After a morale-boosting win against the Las Vegas Aces, the New York Liberty travelled to Seattle to play a struggling Storm squad, which sat at 3-15 despite showing impressive flashes against skilled teams. Satou Sabally and Breanna Stewart were both unavailable for the game, with the former being in concussion protocol after exiting the Liberty's last game early and the latter simply needing to rest. Even with these pieces missing, the Liberty were overwhelming favorites to beat the Storm, but instead lost 99-88.
The Liberty were slow from the jump. Without Stewart as an anchor, New York looked lost on defensive rotations and showed minimal effort on the offensive boards, allowing Flau'jae Johnson, Dominique Malonga, Awa Fam, and the rest of Seattle's starters to score at ease while struggling to run sets to get consistent offense going. Johnson exploded for a career-high 28 points, and many of her shots were wide open: the result of the Liberty being slow in transition and getting out-rebounded.
Jonquel Jones and Leonie Fiebich did manage to combine for 45 points and six 3 made three pointers, but overall, the New York team looked like they had already decided they didn't need to play hard because of their opponent's record.
Good teams still have to try to win
After the game, Jones told reporters, "It's not about the reps, it's not about playing time, it's not about none of that stuff. It's about having some heart and playing with some f---ing heart." Fiebich echoed the sentiment: "They came out playing better than us. They played harder, with more intensity, with more effort… Unacceptable things that can't happen, little things that affect the game in a big way."
This isn't the first time this season that a Liberty loss was decided by a lack of effort. Too often, the star-studded roster allows itself to settle for bad shots around the perimeter instead of doing the dirty work of scoring in the paint, and the fact that the shots fall sometimes allows the team to get even more complacent with doing so. This, compounded with untimely turnovers and low-effort defense, allows lower-ranked teams like the Storm and Washington Mystics to swoop in and grab wins.
A team with players as big as Jones, Fiebich, Sabally, and Stewart shouldn't be sitting at 14th in offensive rebounding, nor should it be allowing the 4th most PPG and RPG from its opponents. Judging by roster alone, we all know the Liberty are capable of contending for a title and competing with the best, but the players still have a responsibility to themselves and to fans to play like that's the goal.
It starts with coaching, too. Knowing that Stewart would be sitting against the Storm––a team with two of the best young forwards in the W––Coach DeMarco and the rest of the staff should have been prepared to try new combinations of bigs together, especially since Han Xu and Raquel Carrera have shown impressive flashes in their limited minutes this season. Anneli Maley, a developmental player for New York who was activated but didn't see the floor at all on Thursday, could have also provided a defensive spark for the team, especially since every game for her is essentially a tryout she's guaranteed to try her hardest for.
No reason for doom, but the Liberty have to be better
The Liberty are a more than capable team that have been dealing with injuries and a new coach: it would be a waste of time to overreact to this loss, but it hopefully will be a wakeup call. In New York's next five games, they play the Golden State Valkyries, Las Vegas Aces, the Dallas Wings, and the Minnesota Lynx twice––the type of games that the team is 100% bound to lose without effort, defense, and organization. The Liberty are undoubtedly capable of winning the majority of these upcoming games, but hypothetical abilities aren't what win championships.
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