Not only did New York\u2019s defeat delay the defending champions from officially clinching a playoff spot, but it also gave Phoenix the head-to-head tiebreaker and potentially home-court advantage in the first round.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Liberty entered this game talking about how they should have a playoff mentality. But the Mercury\u2019s dogged defense crippled New York. The Liberty committed 19 turnovers, which the Mercury converted into 26 points. Phoenix also scored 13 points off nine offensive boards, and New York was outscored 43-24 over the last two quarters.<\/p>\n
![\"Breanna](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/user-expressly-acknowledges-agrees-downloading-110399100.jpg\")
Breanna Stewart dribbles during the Liberty-Mercury game on Aug. 30, 2025. NBAE via Getty Images<\/p>\n
It\u2019s time Sandy Brondello\u2019s squad\u00a0finally\u00a0faces the music, and Stewart\u00a0finally\u00a0said what needed to be said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not good enough,\u201d Stewart said. \u201cIt\u2019s not going to cut it \u2013 any of the things that we\u2019ve done today and honestly for a while. It\u2019s not going to get us where we want to be. This is not championship-level basketball at this point, and everybody needs to recognize that and understand that. We need to get there and that starts with the mindset and then putting it onto the court.\u201d<\/p>\n
Stewart said there\u2019s \u201cnever panic.\u201d But she stressed the urgency has to be there.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWith this team, I believe we can do anything that we put our minds to,\u201d Stewart said. \u201cWe just want the game to feel better. We want to play better. We want to be peaking and today wasn\u2019t a good showing of that.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Liberty had the hottest start in franchise history this season, winning nine straight out of the gates.\u00a0<\/p>\n
But injuries to Jonquel Jones and Stewart complicated things.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
The team hasn\u2019t had a clean bill of health since the second game of the season. Saturday was its 16th starting lineup this season.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Liberty\u2019s big three has played only 13 games together and shared the floor for 204 minutes.\u00a0<\/p>\n
That discontinuity in lineups has complicated this season for the Liberty. And as the reigning champions, they deserve some benefit of the doubt.<\/p>\n
But they\u2019ve gone 15-16 over the past 2 \u00bd months.<\/p>\n
![\"Liberty](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/20-emma-meesseman-33-leonie-110402325.jpg\")
Liberty players look on during their loss to the Mercury on Aug. 30, 2025. Getty Images<\/p>\n
Opponents capitalize off the Liberty\u2019s careless, sloppy turnovers. They also exploit New York\u2019s rebounding woes and lack of defensive chemistry.<\/p>\n
Stewart\u2019s message was loud and clear Saturday night with only four games left in the regular season.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s not good enough.<\/p>\n
At some point, the lessons have to actually be learned and put into practice. At some point, New York has to find a way to play consistent and a complete 40-minute game.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCovering the Liberty like never before\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSign up for Madeline Kenney’s Inside the Liberty, a weekly Sports+ newsletter.\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\tThank you\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
If not, the Liberty\u2019s wish of winning back-to-back titles will be only a fantasy.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is obviously a learning opportunity,\u201d Stewart said after the Liberty\u2019s latest mistake. \u201cBut we\u2019re kind of running out of opportunities for growth at this point. We need to just actually be better.\u201d<\/p>\n
New York has only four games left and Brondello admitted, \u201cWe\u2019re not where we need to be.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cBut that\u2019s it,\u201d she said. \u201cWe just got to hang in there and work this s\u2013 out. And we know what we\u2019re capable of, and that\u2019s what we have to focus on.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Will the Liberty figure things out? Or will this version of New York be remembered as the team who let a championship opportunity slip away?<\/p>\n
We\u2019ll have an answer before Halloween.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PHOENIX \u2014 No more excuses.\u00a0 No more wishful thinking. No more talking about how things will get better…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":189887,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[5336,1520,62,67,132,68,232],"class_list":{"0":"post-189886","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wnba","8":"tag-breanna-stewart","9":"tag-new-york-liberty","10":"tag-sports","11":"tag-united-states","12":"tag-unitedstates","13":"tag-us","14":"tag-wnba"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115124939605657679","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/189886","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=189886"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/189886\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/189887"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=189886"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=189886"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=189886"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}