Like many other teams, the Liberty had to play without key players regularly this season. First, Jonquel Jones missed time with an injury. Then, Breanna Stewart, Kennedy Burke, and Nyara Sabally went down. Now that Stewart is back, the Liberty still haven\u2019t been able to catch a break. Sabrina Ionescu is out with an injury and missed three consecutive games.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The issue isn\u2019t just that the Liberty miss a lot of production when one of their stars or key reserves is sidelined. Sandy Brondello also hasn\u2019t been able to see what her team looks like when healthy since Belgian superstar Emma Meesseman joined the squad<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n Meesseman joined the Liberty after competing with her national team in June. She played her first game in a Liberty uniform on August 3. Stewart, Burke, and Sabally all had to miss that game as well as significant time afterwards. The latter is still out. Stewart, meanwhile, returned to the court on August 25 against the Connecticut Sun. Natasha Cloud missed that game, and Sabrina Ionescu has been out ever since, meaning that the Liberty haven\u2019t played with all of Cloud, Ionescu, Stewart, Jones, and Meesseman available at the same time yet.\u00a0<\/p>\n After a crushing 66-58 loss to the Golden State Valkyries, Sandy Brondello spoke about the team\u2019s lack of chemistry.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s been a tough season for us in terms of injuries with having so many people injuries and just trying to work it out on the fly and not getting the chemistry that we need, that other teams probably get with more players on the court there,\u201d Brondello said<\/a> in the postgame press conference.\u00a0<\/p>\n The Liberty can still cause problems in the playoffs<\/p>\n