New York Liberty Flipped and Stumbled Into the Playoffs

There have rarely been nights that encapsulate the phrase “there’s light at the end of the tunnel” than the one the Liberty endured last Tuesday.

New York lost 66-58 to the Golden State Valkyries, and the offense appeared to be in slow motion throughout. However, due to the Mercury’s trouncing of the Indiana Fever, the Liberty clinched a spot in the postseason for the fifth consecutive year.

Well, maybe “clinched” isn’t the right word — more like stumbled into the postseason, needing a lot of help to stay upright. Fans are furious, and some are accepting a world where New York will give their title up in October.

Thankfully, the Liberty put together a few wins against some meddling teams to snatch up the No. 5 seed, setting up a first round series with the Phoenix Mercury.

But this Liberty team is still a far cry from the powerhouse of a year ago that took down the Minnesota Lynx in Game 5 of the WNBA Finals.

What happened? How did it get to this point, and the most important question – is it reversible?

Control What Can Be Controlled

It would be foolish to put all of the Liberty’s woes down to their own play. They’ve gone through a ton of external adversity that’s completely out of their control (more on that later), but there’s a saying that’s popular in sports:

“Control what you can control.”

Simply put, the Liberty haven’t controlled the controllable over the last few months. They’re as rich in talent as anyone in the WNBA, and employ a championship-winning head coach, so even a little external adversity should be navigable.

However, it’s been a slow, painful road since their first loss to Indiana, all the way back in June, 10 games into the season. The Liberty can attribute many factors to their struggles, but we’ll focus on a few key ones.

First, New York’s rebounding — sitting seventh in the league — is a far cry from a year ago, when they topped the league in that category. Rebounding on its own isn’t glamorous, but the opportunities it opens up are.

Rebounding plugs possessions up and takes points off the board. Second-chance points are exactly what they sound like — points off “second chances” (i.e, offensive rebounds). Where does the Liberty rank in that category in terms of allowing them?

Dead last. 11.8 second-chance points allowed per contest. It’s killer. Totally killer.

The next factor isn’t measured on the stat sheet, but it can be visibly seen. At first, it was just fans who were calling out what appeared to be a lack of Liberty effort — little to no boxing out on rebounds, walking around on defense, etc.

However, the sentiment has reached the Liberty doors. Breanna Stewart has put it bluntly: The Liberty’s current form is unacceptable. The drive to win either isn’t there for New York, or if it is, they aren’t exerting it on the court.

That’s what they can control. Effort, rebounding, defense — it’s all on the Liberty. However, not everything is in New York’s hands.

What Can’t Be Controlled?

Injuries. That’s the short answer to the question of what can’t be controlled.

Tons of key Liberty contributors have sat for periods of time due to injury. First, it was Jonquel Jones with an ankle injury early on in the year. Then, Breanna Stewart’s knee flared up, causing her to miss a month. Natasha Cloud has just returned from a nose injury, Isabelle Harrison was concussed, and Leonie Fiebich is playing through a hand injury.

That’s not even mentioning Sabrina Ionescu‘s neck and now toe injuries, coupled with Nyara Sabally‘s knee issues.

For as much as the Liberty haven’t controlled the controllable, they’ve had a lot of uncontrollable to deal with. It’s not simply injuries, either — every player who went out took a big part of the team with them. Jones took the inside presence with her, Stewart took her masterful defense, and now Ionescu’s absence has sucked life out of the offense.

The Liberty have run 18 different starting lineups this year. For comparison, the No. 1 seed Minnesota Lynx have run seven. Now look at the difference in the two teams’ records, and it’s easy to see just how important continuity is for a basketball team. Constantly shuffling pieces makes it near impossible to build chemistry, and that’s been the Liberty’s situation for 90% of the year now.

So yes, there are things the Liberty need to fix that they 100% can. However, other things need cleaning that New York simply had no control over.

To end the year, thankfully the injury report finally started to clear up.

https://twitter.com/ddubxdo/status/1965160518441959694

Is This Reversible?

The playoffs start on Sunday, and the bottom line is this — this Liberty funk needs to be reversed. Some of it is better play, and some of it is staying healthy.

If the Liberty of the last two months shows up, forget about a deep playoff run. Their season will be over in two games, and everyone will wonder what happened.

However, those two months were months where the team was held together by glue and tape. They’re finally fully healthy, and against the Mystics and Sky, they looked like a team that could very well repeat.

Let’s see if they indeed steer the ship in the right direction.