I was worried about the New York Liberty on Thursday night. They played the 12-20 Los Angeles Sparks at home, just two days after getting embarrassed by the Indiana Fever on national television. Okay, maybe “embarrassed” is a strong word, but it was New York’s first game against a real good team in some time, and they got smoked. For those in the business of doubting the Liberty, Tuesday night turned a profit.
The Sparks also played Tuesday night before flying across the country for this one, but
they’ve been feisty despite trading Kelsey Plum away. Entering Thursday, they hadn’t lost by double digits since July 17. A classic post-deadline spoiler squad, recently pushing the Valkyries and the Lynx to the (Cam) brink. Sorry.
The Liberty were also dealing with some rough news on the injury front. Satou Sabally’s injury designation was changed from “concussion protocol” to “head”, which came with the news that she’d be stepping away from the team for an undetermined amount of time.
- Sabrina Ionescu: “It’s really mature and a step in the right direction for her to understand where she’s at and what she needs to do to feel 100 percent and feel like herself. And we’re giving her all the time in the world to do that.”
- Chris DeMarco: “She’s going to be away from the team for a little bit. It’s her second significant head injury in the past 12 months. So, as with all our players, health will always be the focus, and we look forward to getting her back. She’s just going to take some time right now.”
DeMarco did say Sabally has cleared concussion protocol but is not in her “comfort zone” just yet. He did not clarify is Sabally would be continuing with basketball activities during her absence, saying that decision is up to the performance team.
As for the basketball game, my fears were immediately assuaged. The visitors led 6-4 and then never again, as the Liberty smoked the Sparks. Kind of. My fears reappeared when New York froze to begin the fourth quarter, on the wrong side of a 21-0 run early in the frame. They did have a 28-point lead to play with, and those few minutes of unadulterated Barclays Center angst inflated the starters’ minutes and annoyed those writing on deadline, but no harm no foul?
Said Ionescu: “I’m glad the way that we were able to weather the storm and continue to chip away, find a way to win. But obviously, it’s a learning experience that the game’s never over, and we got to continue to play our style of basketball: play fast, get stops, kind of play how we did the first three.”
DeMarco echoed the sentiment: “We played three of the best quarters of the season, and then the fourth was obviously the opposite of that. But we found a way to bounce back at the end and make sure we won this game.”
The Sparks didn’t just scare the Libs, they made it a nerve-wracking ending. Rae Burrell scored 20 of her 28 in the fourth quarter, relentlessly attacking the rim when she wasn’t left wide open for threes. Los Angeles even cut it to a single point with the shot-clock turned off, forcing Sabrina Ionescu to make some icy free throws. It was eerily reminiscent of Wednesday night’s Fire-Lynx game, where the Fire shaved a 29-point deficit down to a single point. The difference, of course, is that Minnesota has the WNBA’s best record, earning a level of institutional trust that the Liberty have not. New York’s near-collapse soured what initially looked like a pain-free night, one they could have used after the Indiana loss.
Prior to the fourth quarter, New York handled business while the Sparks finally had a let-down game, shooting poorly even from the free-throw line. The Liberty dominated the boards, shot a little better, and forced far more turnovers, stealing the ball 11 times in the first three quarters…
As a result, New York’s scoring was well-balanced. Sabrina Ionescu led the team with 20 on just 47.7% true-shooting, Jonquel Jones had a big 11/18 double-double, Rebecca Allen had an efficient 13 points, and nearly every other rotation player chipped in. Pauline Astier scored all seven of her points in the first half, though it was her third straight game with fewer than 20 minutes…
Cautious with the FIBA World Cup coming up, perhaps?
But again, that’s not the story. The Sparks scored 41 points in the first three quarters, then 40 in the fourth! You just can’t feel good about that one if you’re a Liberty fan, right? More than any tactical adjustment or hot/cold shooting stretch, it was most worrying that New York couldn’t punch back. With their fight-or-flight response triggered, the Liberty instead froze.
Here’s Jonquel Jones’ take on it: “I do also think that, like, when we get leads for some reason, I think our offense tends to go in the direction of doing things that we haven’t done at the beginning of the game. And so I think we just have to go back and look at that and see — what are the things that are advantageous to us? What are the things that we can run, and some of the things that got us in that position? And I think sticking with that and not really flipping the script. So I think sometimes we get a little anxious and we do things that we aren’t normally doing.”
Jones added that while many of the problems are defensive, their best defensive possessions come after they take good shots, whether they go in or not. It’s hard to argue with that, and hard to argue with this, from Jones: “You think about the first game we played them in L.A., and the game goes differently. They run a play on the backside, hit a three, and they win the game. And so, to kind of be in a similar situation and be able to come out with the win is a good thing.”
It sure is. But no more of that, please.
Final Score: New York Liberty 85, Los Angeles Sparks 81
Next Up
New York’s final visit to Mohegan Sun takes place on Sunday afternoon. Tip-off against the Connecticut Sun is scheduled for 1:00 p.m. ET.
