Adding Breanna Stewart, Jonquel Jones and Courtney Vandersloot in the offseason was supposed to make the New York Liberty a “super” team.
It might yet occur, but New York’s 98-81 loss Thursday night at the WNBA champion Las Vegas Aces illustrated that it has miles to go before they can match the league’s other super team, much less win a championship.
The Liberty will try to pick up the pieces on Sunday when they finish a three-game road trip in Seattle against the struggling Storm.
New York (10-4) simply didn’t measure up to Las Vegas, especially on the defensive end. It allowed the Aces to sink 58 percent of their field-goal attempts, as well as 9 of 21 from the 3-point line. Las Vegas drew 32 assists from its 40 made buckets, an indication that the Liberty failed to pressure the ball or consistently be there on the catch.
“We’ve got to be more disruptive,” said New York coach Sandy Brondello. “There are areas we can look at where we can get better. It’ll be a great learning opportunity.”
The Liberty and Seattle probably have similar goals for this game — defensive improvement. The Storm (4-11) could look at their lack of defense as a prime reason for a 99-97 overtime loss Thursday night at home to Minnesota.
Napheesa Collier and the Lynx hit on 46.1 percent of their field goals, including Collier’s turnaround jumper with 1.8 seconds left for the win that capped a 31-point performance. Minnesota cashed in 27 points off 18 Seattle turnovers.
The last of those came when Jewell Loyd fell out of bounds with 7.6 seconds remaining after appearing to get fouled with no whistle. That spoiled a career-high 41-point effort for the league’s leading scorer, who’s averaging 25.7 point per game, and left her frustrated with the officials.
“You expect high-level plays, we expect high-level refs and we’re not getting that every single night,” Loyd said. “Protect the players.”
New York won the teams’ first meeting on May 30 in Stewart’s emotional return to Seattle, taking an 86-78 decision. Stewart scored 25 points.
–Field Level Media
