The Liberty basically won the game in the first quarter when they outscored Chicago 26-11.\u00a0<\/p>\n
New York was up by 14 at halftime and saw their lead balloon to as big as 23.<\/p>\n
Everything went according to script, and now the Liberty \u2014 finally without the burden of injuries \u2014 head into the playoffs having won three straight games and feeling good about themselves.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Things went so well, in fact, that the Liberty rested their starters for most if not all of the fourth quarter.<\/p>\n
Breanna Stewart had a team-high 24 points to go with six rebounds and three assists. <\/p>\n
Stewart, who\u2019s shooting a career-low from deep this season, has now made at least one 3-point in each of the last six games \u2014 her longest such streak since her 2023 MVP campaign.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Sabrina Ionescu had 11 points, five rebounds and 11 assists with zero turnovers.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Rebekah Gardner and Emma Meesseman contributed 15 and 14 points, respectively, off the bench.\u00a0<\/p>\n
![\"Breanna](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Breanna-Stewart-2-1.jpg\")
Breanna Stewart, who scored a team-high 24 points, drives on Michaela Onyenwere during the Liberty\u2019s 91-86 season-ending win over the Sky on Sept. 11, 2025. Kamil Krzaczynski-Imagn Images<\/p>\n
It seems like the Liberty, winners of three straight, have all the right momentum heading into the playoffs.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201c[Winning] always helps,\u201d coach Sandy Brondello said. \u201cYou have confidence through winning but it\u2019s all about the process\u2026 Have we gotten better? Yeah, I think we have. We have our full group together and we kind of know what works, what we need to work on as we move forward\u2026 We have to go in there believing we can steal a game in Phoenix.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Liberty got a better look at their jumbo lineup, featuring Ionescu, Leonie Fiebich, Stewart, Meesseman and Jonquel Jones late in the second quarter.\u00a0<\/p>\n
![\"Marine](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Marine-Johannes.jpg\")
Marine Johannes makes a pass during the Liberty\u2019s season-ending win over the Sky. NBAE via Getty Images<\/p>\n
Brondello said that lineup was \u201csuccessful,\u201d and Stewart said it worked better this time as opposed to a previous attempt because they were more cognizant of allowing each other space to operate.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe tried it early on, it seemed like we were on top of each other but now letting one action develop on one side and then moving into the second side,\u201d Stewart said. \u201cI think that just kind of continuing that chemistry and knowing what the playbook is going to be for that group because it\u2019s different than when we have three guards on the court at the same time.\u201d<\/p>\n
Chicago, under first-year head coach Tyler Marsh, went 10-34 this season and has lots to address this offseason. <\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCovering the Liberty like never before\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSign up for Madeline Kenney’s Inside the Liberty, a weekly Sports+ newsletter.\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\tThank you\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
Angel Reese\u2019s future perhaps being the most pertinent one.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, the Liberty finished 27-17 and in fifth place.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Liberty head to Phoenix next to play the fourth-seeded Mercury in Game 1 of their best-of-three first-round series Sunday.\u00a0 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CHICAGO \u2014 The Liberty ended their season the same way it began. With a win.\u00a0 New York on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":309005,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[435,438,436,3675,99,434],"class_list":["post-309004","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wnba","tag-breanna-stewart","tag-chicago-sky","tag-new-york-liberty","tag-sabrina-ionescu","tag-sports","tag-wnba"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/309004","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=309004"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/309004\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/309005"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=309004"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=309004"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=309004"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}