Liberty remain unblemished with superlative start to the season

Despite significant roster changes, the New York Liberty are off to the best start in franchise history. They are 9-0 after defeating the Chicago Sky 85-66 at the Barclays Center on Tuesday night. All Star guard Sabrina Ionescu and two-time WNBA regular season MVP, forward Breanna Stewart, scored 23 and 18 points respectively, and forward Kennedy Burke posted a solid 15.

The Liberty can extend their unblemished record on Saturday (3:30 p.m.) when they face the 4-5 Indiana Fever on the road. The Minnesota Lynx, the team the Liberty defeated in last year’s finals, were also undefeated at 9-0 when they played the Seattle Storm last night.

Last season, the Liberty won the WNBA championship with key contributions from guard- forward Benijah Laney-Hamilton, forward Kayla Thorton and guard Courtney Vandersloot. None of the trio are playing for the Liberty this season. Laney-Hamilton is out for the season after suffering an acute meniscus injury to her left knee in March while participating in the Unrivaled 3-on-3 league.

Thorton was selected by the first-year franchise Golden State Valkyries in the WNBA expansion draft held in December. Vandersloot signed with the Sky in February as an unrestricted free-agent but unfortunately tore the ACL in her right knee last Saturday and will be sidelined for the remainder of this season.

Yet, the Liberty, notably with the addition of guard Natasha Cloud, is arguably a better squad than they were in capturing the franchise’s first league title. The Liberty acquired Cloud from the Connecticut Sun after she had been dealt by the Phoenix Mercury to the Sun. The Liberty parted with the No. 7 overall pick in May’s draft in addition to next year’s first-round pick.

Cloud had been worth the heavy price as she was named the WNBA Eastern Conference Player of the Week award in the first week of the season and has been impactful on both ends of the court. Her stats ––– 9.4 points and 6.2 assists per game -–– don’t fully reflect her value to winning.

By and large, the Liberty have emphasized defense as the key to their success, underscored by holding the last four opponents to an average of 65 points per game.

“I think since coming to New York, we have a standard that we hold ourselves to, and I think we’ve only continued to grow and develop that chemistry,” said Stewart. “Defense is like a pride thing and really makes it tough for the other team to get easy looks or get out and transition. So, I am just proud of the way that this team plays on both sides as well.”

“We spoke about the expectations that we wanted from this group tonight, and I thought we were pretty consistent with that,” Liberty head coach Sandy Brondello said on Tuesday.  “Overall, it’s attention to detail. I think we’re very intentional with how we want to play and when we get away from it, well, I think we are quick to get back to it and it starts on the defensive end.

“For the most part, Brondello added, “I thought we had a physical presence. We were being disruptive. We got a lot more deflections tonight and, and when we have high deflections, we usually do quite well.”

The Women’s EuroBasket tournament will take place from June 18-29. The Liberty will lose Leonie Fiebich and Nyara Sabally to the tournament as they play for Germany… The 2024 WNBA Finals MVP Jonquel Jones has missed two of the team’s first nine games, most recently with a right ankle injury. She had averaged 13.9 points and 10.3 rebounds in seven games before the fluke.

After the Fever, the Liberty will host the Atlanta Dream in Brooklyn next Tuesday.