{"id":115700,"date":"2025-08-03T13:31:09","date_gmt":"2025-08-03T13:31:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/115700\/"},"modified":"2025-08-03T13:31:09","modified_gmt":"2025-08-03T13:31:09","slug":"ny-liberty-vs-connecticut-sun-preview-welcome-to-the-liberty-emma-meesseman","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/115700\/","title":{"rendered":"NY Liberty vs. Connecticut Sun preview: Welcome to the Liberty, Emma Meesseman!"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\"   alt=\"New York Liberty v Connecticut Sun\" loading=\"lazy\" data-upload-width=\"5287\" width=\"5287\" height=\"3525\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/2227356793.jpg\"\/><\/p>\n<p>        Photo by Chris Marion\/NBAE via Getty Images<\/p>\n<p id=\"HA2IVi\">Oof. The New York Liberty landed in Uncasville hoping to get back in the winner\u2019s circle. Unfortunately for them, their struggles as the Sun took control of the final three quarters and cruised to a 16 point victory. The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.netsdaily.com\/2025\/8\/2\/24479302\/ny-liberty-connecticut-sun-wnba-recap-sabrina-ionescu-leila-lacan-emma-meesseman\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">loss<\/a> was New York\u2019s fourth in a row and they\u2019re desperately looking for a way out of their rut.<\/p>\n<p>Where to follow the game<\/p>\n<p id=\"pDw3l2\">My9 on TV. Liberty Live and FOX Local on streaming. League Pass for the rest of y\u2019all. Tip after 1:00 p.m. ET.<\/p>\n<p>Injuries<\/p>\n<p id=\"INbdpd\">No Breanna Stewart, Kennedy Burke, or Nyara Sabally.<\/p>\n<p id=\"4fDj3y\">All clear for the Sun.<\/p>\n<p>The game<\/p>\n<p id=\"Nsoo7F\">The Liberty won the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.netsdaily.com\/2025\/6\/1\/24441197\/liberty-vs-sun-100-52-sabrina-ionescu-tina-charles?utm_source=wbb-roundup.beehiiv.com&amp;utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_campaign=new-york-liberty-stuns-connecticut-sun-in-historic-rout\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">first <\/a>game and the Sun took the second. These teams wrap the season series up on August 25.<\/p>\n<p id=\"8TCoOh\">The Connecticut Sun might be on the move. On Saturday, the Boston Globe broke the news  that the Sun have been <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sbnation.com\/wnba\/2025\/8\/2\/24479622\/connecticut-sun-wnba-steve-pagliuca-boston-celtics-sale?_gl=1*1qr833r*_gcl_au*MTkxMDI2MTUxNC4xNzU0MTg2ODAy*_ga*MTU3ODAwMDI5Mi4xNzU0MTg2ODAz*_ga_2M5GYNY1YS*czE3NTQxODY4MDIkbzEkZzAkdDE3NTQxODY4MDMkajU5JGwwJGgw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">sold <\/a>to a group led in part by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.celticsblog.com\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Boston Celtics<\/a> minority owner Steve Pagliuca. With a sale like that, you\u2019d think it would be a layup that the team is on its way to Boston, right? Not so fast! The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.swishappeal.com\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">WNBA<\/a> league office threw cold water on that idea right after the sale was announced. This story is far from over and we\u2019ll have plenty more on this big news. Also, do remember<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-dnt=\"true\" align=\"center\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">$325 million for the Connecticut Sun and $100 million for a practice facility in Boston. Don&#8217;t let the wnba league office (and the nba) tell you there isn&#8217;t money to pay the players. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/IC8TqZ6ByO\" rel=\"nofollow\">https:\/\/t.co\/IC8TqZ6ByO<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 busy   \u261d\ufe0f (@busyxb) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/busyxb\/status\/1951694853944832137?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">August 2, 2025<\/a>\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p id=\"SCLKle\">Speaking of big news, welcome to the Liberty, Emma Meesseman! Emma joins at an especially critical time for the Liberty. With Stewart out, the Libs are without their superstar and defensive dynamo. Meesseman will likely start at the 4 and she will help their interior scoring, create scoring opportunities out of the high post with her passing, and more importantly give them another elite player that can carry the offense and allow everyone to move down a role. When she first signed, we thought her signing would be a luxury. Turns out, it\u2019s an absolute necessity.<\/p>\n<p id=\"OJsTKy\">No rebounds, no rings. If the Liberty can\u2019t do better on the glass, they\u2019re not going to accomplish the goals they set out to. Players have talked before about sometimes counting on Jonquel Jones to do all the work on the glass. But when she\u2019s out on the perimeter like she was on Friday night, it\u2019s up to everyone else to pick up the slack. With players like Aneesah Morrow and Tina Charles on the other side, it\u2019s going to take a team effort to bring this home.<\/p>\n<p>Player to watch: Le\u00efla Lacan<\/p>\n<p id=\"iXTTOa\">France has delivered so many great talents across the WNBA. Gabby Williams, Marine Johann\u00e8s, Dominique Malonga, the list goes on. We can add Lacan to the list. Lacan was taken tenth overall last season in the Draft. She had French National Team obligations that kept her away for the Olympics last year, but she\u2019s here and ready to roll. In nine games, she\u2019s averaging around nine points, three rebounds, and three assists in close to 24 minutes a night. Her three point shooting isn\u2019t there, but as Emily Adler of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thenexthoops.com\/features\/wnba-notes-leila-lacan-debuts-steph-white-confuses\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">The Next<\/a> wrote:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p id=\"5iDJ89\">[W]e had pre-draft concerns about whether she could be a good shooter, but after hitting 31.3% from deep over the past three seasons in the French league, she\u2019ll almost certainly be better than this. But the defensive versatility we saw has certainly showed up, and her ability to get to the rim and finish has been excellent. Things are still plenty rough for the Sun, but the backcourt core is one of the better young groups in the league.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p id=\"rOvWjR\">Gotta start somewhere, and the Sun might have the makings of a solid foundation to build on.<\/p>\n<p id=\"rDcJYQ\">Marine Johann\u00e8s has started the last two games, and she&#8217;s done well in her pinch hitting role. Presumably, she\u2019ll slide down to the bench and be the lead guard on the second unit. She went 0-4 from the field on Friday, and they\u2019ll need better from her today. She\u2019s someone that French players look up to, and after the game she and Lacan shared a nice moment&#8230;<\/p>\n<p id=\"qL1IQP\">Johann\u00e8s is a French basketball <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thenexthoops.com\/wnba\/new-york-liberty\/marine-johannes-new-york-liberty-wnba-journey\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">icon <\/a>and helped pave the way for the next generation of French hoopers.<\/p>\n<p>From the Vault<\/p>\n<p id=\"4fFRRQ\">It\u2019s Summerslam Sunday and NetsDaily will be in the house!<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p id=\"4g5vvE\">More reading: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ctinsider.com\/sports\/connecticut-sun\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>CT Insider<\/strong><\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.swishappeal.com\/?_gl=1*ska1kq*\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>Swish Appeal<\/strong><\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.swishappeal.com\/?_gl=1*ska1kq*\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>Swish Appeal<\/strong><\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sbnation.com\/womens-sports\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>Breakaway<\/strong><\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sbnation.com\/wnba\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>SB Nation<\/strong><\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/wbb-roundup.beehiiv.com\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>Women\u2019s Basketball Roundup<\/strong><\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/thelocalw.com\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>The Local W<\/strong><\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nydailynews.com\/sports\/basketball\/liberty\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>New York Daily News<\/strong><\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nocapspacewbb.com\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>No Cap Space<\/strong><\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/tag\/wnba\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>New York Post<\/strong><\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/go.redirectingat.com\/?xcust=___sb__p_24242762__t_w__r_netsdaily.com__d_D&amp;id=66960X1516590&amp;xs=1&amp;url=https:\/\/theathletic.com\/wnba\/&amp;referrer=sbnation.com&amp;sref=https:\/\/www.netsdaily.com\/2023\/7\/25\/23804510\/ny-liberty-seattle-storm-wnba-preview-jewell-loyd-breanna-stewart-ezi-magbegor-jonquel-jones\" rel=\"sponsored nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" has-subtag=\"true\" data-cdata=\"{\" rewritten_url=\"\"><strong>The Athletic<\/strong><\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nylftv.com\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>NY Liberty Fan TV<\/strong><\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/fansided.com\/wnba\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>Fansided<\/strong><\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/justwomenssports.com\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>Just Women\u2019s Sports,<\/strong><\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/winsidr.com\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>Winsidr<\/strong><\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/herhoopstats.substack.com\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>Her Hoop Stats<\/strong><\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/sports.yahoo.com\/wnba\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>Yahoo Sports<\/strong><\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/wnba\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>ESPN<\/strong><\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbssports.com\/wnba\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>CBS Sports<\/strong><\/a>, and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thenexthoops.com\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>The Next<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Photo by Chris Marion\/NBAE via Getty Images Oof. The New York Liberty landed in Uncasville hoping to get&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":115701,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[1708,2738,62227,204,4548,72600,63595,5228,63596,4360,62,582,448,447,67,132,68,1685,25647,232,4239,1706],"class_list":{"0":"post-115700","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wnba","8":"tag-all-womens-sports","9":"tag-connecticut","10":"tag-emma","11":"tag-front-page","12":"tag-liberty","13":"tag-meesseman","14":"tag-netsdaily","15":"tag-ny","16":"tag-nyliberty","17":"tag-preview","18":"tag-sports","19":"tag-sun","20":"tag-the","21":"tag-to","22":"tag-united-states","23":"tag-unitedstates","24":"tag-us","25":"tag-vs","26":"tag-welcome","27":"tag-wnba","28":"tag-wnba-content","29":"tag-wnba-news"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114965085071295501","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115700","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=115700"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115700\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/115701"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=115700"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=115700"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=115700"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}