ARLINGTON — No Breanna Stewart. No Kennedy Burke. And no Nyara Sabally.
But that’s not even a good enough excuse for how bad the Liberty looked in Monday’s 92-82 loss to the Dallas Wings at College Park Center.
A late fourth-quarter surge — with the Liberty winning the period 20-7 — made the score looked reasonable.
It was an indescribable near collapse for the Wings, who looked to have the game wrapped up by halftime.
Sandy Brondello’s team looked uncompetitive for three quarters in a game they trailed by as many as 30 points.
To start, the road team looked stagnant while settling for three-pointers.
And the defense wasn’t any better.
There were blown coverages, too many transition opportunities — because of aforementioned bad offense — and zero resistance in the paint.
By halftime, the Wings had scored 34 points in the paint.
Wings trio Arike Ogunbowale, Paige Bueckers and Luisa Geiselsoder combined for 38 points after the first two quarters — two more than what the entire Liberty team scored at that point.
Eventually, Arike Ogunbowale finished with a game-high 20 points and 14 assists. Bueckers had 20 points, six rebounds, four assists and three steals.
Jonquel Jones and Sabrina Ionescu led the Liberty with 18 and 17 points, respectively.
The remaining two quarters of regulation felt as if it was all cosmetic before the late surge.
For the second night in a row, a poor start doomed the Liberty. First, they surrendered 36 first-quarter points to the rebuilding Los Angeles Sparks and loss to Rickea Jackson’s buzzer-beater on Saturday.
The losing streak stretched to two after the Wings scored 31 in the first on Monday. Dallas led, 63-36, at halftime and notched franchise-highs in field goals made (26) and assists (20) for a half.
Another poor start like that and Wednesday’s WNBA Finals rematch against the Minnesota Lynx will look even worse.
There weren’t even any bright spots for the Liberty coming out of the second half.
The starting lineup of Ionescu, Natasha Cloud, Jones, Leonie Fiebich and Isabelle Harrison combined for a -40 in their time on the court.
Brondello decided to start the second half with Marine Johannes instead of Harrison, but that didn’t yield much better results for an unlikely comeback attempt.
Bueckers still looked like a comfortable rookie on the perimeter, running the offense and beginning an offensive set that led to an open Aziaha James corner three-pointer to keep the Liberty’s deficit at 23 at the 6:49 mark. At that point, no Liberty player was able to jumpstart a needed big run.
Brondello’s team got within six in the fourth after Jones’ made trey with 1:44 remaining in regulation. But it was too little too late.
The Liberty will turn the page to Wednesday’s WNBA Finals rematch without Stewart (leg) and Sabally (knee discomfort).
Brondello provided no timeline to return for those players, but deemed Burke day-to-day as the Sixth Player of the Year candidate deals with lower-body cramps.
Originally Published:
