Sun 78, Liberty 63: A fire lit

The Sun son the Liberty in Game 1 of their semifinal series

Two straight home wins meant a sigh of relief as the Liberty avoided a trip to our nation’s capital, closing out their first-round series against the Washington Mystics in an efficient manner. The task at hand then shifted to beating the Connecticut Sun, who came from behind to beat the sixth-seeded Minnesota Lynx in three games, ending the series with a 90-75 win at the Target Center.

The Sun and Liberty’s first-round matchups may have looked easy on paper, but there was more than met the eye with both. The injury-ridden Mystics slid into playoffs as the #7 seed, but their 2-2 regular-season split with the Liberty was more indicative of their prowess; the Lynx, who started 2023 with six straight losses, may seem unintimidating, but their offensive weapons in Kayla McBride, Diamond Miller and Napheesa Collier are such that any opponent needs a serious defensive scheme to topple them. Round one was no cakewalk. Round two, even less of a walk in the park, especially for New York after dropping the opener 78-63.. 

The Liberty and Sun both have the ability to flip a switch and have shown glimpses of greatness from outside the 3-point line. New York  posted the highest percentage of its points from behind the arc (37.3%) and tied the Aces for the most threes in a game (17). Connecticut’s Tyasha Harris boasts the WNBA’s best 3-point percentage, a blistering 46.4%. DeWanna Bonner gave the Sun a 5-3 lead with a long ball, which Courtney Vandersloot answered with a nothing-but-netter of her own off a no-look pass from Breanna Stewart. Back on the other end, former Liberty guard Rebecca Allen sunk one from deep, then extended the lead 1with a steal and another make from deep, putting the Sun up eight. 

Allen had this to say about her “Revenge Game” against her former team: "It's pretty awesome, it's my first semifinals and I'm playing my old team . . . two words I said I wanted were to be assertive and confident, and I feel like I did that." 

Assertive and confident was the Sun’s modus operandi throughout the game, outscoring the Liberty in every quarter besides the second. As the second half began the Sun continued to blaze, going on a 16-2 run to lead 53-42.  Former Connecticut star Jonquel Jones got the Liberty within five, knocking down a three to make it 56-51. Interviewed between the third and fourth quarter by sideline reporter Holly Rowe, Jones – who tallied 14 points and 11 rebounds despite shoddy officiating – called out the refs on-air: “They want the players to be better, the refs got to be better.” At one point the Liberty fans booed the officials, too, upset with the calls they were or weren’t getting.

Regardless, the Liberty didn’t handle the controllables well. Coach Sandy Brondello noted "the 50/50 balls . . . that's effort, that's pursuit. We just didn't have the right energy, the right mindset . . . They were physical too, against us. We have to find a way for them to not outrebound us." The home team was outrebounded as well as outhustled numerous times. 

One of the Sun’s highlights was the 5-foot-8 Natasha Hiedeman’s chasedown block on 6-foot-4 Breanna Stewart in the fourth quarter, part of a defensive effort that resulted in the Liberty having no fast break points; the Sun had 7.  For a squad that references their speed and ability to run the floor, its no wonder why Coach Brondello called this game the Liberty’s worst of the season.

Although every game matters in a best-of-five, don’t lose hope, Liberty fans. Nothing makes a great team grittier than a fire lit beneath them, and the Sun are certainly doing just that.