The New York Liberty may have the most talented roster, from top to bottom, in the WNBA this season, but the hastily assembled squad has not been able to translate their star power into consistent results so far. Their second-half collapse in Sunday's 86-82 loss to the Chicago Sky, in which they blew a 19-point lead, was just the latest example.
Early on, we saw how great this team can be as they jumped out to a 13-0 lead in less than five minutes. They maintained a double-digit advantage for the majority of the first half, and pushed the lead to 19 at various points early in the third. From there, it seemed they would cruise to their fifth win in a row.
The Sky had other ideas. Kahleah Copper caught fire in the third quarter to keep the Sky in the game, and Courtney Williams took them home with a series of clutch jumpers down the stretch to complete the biggest comeback of the 2023 season to date.
"There's so much hype around these superteams -- no shade, but shade," Williams said. "But at the end of the day, we here too. ... We already won; y'all gotta wake up!"
That was a message primarily directed at the media and fans, but the Liberty would be wise to take notice as well. While the Sky deserve a lot of credit for continuing to fight on both ends of the floor and making tough shots in the fourth quarter, this was not a game the Liberty should have lost. But when you can't get stops and have as many turnovers as field goals in the fourth quarter, it doesn't matter how much talent is on the roster.
Offensively, the problems started with a lack of focus early in the frame. One possession they would rush things, taking a poor early shot or trying to force a tough pass; another they would meander around until they were forced to chuck something at the rim to try and beat the shot clock.
Take this possession for example. Marine Johannes tries to iso at the top of the key, loses control of the ball a few times and throws up an awful shot that leads to a layup for the Sky on the other end. Gross.
"We looked for our own way too much," Liberty head coach Sandy Brondello said. "We went away from what went well. They've got to trust the process and find the open man, and move the ball. That's on me... but in the end, I think we need to just play with a bit more pride."
Compare that to the end of the frame, when the Liberty settled down and actually ran some purposeful offense with ball movement. Twice down the stretch they went to a staggered screen at the top of the key for Courtney Vandersloot; once it led to a floater for Breanna Stewart and the other an easy layup for Vandersloot.
By that point, though, they were behind and trying to work their way back into the game, and it ended up being too little, too late. That's because on the other side of the ball they were just as ineffective for much of the fourth.
Here they are miscommunicating and losing track of Robyn Parks for a wide-open 3-pointer after Williams got into the lane.
And here, Elizabeth Williams scores an easy layup after Kahleah Copper ghosts past Betnijah Laney into the paint.
"Disappointed," Brondello said. "We went away, we got complacent. And [Chicago] is a team that's really dangerous. They lifted their identity & we were still in the locker room. Hopefully, this is a wake-up... our shot profile was terrible, didn't play tough enough."
Those are strong words from Brondello, but they may be just what the team needs to hear. There were always going to be growing pains for this team given how it was assembled and the short preseason, but you would not have expected to see such complacency and lack of focus this early in the season.
"We don't want to be the team that only plays 20 minutes," Vandersloot said. That's been the reoccurring thing. This is a really good league. Any team can beat anybody. We have to have the mentality that, if we don't put 40 minutes together, we're not gonna win."
