Liberty 95, Sun 90 (OT): Women’s basketball is winning
A year of historic success keeps rolling along — for the Liberty and women’s basketball as a whole
“No one can whistle a symphony. It takes a whole orchestra to play it.” — H.E. Luccock
Basketball is a team sport. It takes more than the five people on the floor to run things smoothly; it’s a song and a dance where each person plays their part, and together, hopefully, they make a smooth symphony. The New York Liberty have managed to harmonize well so far this season, winning the Commissioner’s Cup for the first time while posting a 26-7 record after Thursday’s 95-90 overtime win over the Connecticut Sun.
The Liberty are playing so sweetly, their song amplified and refined by the great play of so many others excelling in women’s basketball all throughout the country. Playing up or down to your opponent is an unshakable characteristic of sport. Playing tough competition makes you better, and that is exactly what we saw happen for the Liberty Thursday in Uncasville.
The Sun put on a Liberty-esque showing with their 3-point performance. Sabrina Ionescu currently leads the league in threes made and stands fourth in 3-point accuracy, while the Liberty as a team lead the W in threes made this season. Yet Connecticut’s DeWanna Bonner led the WNBA in threes on the night with six. The Sun, as a team, shot 34.4% from beyond the arc and finished the night with 11 threes.
It’d be like if the Detroit Pistons started running a triangle offense back in the early 1990s: when an opponent understands your game so well they’re able to replicate it, it may be time for a change. Giving a rival or at least a pesky team in the schedule a taste of their own medicine is the sweet fruit that teams who study each other are able to harvest. Still, it wasn’t enough to beat the Liberty; with the win, New York moved 3.5 games ahead of Connecticut for the top spot in the East.
The battle for seeding and the impressive rosters drew a crowd of 9,168. In a state that takes pride in their UConn women’s Huskies, basketball is in the people’s blood.
Both teams trail the Las Vegas Aces and their monster 30-4 record, and I would be doing a disservice to WNBA fans if I did not mention that A’ja Wilson made history with her 53-point performance earlier this week, tying the record for points scored in a single game. The defending champions are looking in great shape just weeks away from the start of playoffs. The Liberty, Sun and Aces could all have books written about them and their grandiose seasons. Their victories amplify and are amplified by the greater women’s basketball landscape.
Let’s take a moment to reflect on 2023 as a timeline for the nascent WNBA playoffs, a buildup of viewership and fandoms for the game around the globe and what this talent reflects on a bigger scale.
December
December 8, 2022: Okay, I know this is technically 2022, but the release of Brittney Griner from a Russian prison was a catalyst for women’s basketball this year and it must be included. After being detained on February 17, 2022, she was finally released nearly 10 months later.
January/February
A monster offseason for the Liberty sets in motion the outlook for women’s hoops this year after they secured Breanna Stewart, Jonquel Jones and Courtney Vandersloot.
March
The Women’s March Madness tournament busted brackets and put Caitlin Clark even more on the map than she had been after she led Iowa to a 77-73 win over #1 WNBA draft pick Aaliyah Boston and top-seeded South Carolina, ending the defending champs dreams of a repeat while handing them just their second loss of the season.
April
The Women’s NCAA Championship aired live on ABC and ESPN and was streamed. For the first time since 1995, the game aired on a broadcast network, averaging nearly 10 million viewers. LSU vs. Iowa peaked at 12.6 million, making it not only the most watched women’s college basketball game to date, but the most-streamed sporting event, men’s or women’s, to date on ESPN+. The Tigers came away with the 102-85 victory, while the beef between Clark and fellow phenom Angel Reese kept it in the news cycle long after the final whistle.
April 10 (WNBA Draft): Aaliyah Boston is drafted #1 overall by the Indiana Fever.
May
May 19: Brittney Griner made her first appearance on the court after nearly a year imprisoned in Russia. In front of a cheering Los Angeles crowd, Griner leads the Mercury in scoring.
June
The WNBA season is fully underway.
July
July 14: On All-Stark Weekend Sabrina Ionescu has even the G.O.A.T.s GOATing her performance, scoring an NBA- and WNBA-high 37 points in one round of the 3-point contest.
August
August 7: The Liberty sell-out for the first time since moving to Barclays Center: 11,418 fans flocked to the arena for a 99-61 demolishing of the Aces.
August 15: The Liberty secure their first Commissioner’s Cup win against the Aces, 82-63.
August 23: A’ja Wilson scored 53 in the Aces’ 112-100 win over the Atlanta Dream.
August 25: The defending champion Aces visit the White House, hosted by Vice President Kamala Harris.
That brings us to the present day. The Liberty are hot, the Aces are hotter, and there is a fervor for women’s basketball. Las Vegas will visit Barclays on Monday, where the Liberty will seek revenge after losing to them last week, when the Aces got revenge after losing to them in the Cup final. The lower bowl is already sold out. The Upper Bowl is sure to be as well, after the Liberty’s victory over the Sun.
The CT Insider said Thursday’s crowd came for battle: “The sold-out Mohegan Sun crowd . . . was on its feet, roaring with celebration. It was the loudest and biggest crowd all season for the Connecticut Sun.” Stewart already made history, breaking the Liberty’s single-season scoring record (with seven games to play) with 732 points. She had 24 and 12, sharing the scoring with Sab and JJ, who had 18 and 21, respectively.
The Liberty are tuning their instruments and preparing for the challenge of playoffs, with the unique opportunity to make it all the way. At the same time, the women’s basketball landscape is lifting all W teams and players up for one of the most-followed seasons the league has ever seen.
