The New York Liberty lost two games on the road this weekend against teams led by two of the WNBA’s premier guards.
A 90-85 loss to Olivia Miles and the Minnesota Lynx, followed by a 93-91 loss to Marina Mabrey and the Toronto Tempo, dropped New York to 13-11 on the year.
The Liberty faced large second-half deficits in both games, trailing the Lynx by 15 points and the Tempo by 20. They were able to put together numerous late-game runs to get them back in each, but couldn’t secure the win.
“You gotta try to do whatever you can to win,” Sabrina Ionescu said. “It’s a matter of will and want, everyone [played] with a lot of assertiveness and tried to do everything we could to get a win.”
Ionescu was the engine for the second-half push in both games. The Liberty superstar scored 19 points in the third quarter against the Lynx, matching Minnesota’s entire team, to ignite a run that gave New York a brief lead. She then tallied 12 in the fourth quarter against the Tempo, which helped cut their lead to just two.
Ionescu finished with 25 points in the game against Minnesota and 28 points in the loss to Toronto. Ionescu also totaled 12 rebounds, 13 assists, and five steals between the two games.
“[Sabrina Ionescu] was phenomenal,” Liberty head coach Chris DeMarco said. “She wants to push the paint, she’s always been an all-around [player], passing, rebounding, shooting. She found the right rhythm, then I think our whole team took off.”
Despite a 15-point, 12-rebound Jonquel Jones double-double to go along with Ionescu’s performance, the Liberty trailed the Lynx for most of the game. Olivia Miles led the way for Minnesota with 23 points, five rebounds, and four assists.
The Lynx made 50% of their shots from three-point range, including three made threes from guard Kayla McBride in just the fourth quarter. McBride finished with 25 points and grabbed four steals.
We gotta challenge without fouling, get a good contest, and then finish with a rebound,” Coach DeMarco said. “I was proud of our fight in the second half again. I thought we had opportunities to really pull away. We didn’t, and we’ll get better.”
New York also had a chance to tie the game against Toronto with less than 10 seconds remaining, but a contested shot from Breanna Stewart fell short. Stewart finished with 22 points, eight rebounds, two steals, and a block.
DeMarco was incredibly frustrated with the game’s officiating. He criticized multiple calls to the media, including the ejection of guard Betnijah Laney-Hamilton with less than two minutes to go.
“I’ve never seen anything like it,” DeMarco said. “We had all the momentum in the world… I’ve also never seen a ref make such an atrocious call when he’s on the other side of the floor… pathetic, it was pathetic… I just know it was an atrocious, atrocious, end of that game from the officials.”
Aside from officiating issues, it was Tempo superstar Marina Mabrey who had the biggest impact on the game. Mabrey scored 30 points and controlled the offense as her team made nearly 60% of its two-point shots.
Although it wasn’t enough to earn a win, the Liberty got notable contributions from various stars. Jonquel Jones recorded her ninth double-double of the season and Pauline Astier scored 14 points while shooting over 60% from the field and picked up 3 steals.
“I’ve been sharing the court with [Astier] for a while now,” Ionescu said. “She came in and gave us huge minutes. Her ability to get downhill, she made a lot of great plays for us down the stretch, especially when we needed it most… Everyone came in and stepped up, played really big minutes for us, and it just wasn’t enough.”
It was a disappointing weekend overall for the Liberty as the team played below its standard. New York shot 18-for-64 from three-point range and turned the ball over 32 times in the two losses.
The Liberty will continue to try to right the ship as they head to Dallas to take on another superstar guard, this time Paige Bueckers, and the Wings.