Don't Think Too Hard About The New York Liberty | Defector

The Liberty’s most frustrating moments are not the obvious mistakes but the rare stretches when the team plays well and then fails to do so consistently. A win over the Phoenix Mercury showed that crowd booing can energize the team, with the Liberty using a full-court press to force nine turnovers in a quarter and ending the third on a 23-0 run. The team has also faced recurring availability issues, including injuries to key players and late arrivals, plus an injury-related absence for Satou Sabally due to a cyst. Even with reasonable explanations, some performances from Jonquel Jones and Betnijah Laney-Hamilton have not matched their usual level, and perimeter defense has suffered when key defenders are unavailable.

"The most maddening moments the New York Liberty have to offer are not the bad ones-not the turnovers, the biffed layups, the "just vibes" possessions on offense-but the moments here and there when things click and the whole team starts to play well. Those flashes of competence suggest there's a switch that can be flipped for these nominal championship contenders. The maddening part is how rarely the Liberty seem inclined to flip it."

"If we learned anything from their 84-74 win over the Phoenix Mercury on Wednesday, it's that booing can flip the switch. A usually forgiving Brooklyn crowd started to grumble when the home team came out of halftime looking lifeless. It worked! The Liberty's full-court press forced nine Mercury turnovers in the quarter, and they ended the third on a 23-0 run. It was enough to snap their three-game losing streak and bring them back to .500 on the season."

"What's also frustrating about the Liberty is that you can make lots of reasonable excuses for them, even going back to last season. The team finished with a 27-17 record in 2025, after a 9-0 start, but in none of those losses did Jonquel Jones, Sabrina Ionescu, and Breanna Stewart all play from start to finish. This year, the revolving door is still an issue: Ionescu has missed time with foot and back injuries; Leonie Fiebich joined the team late due to playing in the Spanish league; Betnijah Laney-Hamilton missed a few games for a personal reason; and free-agent addition Satou Sabally, whose injury history is extensive, has been in and out of the lineup because of a cyst."

"However many problems the team has, it's hard to separate the real from the circumstantial. Neither Jones nor Laney-Hamilton have looked quite like themselves when they've played, which might mean they're bound for some positive regression, or might also mean they're getting old. The perimeter defense has been bad, but the team isn't built to do much perimeter defending without Fiebich and Laney-Hamilton play"

Read at Defector