{"id":667025,"date":"2026-05-27T00:29:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-27T00:29:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/667025\/"},"modified":"2026-05-27T00:29:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-27T00:29:08","slug":"liberty-sputtering-as-mercury-enter-new-york-for-playoff-rematch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/667025\/","title":{"rendered":"Liberty sputtering as Mercury enter New York for playoff rematch"},"content":{"rendered":"

A three-game losing streak put the Liberty below .500 for the first time in three seasons.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s an area not familiar in Stew York City \u2014 the Liberty spent just one game with a negative record since the 2023 roster overhaul that brought in Breanna Stewart and Jonquel Jones.<\/p>\n

But under the tutelage of new head coach Chris DeMarco, the Liberty are showing growing pains.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s very early in the season, but the slow 2026 start reminds Liberty fans of the rough 2022 season when the team hired a new head coach \u2014 Sandy Brondello \u2014 and spent most of\u00a0the year under .500.<\/p>\n

And those growing pains are coming at the wrong time as the Phoenix Mercury, the team that upset the Liberty in the 2025 postseason<\/a>, return to New York for a rematch.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just feel like every time it\u2019s a new coaching staff, it will take time,\u201d said Marine Johannes, who played for Brondello throughout the coach\u2019s tenure in New York. The French guard added the team isn\u2019t going to \u201cwin easily\u201d just because they are the New York Liberty and labeled as one of the best teams in the WNBA.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt takes time. Again, new coaching staff, new players. Chris is not asking the same [things as] Sandy, for example, on offense and defense\u2026 It\u2019s only the beginning of the season.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 2026 Liberty, of course, projects to be better than the Brondello-led 2022 squad that finished 16-20.<\/p>\n

The issues are mounting, though.<\/p>\n

Some rotations deployed in games weren\u2019t fine tuned in training camp due to injuries and some away on overseas commitment. The offense is a work in progress. The defense isn\u2019t good enough for a team that loves to create opportunities on that end and convert on easy buckets in transition.<\/p>\n

Absences due to Sabrina Ionescu\u2019s ankle \u2014 now appearing on the Liberty\u2019s Tuesday status report for back soreness \u2014 and Betnijah Laney-Hamilton\u2019s personal reasons don\u2019t help the cause.<\/p>\n

And Satou Sabally (illness) is still on the mend after most recently exiting Monday\u2019s loss to the Portland Fire after just four minutes of action.\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cNo definitely not,\u201d Stewart said when asked if this is what she expected to start the season.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut it\u2019s a learning experience for everyone. My message to the players in the locker room is like \u2018Nobody expected this. Not to say that we thought it was going to be easy, because we definitely didn\u2019t. But it\u2019s going to take time, and there\u2019s going to be highs and lows, and while it seems like we\u2019re in the lows right now, eventually we\u2019ll get to a place where everybody\u2019s really confident and comfortable in what\u2019s going on.’\u201d<\/p>\n

The most recent Fire loss displayed the same issues that existed since the season opener. Players cited a better showing before they coughed up an eight-point lead going into the fourth quarter. The Liberty turned the ball over seven times in the final period and lost those 10 minutes 32-15.<\/p>\n

Following the loss, a Tuesday film session was on the books, which likely included some hard truths.<\/p>\n

\u201cFilm sessions after a loss are never fun, especially after a few losses, but they\u2019re important for us to learn from it,\u201d Rebekah Gardner said. \u201cSo we\u2019re definitely gonna have, I\u2019m sure, a lot on the film where we can learn from.\u201d<\/p>\n

The beauty of basketball is you don\u2019t have to wait long to prove yourself against an opponent.<\/p>\n

The ugly part ? They\u2019ll have to do so against MVP candidate mainstay Alyssa Thomas and the Phoenix Mercury \u2014 twice.<\/p>\n

The Mercury are in town for matchups on Wednesday and Friday at the same arena they stole Game 2 of the 2025 first-round playoff series.\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

The team later went on to eliminate the Liberty, 2-1, in the best-of-three series.<\/p>\n

The good news is Phoenix is going through its own struggles to start the season.<\/p>\n

They enter New York on a three-game skid and a 2-5 record after last season\u2019s WNBA Finals appearance.<\/p>\n

After shouldering a bit more scoring load with the departure of former teammate Sabally, Thomas is averaging a career-high 18.0 points while logging 7.9 rebounds and 8.0 assists.<\/p>\n

But a playoff rematch is enough to wake up any struggling team. Perhaps, at least one will rise to the occasion.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we don\u2019t forget what happened last season,\u201d Johannes said. \u201cThey have a great team. I think they are also struggling right now. It\u2019s going to be a challenge, a battle. They are always playing hard.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A three-game losing streak put the Liberty below .500 for the first time in three seasons. It\u2019s an…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":667026,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[15447,435,13970,4232,99,434],"class_list":["post-667025","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wnba","tag-alyssa-thomas","tag-breanna-stewart","tag-liberty","tag-mercury","tag-sports","tag-wnba"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/667025","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=667025"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/667025\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/667026"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=667025"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=667025"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=667025"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}