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Ahead of Game 2, Sabrina Ionescu, Breanna Stewart, Jonquel Jones, and Sandy Brondello expressed a consistent message: the Liberty are ready to move forward.
It’d be hard to overstate how crushing a defeat Game 1 was for the New York Liberty, and at this point, the sequences of events probably doesn’t need to be retold.
But, Breanna Stewart, Sabrina Ionescu, and the rest of the Liberty will never forget how the Minnesota Lynx secured the come-from-behind victory that left their home crowd stunned. Neither will anyone in attendance at Barclay’s Center on that fateful Thursday night.
New York held an 18-point lead in the first half, and led by 12 with 5 minutes to go. Breanna Stewart had an opportunity to win it at the free throw line — and to tie things up with a good look at a layup at the end of overtime — but neither shot fell.
In turn, rather than taking a 1-0 lead in the WNBA Finals, the Liberty fell to 0-6 all-time in WNBA Finals Game 1s.
Still, it was just one game.
That was the sentiment immediately expressed at the podium, when Breanna Stewart, Jonquel Jones, and Sandy Brondello all fielded questions from the media moments after disaster. It certainly wasn’t the outcome they desired, but as catastrophic as the loss might have been, they were very much still alive.
At practice on Saturday, Liberty players further expressed an unwavering confidence in their ability to bounce back from the late-game collapse.
“We had an opportunity to come in and watch the film,” said Jonquel Jones. “I realized that there’s a lot of things that were in our control, even after executing the way that we needed to still kind of walk away with that game. So, the combination of those two things, being able to control the game a little bit better so we’re not in that situation, but also closing out a little bit better too.”
Sabrina Ionescu, who shot just 8-26 in Game 1, reiterated that a lot of what went wrong in Game 1 was their own doing.
“We kind of beat ourselves,” Ionescu said. “It’s a crappy way to lose but understanding that a lot of that stuff is in our control to come out and be able to change it and not panicking. It’s one game and understanding we got an opportunity tomorrow to come out and be better.”
Defensively, the Lynx switched heavily, but Leonie Fiebich made clear that the defensive scheme wasn’t anything they hadn’t seen before, per NetDaily’s Lucas Kaplan.
“We just didn’t move the ball well,” Fiebich said. “I think we’re just over-dribbling, We’re not making good decisions.”
Sandy Brondello echoed her players’ sentiments — while also noting the Lynx caught fire at the right time.
Photo by Melanie Fidler/NBAE via Getty Images
“It’s a series,” Brondello said. “We are disappointed because we didn’t close it out, but credit to Minnesota — they didn’t miss a shot down the stretch. We got too passive and there is things we can learn from and be better for the next one.”
After a loss like Game 1, players also took the chance to get away from basketball for a second. Ionescu said she spent time with family and friends in her day off in-between games — noting that she has 25 people visiting New York from California, and that they’ll be accompanying her to Minnesota, too.
“I saw them yesterday and was able to forget about basketball for a little bit,” Ionescu said. “At this point in the season when you’ve been on this emotional high for almost a month of win or go home, it’s nice to sometimes step out of that and be around the people you love and hang out with them outside the court.”
Photo by Melanie Fidler/NBAE via Getty Images
Liberty players have stressed all year that the journey to a franchise-first championship wasn’t going to be easy, but that being there before was going to make it easier when adversity inevitably hit. They are more willing to have difficult conversations, and they very much recognize the fact that winning the Finals was never meant to be a breeze.
“Having another year of building trust and vulnerability makes everything a little bit easier and just because we all know,” Stewart said. “Everyone wants you to say the hard things to them because we want to win. We want to get this franchise the first ever championship and you don’t do that by only doing the easy things or saying the easy things. This is the WNBA and nothing is a cakewalk.”
The Lynx and Liberty face off again at 3pm ET on Saturday. A win would tie things up and shift the momentum back toward New York heading back to Minneapolis. A loss would put them in a 0-2 hole that no WNBA team has ever come back from, in any series — let alone the deciding one.
“It’s the Finals,” Jones said. “We’re not about to quit after one game, especially a game that we were more than capable of winning — a game that we really played well for the most part. We’re good. We’ll be back.”
