A second-half collapse halted the Liberty’s four-game win streak as they fell to the Sky

I couldn’t fill a page with whatever pearls of wisdom my dad dropped on me growing up — perhaps due to my refusal to pay attention; perhaps due to the simple lack thereof. But one will always stand out to me, as it carries meaning across a multitude of thresholds: “There are two kinds of people in the world: those who let life happen to them, and those that make life happen.” Sunday against the Chicago Sky, we saw that the New York Liberty are capable of being both.

Because in their second matchup against the same team in one weekend, they provided two emphatic knockout punches in the form of double-digit runs to start the first and second quarters, only to collapse thereafter. The Liberty opened the game with 13 straight points, preventing the Sky from scoring their first basket until the 4:41 mark of the first quarter, then opened the second rattling off 10 straight to reclaim a double-digit lead. New York went into halftime comfortably ahead, 47-30.

Then the famous Liberty effort and intensity – or infamous lack thereof that we’ve heard so much about this season – made an appearance front and center at Barclays. Kahleah Copper came out firing in the third quarter, nearly outscoring New York on her own with 17 points. 

Still, despite the Sky’s best (player’s best) efforts, the Liberty were still in front going into the fourth, 65-56. And to the home team’s credit, they held Copper to two points in the final frame, though that was had as much to do with Chicago’s Courtney Williams taking the torch. 

The Sky took the lead on that pull-up, two of Williams’ 10 fourth-quarter points, and – irregardless of a few fancy buckets from Breanna Stewart – never really looked back. New York’s fate was sealed with 30 seconds left when Sabrina Ionescu was called for a moving screen.

It’s worth noting, and we’ll revisit this later, that the Liberty were down, not up, three points with 27 seconds left as the game officials took the reins. If their four-game winning streak following the season-opening loss is any indicator, we should see a motivated Liberty take the floor against the 1-6 Minnesota Lynx on Wednesday.

Notes

• Without playing the moral victory card, it’s safe to say that Sunday’s game was a result of two large and looming factors: the 48-hour turnaround, and growing pains. When talking about how electric Marine Johannés was, don’t discount the the interruption in rhythm that can come from introducing a second conductor, no matter how talented. 

• And talented she is. Johannés finished her season debut with 11 points and two – wait, just two?! – assists in just over 21 minutes. Her time on the floor was rivaled only by Jonquel Jones in regards to net rating, +4 for both. Expect that New York will continue to lead the league in assists, if not also take a commanding lead in that department, once Johannés gets more comfortable doing stuff like this: 

• Kahleah Copper is really good at basketball. End bullet. 

• Ionescu is rushing the process. She missed all six of her shots that didn’t come in the third quarter and had four turnovers, a season-high for the former first overall pick. With so much talent on one team, it’s hard to say any one player (Stewart withstanding) can determine their title hopes. But if they can’t find a way to get Ionescu going, that will only continue to cause a ripple effect of problems for this Liberty offense. Ionescu has made more than 40% of her shots in just one game out of six. She’s meant to spearhead this offense next to floor general Courtney Vandersloot, but that means she needs to able to score in her own right. 

• Stewart had another electric fourth quarter with eight points, six of which came on three straight possesions, but it was too little too late. I continue to be impressed watching her flip the switch when the game calls for it.

• This was a fun highlight from the first half: 

• I’m reading now, just minutes before publishing, that Ionescu is in fact dealing with a tight hamstring. Take that for what it’s worth, given that she, the coaches and the team’s medical staff all deemed her well enough to play. Get well soon, Sabrina.

• Jones continues to show flashes of what New York hopes will be the whole product, and soon. She finished with nine points, six rebounds, and two assists in 20 minutes, and her aforementioned team-leading net rating is no mistake. Her defense was reliably there all game for the Liberty. That being said, she left her offense in the first half, with this three-pointer to send New York into the break being her last basket of the game. Jones went 0-for-3 in the second half. 

• Vandersloot is such a joy to watch, and she’s reminded the Sky that she’s still every bit the player that earned four-time All-Star honors and Chicago a championship in her 12-year tenure with this two-game revenge series. She tallied 26 points and 18 assists over the two meetings, although her five turnovers in the second matchup stung and still sting.

As the Barclays Center crowd watched the final seconds of Sunday’s loss, they serenaded themselves – and themselves alone – with chants of “Refs you suck! Refs you suck!” This, mind you, in response to a game where the streaking Liberty blew multiple double-digit leads, committed 16 turnovers and allowed two different opponents to go inferno in the third and fourth quarters, scoring 17 and 10, respectively.

New York has shown early in their 2023 campaign that they can be either side of the coin on any given day, capable of imposing their will while within the same game failing to do so. That’s not the officiating. As forceful as they were in the first half, dominating both ends, they seemingly forgot their strengths in the second. They’ll try and pick up where they left off at the half Wednesday vs. Minnesota.