The Liberty and its men's practice squad held an intense, physical scrimmage on the Barclays Center practice court on Saturday in preparation for Sunday's postseason opener against Atlanta.
“Obviously, there was no crappy practice,” All-Star guard Sabrina Ionescu said. “No shooting practice, we were taped up, we were practicing live. The girls were in playoff scouting mode, so I'm excited because I know we'll be there ready to go.”
Coach Sandy Brondello and the Liberty have been solely focused on earning the No. 1 seed all season, especially after losing to the Las Vegas Aces in the WNBA Finals a year ago.
The disappointment leaves the Liberty as the league's only original franchise still without their first title.
A 32-8 record gives Coach Brondello's star-studded squad home-court advantage throughout the postseason, including the first two games in Brooklyn against Tina Charles and No. 8 Atlanta in a dangerous best-of-three first-round series.
The Dream finished the season with a 15-25 record, but there was no point in playing the regular-season finale, so the Liberty finished their 40-game streak with a win at Barclays on Thursday night despite resting All-Star forward Breanna Stewart and others in the second half.
“Look, I wasn't happy with how we played. It feels good to be at the top, but you can't do that,” Brondello said. “Anyone can beat anybody. I just want to emphasize that.”
“I remember last year, when we almost lost to Washington. [in the first round]”… This is about us. This is our home court, but if we don't play well, we can lose easily. It's important to remember how it felt. We all have memories. That's enough. We just need a little bit of moderate fear.”
As a result, Saturday's intense practice included two-way action with the boys, which Brondello described as “taking the intensity to a whole other level.”
“It was a great day of preparation and I'm excited to go out there and see how much intensity we can bring.” [Sunday]”They're going to do a lot more than they did in the regular season,” Ionescu said. “They're a team with nothing to lose, and those teams are dangerous.”
“It doesn't matter if we're an eighth seed or a one seed, anything can happen. I think losing our last game gave us the motivation we needed to understand that every team is going to come in here and give it their best shot.”
In fact, as Brondello recalled, the Liberty had to beat the Mystics in overtime in Game 2 in last year's first round to cede home-court advantage to Washington and avoid missing a decisive Game 3.
“I'm just happy to get this far because this is just the first step to getting there,” said Stewart, who won two WNBA championships with the Seattle Storm. “The No. 1 seed was definitely one of our goals. We wanted to make sure we won on our home court, especially in this league because the competition is so tough and we want the hometown fans to be there for us. We have to win at home and I don't want Game 3 to be in Atlanta.”
“I'm excited to come out today and put in a little bit of effort to prepare for what's to come,” added Stewart, a former University of Connecticut star who was named the 2023 league MVP in his first season with New York, in pursuit of the franchise's inevitable first title.
“This is the best time of the year. This is why we play, this is why we play,” Stewart said. “I can't wait to share new memories with my new teammates and remind everyone what it feels like to play playoff basketball at Barclays.”
