It started with an injury. Of course it did.
In their do-or-die Game 3 against the Phoenix Mercury, the New York Liberty came out swinging. Breanna Stewart, playing on a sprained MCL, forced a turnover, then took it coast-to-coast but missed a layup. No matter; the Liberty forced another turnover on the next possession, leading to a 3-pointer for Stewart. Leonie Fiebich’s three next time down rimmed out.
And then, hustling back on defense, Fiebich waited at the rim for a sprawling Kahleah Copper, who
took off from outside the paint looking to finish over the lanky German. She didn’t, but Copper’s knee connected flush with Fiebich’s mid-section. THOOMP
Fiebich stayed down until the training staff walked over and escorted her off the court following a New York timeout. It’s been an injury-filled season for the Liberty, but this was the first one straight out of an MMA match.
Fiebich later returned to the game, but as a shell of her already-exhausted self. She did hit a 3-pointer, but otherwise played like you’d expect someone with a hole in their torso to play, unable to put her body in any truly strenuous position. This was not a development New York could afford; Emma Meesseman and Kennedy Burke, again, struggled to provide neutral value.
Meesseman couldn’t defend in space, and once again, missed all the jumpers, floaters, and layups she chased during the regular season. With the defense already under the microscope, her scoreless performance (including two missed free-throws) made her unplayable. Burke did score eight points on 3-of-9 shooting, but missed all six 3-point attempts — many of them badly — and made head-scratching plays on both ends. The Liberty lost her 21 minutes by 17 points.
New York has been through a season from hell, injury after injury amid the most condensed second-half schedule in the league. A higher power is cursing them. And yet, the Liberty did their best to erase any sympathy. Staring at elimination, they missed free-throws, showed little urgency on the defensive glass (ultimately out-rebounded by 16), threw lazy passes. Basketball is hard, but it can also be infuriating…
Watching their miscues made it hard not to look ahead to the offseason. Somehow, the scoreboard suggested otherwise, as they shaved a dozen-point deficit to just four by halftime. Sabrina Ionescu opened the second half with a 3-pointer and a layup, and by the grace of God, New York held a one-point lead.
A Natasha Cloud layup here, some more Ionescu finishes there, and suddenly New York and Phoenix were engaged in a — well, not exactly a heavyweight fight. But it was definitely a fight, as Phoenix took a one-point lead into the fourth quarter.
Sabrina Ionescu had scored 22 points through three quarters, though Alyssa Thomas and her plethora of inverted ball-screens were again aimed directly at her the whole night…
Thomas posted a triple-double, Satou Sabally’s fearlessness occasionally crossed the line, but was largely necessary in the do-or-die contest; she led Phoenix with 23 points. Ex-Lib Sami Whitcomb chipped in 13, while Kahleah Copper finished with 12 after a strong first half.
The Liberty could only dream of such wide-ranging contributions. Cloud scored seven points with four assists and four turnovers. She played admirable defense on Copper, but was largely invisible on the offensive end.
Sigh, Jonquel Jones. Jones is the only Finals MVP in New York’s 29-year history. Jones will forever be a legend in this basketball-crazed city for that alone. Maybe she was determined to see how much goodwill she could lose in a year. My biggest question for the Liberty entering the series was which version of Jones would show up. Turns out, I should’ve been asking if she’d show up at all.
Jones scored three points in Game 3. She shot 1-of-10 from the floor. She fouled five times, many of them terrible plays. It was Jonquel Jones at her worst, in the biggest game of the season, even picking up this technical foul…
As I’ve written many times, Jonquel Jones possesses otherworldly talent at her size. She, as much if not more than Ionescu and Stewart, has transformed the Liberty into a contender. Finals MVP. But games like this make it hard to believe she’s ever reached such heights. Hell, she scored just 17 points in the series.
The Liberty did not have enough to get it done. They made one of their final 18 3-pointers. All that they’ve been through, getting eliminated in the first round may feel like a natural outcome.
“It was hard to get any kind of rhythm for us,” said Sandy Brondello postgame. “I think we faced so much adversity. I’ve never been on a team — I’ve had injuries with players before, but not quite like this year.”
And yet, it’s hard to blame anything but their own poor performance.
Except for Breanna Stewart. Here is where we talk about Breanna Stewart, though it’s unfortunate that we are confined to this medium, given words are not enough for this all-time great. She scored all 14 of New York’s points in the fourth quarter, the cap to an absurd 30/9/3/2/2 line. Stewie simply took over, taking on the Alyssa Thomas assignment on defense, and on the other end, she didn’t have to demand the ball because her teammates knew there was no sense in doing anything else…
It was everything you’d hope to see from a star player in a do-or-die game. Stewie put the team on her back, blowing to smithereens the knowledge that even if New York won, they’d be in no shape to challenge Minnesota. Somehow, she made this hellish game, this hellish season, enjoyable, if just for her transcendent moments. Liberty fans, through nauseous rage, could appreciate that perhaps the greatest to ever touch a ball is on their team.
Stewie led one last mad dash for New York, who trailed 72-64 late in the fourth. But after a couple buckets and stops, DeWanna Bonner got a lucky bounce at the end of the shot clock and Copper hit a flying layup. Ionescu missed a desperate three, and that was it. Offseason time.
Postgame, Stewie committed to staying in New York for the long haul, as did Ionescu…
They also firmly rebuffed any notion that Brondello’s job should be in danger. We’ll see. We’ll see about all of it, if the Liberty retool or simply run it back. If they even do exit interviews, which at the time of the postgame presser, seemed like a no-go.
So end the 2025 New York Liberty. It’s probably better this way, given the most likely alternative was a demolition at the hands of the Minnesota Lynx, a series that probably would’ve ended at the Barclays Center, with Cheryl Reeve, Courtney Williams, and Napheesa Collier talking a WHOLE bunch of mess after those bitter WNBA Finals a year ago.
It was never the New York Liberty’s year. We knew this, whether deep down or explicitly, since the All-Star break. What championship team plays a 5.5 woman rotation in the opening game of the playoffs? What championship team is nearly the league’s worst rebounding squad? What championship team plays like that in an elimination game? So on and so forth.
Admit it. You’re just a little relieved that it’s over.
Final Score: Phoenix Mercury 79, New York Liberty 73
