The first play of the game featured the Liberty moving the ball horizontally until the shot clock hit 6 seconds. Betnijah Laney-Hamilton found Jones in the paint, but Jackie Young’s help to assist Chelsea Gray came immediately. As Jones turned to her right, Gray was right there and poked the ball out of her hands. The first possession resulted in a New York turnover.
Around two minutes later, Ioenscu came off a pick-and-roll with Breanna Stewart. Alysha Clark and Jackie Young’s crisp switch that was followed by a Clark deflection on Ionescu’s pass intended for Stewart resulted in the same result: another New York turnover.
Ionescu began the first half 0-4 shooting along with 5 assists and 3 rebounds. Jones scored 5 points on 2-5 shooting along with 3 rebounds and 1 assist. While Ionescu found a way to playmake in the first half, nothing really came easy for her and Jones.
“They gave [Ionescu] very little space, so active with their hands, getting deflections, are very physical,” head coach Sandy Brondello said postgame. “We didn’t play very well, but they took us out of our rhythm. And yeah, they just stayed close. We didn’t set good enough screens to get separation. We didn’t roll hard enough. All the little things that would have helped us, we didn’t [do]. So that’s on us.”
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The first half had the workings of a trio of Liberty X factors stepping up once again while two thirds of the team’s main offensive weapons were neutralized. Stewart carried the scoring load scoring 14 first half points on 5-11 shooting including 2-2 from three. Laney-Hamilton found Fiebich on a couple of backdoor cuts, that duo hit some threes and Courtney Vandersloot got downhill at will and as a result put 9 points up the board.
The Liberty stayed in the game only trailing 52-49 at half, but Brondello didn’t feel confident about her team’s first half performance even though the Liberty out-assisted the Aces in the first half 14 to 11.
Brondello continued: “It’s not a good game, not happy… I think we lack[ed] discipline. But you know, we’re a way better team than what we showed even though that first half, we’re only down by three, it just didn’t feel good. It was, like, this is not how we play.”
Brondello’s first half observations and proclamation that even the first half didn’t resemble how the Liberty play only became more obvious in the third quarter when the Aces poured on 21 points to the Liberty’s six. The Liberty shot 2-14 from the field while allowing the Aces to shoot 8-19 (42.1 %). At one point the Aces went on a 16-0 run.
The Liberty turned the ball over seven times to the Aces’ 3. Stewart attempted to take matters into her own hands, but only shot 1-4 and scored three points, half of the Liberty’s total in the third.
The air was taken out of New York’s defense as it lost its intensity and purpose. Not being able to set their defense burned the Liberty in that third quarter. When Stewart and Vandersloot were asked to explain how the Liberty’s performance fell a part in the second half, the players looked at each other with wide eyes unsure of how to proceed.
Vandersloot smiled nervously. “Do you want me to answer this?,” Stewart said to Vandersloot also with a smile. “Yeah I do,” Vandersloot replied while she reached for the box score.
Stewart felt like her team’s defense had been in the proper places to be successful. The Aces played with a lot of space, and because their three-point shots fell in the first half, Las Vegas had the confidence to take even more. But what frustrated Stewart was how sped up she and her team were on the offensive end.
“I think that we got a little bit sped up offensively,” she said. “Whether they score or not, it’s fine, but like, we have to also get a score. Like Sandy said, it was 52-49 at half, and then a 16-0 run is ridiculous”
Part of the reason the Liberty’s offense looked like it was in quicksand was because both Jones and Ionescu’s struggles continued, especially in that third. Both combined for 0-2 shooting, zero total points scored, two rebounds apiece and three combined turnovers. Jones only played four minutes of that 10 minute quarter because with 5:32 left she picked up her fourth foul. It was offensive following a charge taken by Chelsea Gray.
The Liberty expressed a lot of accountability following the loss
There were moments on Friday night that were similar to what went on almost a year ago when these teams matched up in the playoffs. Seeing Stewart and Vandersloot in the press conference postgame alongside Brondello coming off a tough loss felt familiar. But, their reaction to getting punched in the nose almost a year later felt different.
After the Liberty lost game 2 of the WNBA in Las Vegas last year, there was a sense of panic from the Liberty. While the situation is different in the semifinals and the Liberty still have the upper hand being up 2-1, the New York expressed disappointment, accountability and at times an eagerness to get to work to punch back.
Ionescu, Stewart and Vandersloot all explained postgame that there weren’t really any heads down in the locker room. But each New York representative that spoke to reporters on Friday evening, four players and their head coach, all took accountability for not performing well enough.
When The Next asked Jones if the Aces defended her differently like they did Ionescu, Jones pushed back on that notion. Instead, she spoke about how she wasn’t quick or decisive enough.
“I feel like it just kind of gets me off balance a little bit like, like rolling in the paint and stuff,” she said. “I just don’t know when the doubles are really coming, and so I just have to do a better job of, like, making my moves a little bit quicker and being a little bit more decisive. But honestly, I don’t think it was anything that they really did. I think I was just passive in certain areas where I could have been more aggressive.”
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Ioenscu agreed. The Aces didn’t guard Jones differently, but instead Ionescu struggled getting Jones touches. The Liberty’s style in 2024 has been about finding Jones not only to score but also to facilitate. Jones had 1 assist on Friday night. When the Liberty are at their best, she finishes games with multiple assists and us close to a double-double. Jones had neither. And after the first half, Ionescu register a single assist. All five of hers came in the first and second quarters.
“So obviously I need to do a better job of making sure that I can continue to find ways to get my teammates open and get them easy ones, and in turn, that will alleviate some of the ball pressure that I’m seeing,” Ionescu said.
When a reporter asked Stewart about how difficult it is to close out a series and sweep a team, she explained why Friday’s game was New York’s hardest postseason competition. She explained that ending the season of another team isn’t easy and doing it on their home floor adds even more difficulty.
But then she turned it back to she and her team. She didn’t think the Liberty were ready for all of those adverse factors on Friday night. “We didn’t come out and embrace the hard things because this shit isn’t easy and we saw that tonight,” she said.
Then Vandersloot was asked about the technical foul she earned with 1:31 left in the third quarter after a turnover she created as a result of a travel. She explained what made her so frustrated but in the end she took responsibility for not being more physical with the Aces. “I’m trying to get my team fired up, and I’ll live with it,” she said.
Brondello held herself accountable too, as she often does. She alluded to how she probably should have huddled more with her team to counter the loud Las Vegas home crowd that was actively rooting against the Liberty. It was more difficult for the Liberty to stay together. Going into Sunday, expect Brondello to intentionally create more opportunities for communication. “I didn’t think we’re always on the same page, and you could see that, and they exploited it,” she said.
Ionescu brought up multiple times when she spoke to reporters how great she thought seeing the Aces swarm her was. There was a motivation in her tone about how she’s ready for this next challenge. She plans to spend her Saturday studying the film and working with her coaches to be ready to combat the Las Vegas pressure. She loves a challenge. It’s a challenge she has control over.
“I’ve always taken accountability and know a lot of this relies on me and my ability to get everyone open and get myself going and in turn that gets our team going,” she said. “So for me it’s nice because I’m in control of that. And I know that as long as I can come back and do my job better it’s going to help everyone else.”
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