It’s tough for a team to handily defeat another three times in the regular season.
But that’s what the Valkyries (28-11) accomplished after Thursday night’s 79-60 win over the Liberty at Barclays Center. This time, the Liberty (23-26) struggled from the start, recording a season-worst in points while shooting 30% from the field and 23% from downtown.
The performance cemented what was probably already clear as Chris DeMarco’s squad approaches the upcoming FIBA World Cup break: the Liberty are a middling team that struggles against the upper echelon of the WNBA.
And with five games remaining in the WNBA regular-season schedule, this team is running of time. A postseason matchup — against a team like Golden State — likely would be a difficult mountain to climb considering what has transpired this season.
The Liberty’s offense suffered its three worst shooting games against the Valkyries. And Thursday night’s blowout showed no real improvement despite an overall healthy roster.
“I think they’re a good team that [rotates] well. They’re very active defensively. They do a good job of kind of forcing people to where their help is,” said Jonquel Jones, who finished with a team-high 18 points and seven rebounds.
“So I just think they’re a really great defensive team. But again, I do think that our shot-making tonight just wasn’t the level that we’re used to it being at.”
Setting the pace is key against the Valkyries, a team known for its hard-nosed defensive mentality. The Liberty did just that, trailing by just two points in the first while exhibiting good ball movement and some positive possessions in transition.
Then, the positives stopped.
The Valkyries honed in on the Liberty with a zone defense as DeMarco started the second quarter with his double big lineup — Jones, Han Xu, Leonie Fiebich, Sabrina Ionescu and Rebekah Gardner. It resulted in three initial misses by Han before DeMarco pulled the plug on the lineup.
Eventually, no mix of rotations in that quarter worked as the Liberty recorded just 11 points in the period and trailed by 12 going into halftime.
“I feel like when they went to the zone, we were expecting it too. Yet it still stumped us a little bit,” Rebecca Allen said. “I don’t know if we adjusted super well individually or collectively to it. But yeah, they’re one of the best defensive teams in the league.”
Indeed, shots weren’t falling — even the wide-open looks. The team made just seven treys on 31 attempts. Fiebich shot 1-of-6, Allen shot 1-of-4, and Breanna Stewart missed her lone attempt.
But Ionescu’s 1-for-9 shooting beyond the arc headlined Thursday’s struggles as she continues her rough shooting stretch. She’s now shot no greater than 20% from three in seven consecutive games.
“I thought really for a majority of the game we were getting good looks at three, like really good looks at three, and just couldn’t convert,” Stewart said.
Perhaps chalking the loss up to an off-shooting night serves as a consolation for the Liberty in a matchup where everything else went wrong.
But the lows were so low that it’s hard to lean on such consolation. It makes it even harder knowing the Valkyries were in the midst of a five-game road trip, playing in the second game of a back-to-back (third game in four days) while the Liberty have been off since Saturday.
Yet after the first quarter, Natalie Nakase’s squad dictated the game throughout.
Her defense featured some possessions with big Kiah Stokes in drop coverage. Then, the Valkyries head coach changed her lineup to one suitable to switch on every Liberty offensive set.
“I think they went small. In turn, that hurt us a little bit,” said Ionescu. “They obviously were driving, kicking. They switched one through five. They kept the ball in front. So I would say probably their small lineup is what maybe threw us off a little bit.”
The Liberty’s deficit stayed in double figures while succumbing to the pressure of Golden State’s small lineups.
Although the Liberty are equipped with taller, longer players — Stewart, Fiebich and Jones — the right buttons weren’t pushed to combat Golden State’s small lineups.
As the Liberty struggled on offense, the Valkyries — owners of the WNBA’s slowest pace — were content playing their style of basketball. Cecilia Zandalasini torched New York for 14 points on 5-of-11 shooting by halftime before ending with 20 points. Gabby Williams poured in 16 on four made three-pointers and Tiffany Hayes led the bench unit with 12 points.
Nakaske’s bench outmatched DeMarco’s, 30-12.
Overall, Nakase outmatched DeMarco throughout the regular-season sweep. The loss put the Liberty, who have already clinched a postseason berth, in the 8th spot. If the season ended Thursday, it would set up a best-of-three first-round series against the Minnesota Lynx, who are three games ahead of Golden State for the top seed.
The Liberty are tied with the Wings in the standings, but claim the lower spot with Dallas owning the tiebreaker.
The Valkyries still loom as a potential first-round postseason matchup.
“I feel disappointed with this one and a little bit embarrassed as well. I just don’t think we should ever lose like that on our home court. But I do think we’re playing hard, we’re playing with intent. It’s just we didn’t find a way tonight,” Allen said.
“I feel like today was a bit of a step backwards.”