{"id":679014,"date":"2026-06-02T02:47:13","date_gmt":"2026-06-02T02:47:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/679014\/"},"modified":"2026-06-02T02:47:13","modified_gmt":"2026-06-02T02:47:13","slug":"liberty-change-it-up-with-intense-efficient-practice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/679014\/","title":{"rendered":"Liberty change it up with intense, efficient practice"},"content":{"rendered":"

First-year Liberty head coach Chris DeMarco decided to do something a little different Sunday.<\/p>\n

After giving the team Saturday off following a grueling stretch of playing five games in nine days, DeMarco put 60 minutes on the clock. As long as the time was ticking, the team was going to be putting in a full effort. The goal was to make the most of a condensed yet efficient practice.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven when they talk, like, we don\u2019t stop,\u201d guard Marine Johann\u00e8s recalled Monday. \u201cSo it was like we just keep going. \u2026 It was the first time we did it.\u201d<\/p>\n

There was a list of things he wanted to get through. In general, DeMarco addressed the live-ball turnovers and wanted players to get reps with different pairings as the team is almost fully healthy for the first time all season.<\/p>\n

The practice structure was different from previous ones, according to Johann\u00e8s. But she thought it was successful.<\/p>\n

\u201cPractice [Sunday] was good,\u201d she said. \u201cIt was short, but really interesting and intense. And today was a good practice for the entire team here.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Liberty (5-4) hope the three days of thorough practice propels them forward as they continue to settle into the season.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had a gnarly stretch. Five in [nine] is really tough, especially when we were like in and out of the lineup all the time,\u201d Breanna Stewart said. \u201cBut this practice time is crucial, especially being almost 100 percent. And really just making sure that we\u2019re locking in, we\u2019re paying attention because while this week is a little more chill, I think next week is a little bit more chaotic.\u201d<\/p>\n

WNBA Commissioner Cup action began Monday, and the Liberty\u2019s first in-season tournament game is Wednesday against Sandy Brondello\u2019s Toronto Tempo. New York is scheduled to wrap up this seven-game homestand Saturday when Caitlin Clark and the Indiana Fever come to town.<\/p>\n

\"NewNearly at full strength, the Liberty used different practice tactics to get back into a flow. Corey Sipkin for the NY POST<\/p>\n

This homestand hasn\u2019t been easy. The Liberty opened with three straight losses to fall below .500. They rebounded with back-to-back wins against the Phoenix Mercury.<\/p>\n

A lot of the Liberty\u2019s early-season issues pertain to the changing lineups and a new system.<\/p>\n

New York has deployed four different starting lineups in the first nine games.<\/p>\n

Sabrina Ionescu has played only one game because of a left foot injury and back soreness. That left rookie Pauline Astier<\/a> as the team\u2019s only true point guard.<\/p>\n

Satou Sabally and Betnijah Laney-Hamilton also missed some time<\/a> for various reasons, and Leonie Fiebich and Raquel Carrera joined the team late because of their overseas commitments.<\/p>\n

The Liberty\u2019s biggest red flag is the turnovers.<\/p>\n

\"NewNew York Liberty\u2019s Pauline Astier (18) grabs the rebound over Phoenix Mercury forward Alyssa Thomas during the first half of a WNBA basketball game at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn on Friday, May 29, 2026. Heather Khalifa for NY Post<\/p>\n

New York ranks seventh in the league in turnovers (15.7 per game) and opponents points off turnovers (16.7).<\/p>\n

It ranks seventh in offensive rating (107.3) and 12th in pace (95.28).<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat will still improve is just our chemistry and our flow, that\u2019s just going to come by having more practice reps,\u201d Stewart said. \u201cWhat we\u2019re paying attention to is making sure no live-ball turnovers. We know that\u2019s kind of an Achilles\u2019 heel of ours, just being aggressive offensively.\u201d<\/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

Ionescu did an individual workout Monday as she continues to deal with back soreness, according to DeMarco. She\u2019s considered day to day, with DeMarco saying the \u201cgoal\u201d is for her to be available Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Point guard Marine Fauthoux, a developmental player who\u2019s been on the mend from a knee injury, was a full participant in Monday\u2019s practice and is \u201cclose\u201d to being able to play.<\/p>\n

Jonquel Jones believes the Liberty are trending in the right direction. The past few days have been a chance to \u201cget right, have practice time and also just take a breather for a second,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was good to kind of have that time to just decompress a little bit, enjoy being home,\u201d she said, \u201cand then also work on the things that we need to work on to be a better team.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"First-year Liberty head coach Chris DeMarco decided to do something a little different Sunday. After giving the team…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":679015,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[160972,436,99,434],"class_list":["post-679014","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wnba","tag-chris-demarco","tag-new-york-liberty","tag-sports","tag-wnba"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/679014","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=679014"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/679014\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/679015"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=679014"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=679014"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=679014"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}