Liberty’s Disappointing Loss to Wings
ARLINGTON, Texas – Monday night at College Park Center showcased a disappointing performance for the Liberty despite a score that suggests otherwise, with Freedom falling to Wing 92-82. The final score doesn’t quite capture the essence of the game.
The final quarter saw a valiant effort to come back, yet it hardly compensates for the lackluster performance that preceded it. After the loss, Liberty held a nearly 40-minute emergency meeting in the visiting locker room to address their slow start and the evident lack of effort that has plagued their season.
“It’s embarrassing. It’s frustrating,” Johnkel Jones expressed. “We know the level we can play at, so it’s disappointing. We’re going to take this as a learning experience and aim to improve in our next game.”
Indeed, “embarrassing” may be an understatement when describing the defense for most of the game. At one point in the third quarter, New York teetered on the brink of one of their worst defeats in years, especially against a Wings team that is currently second in the WNBA standings.
Liberty’s chances of closing a season-high deficit were squandered, and the way they played for most of the game was simply unacceptable for a team vying for another championship.
True, New York was missing some key players—Brenna Stewart (injury) and Nyara Sabbary (rest)—and Kennedy Burke’s late addition to the injury report after Saturday’s game didn’t help either. However, they still have plenty of talent to face a struggling Wings team that had lost six of their previous seven matches.
The condensed schedule shouldn’t act as an excuse. Despite it being New York’s third game in four days, the Wings had also played just a day before this matchup. Perhaps they underestimated the Wings, or maybe they were looking ahead to their rematch in the WNBA Finals.
The Wings capitalized on Liberty’s weaknesses, steadily increasing their lead in the first half. “Passive” was how Sabrina Ionescu described Liberty’s play, mentioning they were reacting instead of taking control. “We were waiting to see what they would do instead of being proactive,” she said.
Liberty often looked disorganized, struggling to establish a defensive stance, which allowed Dallas to shoot 58.7% from the field in the first half and 46.2% for the game.
New York conceded 31 and 32 points in the first two quarters, trailing by 27 points at halftime.
Ionescu noted that early performance was more reflective of the players than the coaching staff. “It’s on us as players. We’re accountable for how we come out to play,” she stated after scoring 16 of her 17 points in the second half. “This game teaches us what happens when we’re not aggressive on both ends.”
Although Liberty rallied in the second half, surpassing the Wings with a score of 46-29, it shouldn’t have reached such drastic measures. They were unable to recover from the deep holes they dug early on.
Despite it being just another game in the long season, the recurring theme of self-satisfaction has been a concern. The expressions on the faces of Ionescu, Jones, and coach Sandi Brondello hinted at defeat, especially as they prepare to face the league-leading Lynx for the first time since last year’s WNBA Finals.
“We need to focus on ourselves,” Ionescu remarked. “There’s no excuse for how we come out. Every game matters, especially as the regular season winds down. We need to identify what to fix and apply those lessons moving forward.”
