sports, and The Next
