Wings 98, Liberty 88: Midpoint
The Liberty hit the halfway mark in rare form — with a loss.
Midweek marked the midpoint of the WNBA’s 2023 campaign. The New York Liberty were hot, Barbie mode in full effect, and thousands of kids made their ways through the doors of Barclays Center to cheer on their team. Let’s go full movie mode with this one.
Record scratch.
Despite the hype of the game thanks to an XBox/Barbie/Liberty collab, the home team came up short, 98-88. You might be wondering, “How did we get here?” Let’s take it back to Sin City, the City of Sin, the one and only Las Vegas, home to the WNBA’s All-Star weekend. Liberty guard Sabrina Ionescu scored a WNBA/NBA-high 37 points in the 3-point contest, a performance that made Steph Curry’s mastery look like child’s play.
Cue the orchestra. One shot, one at a time, each ball carrying the weight of the world with it as Sabrina lifted her elbows, an Atlas in that moment. With confidence, she slowed time down to her tempo and guided 25 balls into the hoop.
Cue the orchestra again. I need you to hear me on this – 25 of 27. 93% accuracy. With time left on the clock. Sheesh.
“It’s exciting,” Ionescu said. “I’ve put a lot of work in to shoot the ball like I have been, and so to be able to showcase it to the world on a different level is exciting. I was locked in; I kind of don’t remember a lot of it.
History made, New York is atop the Eastern Conference, and MVP favorite (some say) Breanna Stewart’s All-Star squad defeated A’ja Wilson’s 143-127. What a weekend. But midweek also marked the arrival of Dallas, led by All-Star Arike Ogunbowale. Behind her virtuosic 25, the Wings are now the only team to have beaten both frontrunners, the Liberty and the Aces.
The Liberty didn’t do a great job controlling the ball, either. 13 turnovers led to 20 Dallas points. The long ball continued to work for the Liberty, but they were outscored in the paint 50-36. Down two at the half, the Wings came out firing on all cylinders, outscoring the Liberty 29-16 in the third quarter. Ogunbowale noted a common thread for her squad: “As a team, we’re playing very unselfishly right now, so it's very scary for the league.”
It is scary. Ominous. The only team to have taken down New York and Las Vegas also has 12 wins, second-best in the West and tied for fifth in the league with Atlanta. Now, before the credits roll on this one Liberty loss in a string of (mostly) wins, let’s have somewhat of a resolution. I hear that’s what makes a good movie great.
So, the Liberty are now 14-5 on the year. Ionescu can add 3-point contest winner to her arsenal of accolades, and having kids at the game on top of a promotion with two nods to childhood favorites (Barbie and XBox) shows we’re at a great point in the season. There is perspective, reminding us that this is about more than a game – there is excitement, and now opportunity to bounce back from a loss.
This is where the uplifting music can start and everyone can prepare for battle. The Liberty next face off against the Mystics in D.C., a team they lost to in May, then beat in overtime by the skin of their teeth in the last matchup. New York remains shorthanded in the frontcourt with Han Xu and Stefanie Dolson still out; the Mystics will be minus Elena Delle Donne and Ariel Atkins. Will the Liberty pull off the road win, capitalizing on the Mystic’s missing players? Or will this be the midpoint of a season of what-could-have-been?
