SAN FRANCISCO — The New York Liberty are in search mode.<\/p>\n
They are searching for their identity, for chemistry and continuity, and, perhaps most importantly, for passion.<\/p>\n
Following their 76-65 loss Sunday to the Golden State Valkyries — the Liberty\u2019s fourth defeat in five games — forward Breanna Stewart challenged her team to play with a heightened level of intensity.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou can\u2019t play with heart and play with effort just when things are going good,\u201d Stewart said. \u201cIt\u2019s really the moments when you\u2019re at the lowest. And this team — we\u2019re obviously not a finished product, but this wasn\u2019t a great showing, especially coming off of a loss.\u201d<\/p>\n
Stewart\u2019s message echoed a similar one forward Jonquel Jones shared after the Liberty dropped a game to the Seattle Storm just two days before, telling reporters, \u201cIt\u2019s not about the reps, it\u2019s not about playing time, it\u2019s not about none of that stuff. It\u2019s about having some heart and playing with some f—ing heart.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Liberty entered this season considered major title contenders, expanding their big three of Stewart, Jones and Sabrina Ionescu to include star forward Satou Sabally. But they also introduced a new coach in Chris DeMarco, who came with a different offensive system. Ionescu missed the first month of the season due to injury and Sabally has been in and out of the lineup.<\/p>\n
Twenty games into their season, the Liberty are 12-8 and fifth in the WNBA standings. Stewart said she isn\u2019t surprised by the up-and-down stretch.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you think it\u2019s going to go good, sometimes it goes back, and vice versa,\u201d Stewart said. \u201cI think the biggest thing that I continue to preach to the team is [don\u2019t get] too high or too low. Of course, these games, when we take these Ls, are going to matter later.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are some we will look back on and be upset about later. But the focus is on now. That\u2019s all we can do.\u201d<\/p>\n
New York couldn\u2019t find an offensive rhythm against the Valkyries on Sunday. It all came to a head in the final minutes of the first half, when Golden State closed the second period on a 13-2 run to take a 12-point lead.<\/p>\n
The Liberty scored a season-low 29 first-half points. Their 65 total points was also a 2026 low. They trailed by at least 20 points (22) for the second game this season — both against the Valkyries.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have to learn to turn it on,\u201d DeMarco said. \u201cWhen we\u2019re down, we\u2019ve got to make our own run.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ionescu was held to zero points at halftime — the fourth time that has happened this season. She finished with nine points on 3-of-10 shooting, while Stewart had 15 points and Jones led the team with 21.<\/p>\n
Golden State\u2019s bench outscored New York\u2019s 39-11. The Valkyries also weren\u2019t rattled by the Liberty\u2019s size advantage and outrebounded them 30-24.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s never pointing fingers at anyone besides ourselves, knowing that we are the ones out there playing,\u201d Ionescu said. \u201cObviously, it\u2019s an opportunity for us to regroup after this road trip. We play again really soon and we have to focus on the things that we can continue to get better on.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Liberty\u2019s next game is one with a little more on the line: the Commissioner\u2019s Cup final against the Las Vegas Aces on Tuesday. It\u2019s a rematch against the only team New York has beaten since June 19.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SAN FRANCISCO — The New York Liberty are in search mode. They are searching for their identity, for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":768066,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[629],"tags":[49,48,75878,82,630],"class_list":["post-768065","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wnba","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-new-york-liberty-sports-basketball-team-team-statscom-150","tag-sports","tag-wnba"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/768065","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=768065"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/768065\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/768066"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=768065"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=768065"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=768065"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}