The New York Liberty may be getting closer to whole, but that might not be enough to avoid losing three games in a row.
The Liberty host the second game of their home back-to-back on Monday night, welcoming the Portland Fire to Barclays Center for the first time (8 p.m. ET, NBCSN/Peacock).
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It will, however, be the third matchup between the two squads; they split a pair in Portland on May 12 and May 14. The Fire famously won the first contest in a thriller, securing the first win of the franchise’s second WNBA stint on a putback game-winner from Sarah Ashlee Barker. The Liberty took care of business in the second game, winning by nearly 20 points.
Both teams now sit at 3-3, yet from very different perspectives.
For the Fire, .500 is a mark of pride, a testament to the culture head coach Alex Sarama is building with a group of players who previously occupied more limited WNBA roles. For the Liberty, it’s one of concern. Despite the injuries and absences, New York has an excess of talent, and they plucked head coach Chris DeMarco from the NBA’s Golden State Warriors with the expectation he would make the team sing in new ways.
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After an encouraging start, the Liberty appear to be falling out of tune, with DeMarco himself refusing to allow injuries to be an excuse.
An offense that had seemed to quickly adapt to DeMarco’s decisive, simplistic principles—evidenced by the 96 or more points scored through their first for games—has lost its rhythm, scoring 70 and 76 points, respectively, in two-straight losses to the Golden State Valkyries and Dallas Wings.
It would be easy to blame the Liberty’s developing issues on the returns Satou Sabally and Sabrina Ionescu, as both can trend towards the ball dominance that can characterize star players. Sabally can become too dialed in as a scorer, eschewing ball movement in favor of getting off her shot or barreling toward the hoop. Ionescu can sometimes pound the ball, while also jacking up overly-ambitious 3s.
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Those offensive habits don’t have to be detrimental to the Liberty. Sabally’s 20 points led the team on Sunday, and while her shot was off, Ionescu was trying to make things work. At the same time, incorporating multiple offensive stars into an egalitarian-minded offensive system is not simple.
Or, maybe playing against a team from Oregon will activate the Duck chemistry of Satou and Sabrina, re-enlivening the Liberty offense. The college teammates were still sidelined during the Liberty’s two games in Portland.
And sure, pre-COVID women’s college basketball is not the WNBA. But Oregon sported the third-best, best and best offense in the nation the three years that Sabally and Ionescu played together.
Their first season together (2017-18), when Satou was a freshman and Sabrina a sophomore, Anneli Maley was also on the team.
That was Maley’s lone season in Eugene, and one of her two stateside college basketball seasons.
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Maley, who played four games with the Chicago Sky in 2022, spent training camp with the Liberty, was waived before opening day, claimed by the Phoenix Mercury and signed by New York as a development player on May 23 after Phoenix let her go. As she played in Sunday’s loss to the Wings, failing to scratch the scoreboard in 11 minutes, she’s down to 11 available developmental games.
A member of the Fire also has Duck ties, as Holly Winterburn played five seasons at Oregon, entering in the same class as Ionescu for the 2016-17 season and staying through the 2020-21 season.
This is Winterburn’s first WNBA season. She found her way to Portland after participating in training camp with the Atlanta Dream. First signed to a development player contract, Winterburn was converted to a standard contract last week. Thus far, she hasn’t seen much playing time, averaging eight minutes and two points across three games.
We’ll see if Maley and Winterburn can crack, or quack, their teams’ rotations on Monday night.
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As they are both returning from injuries, Sabally and Ionescu also might not take the court on Monday, as the Liberty may look to manage their return to competitive action and sit them on the second night of the back-to-back, even as both indicated they experienced no physical issues after the game.
Their respective physical re-acclimation processes could inject another complication into New York’s overall effort to acclimatize to DeMarco’s systems. And while it might be tempting, chasing a short-term win by pushing Sabally and Ionescu could only create further complications.
The Liberty’s issues also aren’t limited to one side of the ball.
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Sunday was the team’s second-worst defensive performance of the season, with their failure to generate turnovers—just four steals—further becoming a glaring weakness. That lack of playmaking on defense also robs the Liberty of easy, transition offensive opportunities.
The 2026 debut of Leonie Fiebich, plus the return to Betnijah Laney-Hamilton, should help stiffen the Liberty on that end of the floor. Fiebich could play on Monday night, while Laney-Hamilton’s status remains uncertain.
What do you think? Can the Liberty avoid a three-game slide? Or, is establishing cohesion and chemistry more important than wins or losses?
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Do you want to see Satou and Sabrina play? Do you think the Liberty would be smarter to play it extra safe and have them sit out? Overall, do you envision the Liberty rounding into a more offensive team? Or, should they build a strong defensive foundation?
Is the ultimate solution to all of this, and as it often was last season, pushing the “Stewie Save Us” button?
Share all your concerns, confidence and confusion about the Liberty in the comments.
