The tired yet tenacious Liberty gave the Phoenix Mercury all they could handle but it wasn’t enough to go into the All-Star break on the right note.
The New York Liberty set seemingly countless records during their Wednesday night victory over the Las Vegas Aces. Alas for New York’s playoff fortunes, they couldn’t adjust the one they most cherish when presented a back-to-back situation in Phoenix.
Sophie Cunningham’s career-best scoring effort of 23 points was ignited with 17 in the first quarter alone, pacing the hosting Phoenix Mercury’s 84-81 victory over the Liberty on Thursday night. Diana Taurasi matched Cunningham’s scoring output for the Mercury, who led wire-to-wire against a Liberty team that was less than 24 hours removed from an emotional 116-107 victory in Las Vegas that broke or tied several team and league records.
“It’s always hard to go back-to-back like that when you have to travel, especially after an emotional game like last night and (against) a team that’s a little bit fresher,” head coach Sandy Brondello said of the situation entering last night’s game. “The team fought … we got it close, it was a close game in the end. A possession here, a possession there just didn’t go our way. So we just got to hang in there.”
The matchup at Footprint Center served as the final game for each side before the WNBA’s All-Star weekend in Chicago. Natasha Howard and Sabrina Ionescu are set to represent the Liberty in Sunday’s exhibition (1 p.m. ET, ABC) with the latter partaking in the WNBA Skills Challenge the day prior (3 p.m. ET, ESPN).
“I don’t think there’s really a summary for it. They came out and executed well, they shot the ball really well and we were a little complacent,” Ionescu said, primarily referring to a first quarter that saw the Liberty trail 29-18 after shooting only 7-of-17 from the fiedl. “We woke up in the second half (but) you can’t (get complacent) against any team in this league, no matter their record. You want to come out and play hard and locked in for 40 minutes and we didn’t do that tonight.”
Ionescu, fresh off her historic triple-double in Sin City, earned 22 points and 10 rebounds while Howard had 16 points and seven boards.
Thursday marked the Liberty’s first visit to Phoenix since Brondello accepted the Liberty job in January. One of the final contests of her eight-year tenure with the Mercury was a thrilling 83-82 victory over the Liberty in the opening round of last season’s WNBA playoffs. Phoenix would eventually reach the best-of-five championship round before falling to the Chicago Sky in four games.
The sequel proved almost as thrilling, as the Liberty (9-13) worked their way back from a deficit that peaked at 16 points in the third quarter. Despite several efforts by the Mercury to pull away, the Liberty came as close as one point on three separate occasions over the final 2:11.
But Phoenix (10-14) was able to keep its eternal lead thanks in part to a dominant fourth quarter from Skylar Diggins-Smith. The Mercury were seemingly poised to pull away after building an eight-point lead in the fourth quarter with a 12-6 run primarily built through three Liberty turnovers in the first four-plus minutes of the final frame. Ionescu kept the Liberty lingering with a 14-point showing over the last ten minutes, almost all of it built through a 4-of-6 output from three-point range.
But Diggins-Smith, held in check over the first three frames, imposed an athletic and physical will on the Liberty at the most crucial points. Though she shot only 2-of-12 from the field she reached the foul line eight times and sank all of her opportunities. The last two came after she evaded would-be Liberty foulers for five full seconds after an inbounds pass with eight seconds remaining that wiped out a good portion of the remaining clock. Solid defense on the other end prevented the Liberty from even getting off a shot on their last possession.
New York, still trying to fully works its way back after a 1-7 start, did what it could to glean positives in the aftermath. Stef Dolson put in 12 in the second half after getting in foul trouble in the first while Sami Whitcomb almost had a double-double off the bench with 12 points and eight rebounds.
“We were fighting. We didn’t give up, even though we had a game last night, we still came out with every every bit of energy, positive energy, to give to Phoenix. I feel like everybody did their part on defense and on offense,” Howard said. “Every game is going to be a tough game. It (stinks), but we’re still building. These games like this, we’re not going to lose. We have to win them at the end.”
“(All of our reserves) have all probably started for us at some point, so we don’t really see them as bench players,” Ionescu said of the bench effort. “We just see them as pieces of the puzzle that continue to help us win every single game. Their ability to come in night in and night out, whether it’s on a back-to-back or whether it’s playing two minutes or 20 minutes and give it everything they have. That always gives us a spark and they did that tonight.”
New York and Phoenix will do battle in Brooklyn on the afternoon of July 31.
Up Next
After Howard and Ionescu partake in the Chicago festivities, the Liberty will faces the Las Vegas Aces on consecutive occasions at Barclays Center, beginning on Tuesday night (7 p.m. ET, The YES App). Vegas (15-7) sits in second place in the WNBA standings behind the defending champion Sky at the break.
Main Image: Lydia Ely | The Next
Geoff Magliocchetti is on Twitter @GeoffJMags
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