When the Liberty offense is at its best, it can approach the century mark and easily build a 20-point lead, as it did six times last year. That’s the perk of forming a star-studded super team and then running the team all together again a year later. It has pace. There is efficiency.
But there are nights like Tuesday.
When they scored nine points in the second quarter. When he made one 3-point shot in the first half. Liberty’s offense struggled for the first time this season, scoring its lowest points in a regular-season game since scoring 64 points in the 2023 opener.
Against the Seattle Storm, without star forward Nneka Ogwumike, their still uneven offense was enough to earn them a 74-63 victory at Barclays Center and get them off to their first 4-0 start since 2007. Ta.
Sabrina Ionescu led Liberty with 20 points and eight assists, while Breanna Stewart and Jonquel Jones each added 16 points.
Liberty was helped by the Storm’s 34 percent field goal.
Seattle is still adjusting at this point in the season.
The Storm assembled their own version of a quasi-superteam this offseason, but coach Jewell Lloyd didn’t want to call the additions of Ogwumike and Skyler Diggins-Smith an attempt at building a superteam.
The same rhetoric the Liberty used over and over again last year about the need for time, practice and, above all, patience, was echoed by the Storm before Tuesday’s game.
But now, early-season adjustments have led to erratic performances, made worse by Ogwumike’s absence.
The Storm shot 28 percent in the first half. They turned the ball over nine times. And all of that was directly related to Liberty maintaining its undefeated record.
Two days after hitting 12 3-pointers in the first half against the Fever, Liberty made just one 3-pointer in the opening 20 minutes.
They only connected on three in this game. Point guard Courtney Vandersloot committed his first two fouls just four minutes into the game, picked up his fourth foul less than three minutes into the third quarter, and spent most of the frame on the bench. I spent time at
There were still glimpses of the type of offense Liberty displayed in its first three games. Ionescu completed a no-look pass to Kayla Thornton in transition to the basket. Bethnia Laney Hamilton threw an extra pass to Stewart for an easier shot.
However, once the second quarter arrived, Liberty’s offense disappeared.
Liberty didn’t score until Jones’ goal with 6:01 left in the first half. After missing Ionescu’s 3-pointer, Liberty had another chance on an offensive rebound, and Jones’ shot ended the game.
Then, near the end of the frame, a pass from Ionescu to Thornton went wide and she threw away the next inbounds pass for a turnover.
The result was tragic. It was the kind of performance where they go all out and blow a big lead against one of the top teams in the league, instead of trailing by nine points in the second quarter and then somehow holding onto a 12-point lead at halftime.
And for the most part, those struggles carried over into the second half.
A transition chance between Stewart and Laney Hamilton ended in a turnover, then a Storm basket cut the gap to 10 points. Ionescu threw a pass, but there was no one near the Liberty bench.
Liberty eventually found some fluidity and built a 15-point lead by the start of the fourth. However, it reflected a different kind of formula used by the Liberty, but not a sustainable blueprint of match after match.
Nights like Monday are more likely to be unusual.
Still, they found a way to pass while the offense struggled to maintain possession.
