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21 hours ago
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Liberty hold long team meeting after ‘embarrassing, frustrating' loss to Wings
Sandy Brondello and the New York Liberty sat in the visitors locker room at the College Park Center for nearly 40 minutes on Monday night. After a brutal loss to the Dallas Wings, which marked their second straight loss, they had some things to discuss. 'This has been going on for a few games,' Brondello said, via Winsider's Myles Ehrlich. 'We haven't started off well, so we had a team meeting.' The Wings, after building up a 30-point lead, held on to grab a 92-82 win over the Liberty in Arlington, Texas, on Monday night. It marked New York's second straight dropped game, following a loss at the buzzer to the Los Angeles Sparks on Saturday. The Liberty opened up Monday's game on the wrong side of a 21-4 run, and they never recovered. The Wings held New York to just 36 points in the first half and took a 27-point lead into the break. Though Dallas' offense slowed way down in the second half — the Wings only put up seven points in the fourth quarter as a group, and briefly allowed New York to make it a two possession game — their lead was far too big for the Liberty to overcome. They held on to pick up the 10-point win behind 20 points and 14 assists from star Arike Ogunbowle. That moved them to 8-19 on the season, which is just one win shy of matching last year's win total. Jonquel Jones led the Liberty with 18 points and seven assists, and Sabrina Ionescu added 17 points while shooting 5-of-13 from the field. Jones called the loss 'embarrassing' and 'frustrating' when they got out of their meeting. 'They were just exploiting us in post ups and we had no resistance … we weren't as connected as we wanted to be,' Brondello said of their slow start. 'It really just starts with the effort.' Now in the Liberty's defense, they are without star Breanna Stewart, who left early in the first quarter of their loss to the Sparks on Saturday with a lower-leg injury. She has avoided a significant injury, but specifics aren't known and it's unclear when she'll be back. This is, though, the third time this season that the Liberty have dropped back-to-back games. They have a battle with the Minnesota Lynx in Minneapolis on Wednesday night, too. The Lynx currently hold a league-best 22-5 record and now a four-game lead over the Liberty in the standings, thanks to their latest two losses. The Lynx have lost just one of their 15 games at the Target Center this season, too. If Monday's team meeting didn't work out and Stewart is still sidelined, that deficit in the standings could very easily grow. Ionescu, though, isn't trying to think about that. 'We've got to focus on ourselves,' she said. 'We shouldn't be playing any differently because of who we're matched up with, what their record is, how talented they are, there's no excuse for how we came out ... Any team can beat anyone in this league, and we were able to see that tonight."
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a day ago
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Upcoming Liberty-Lynx WNBA Finals rematch potentially ruined by injuries
ARLINGTON, Texas — We waited nine months to get the highly-anticipated WNBA Finals rematch. And we'll have to wait a bit longer to relive those theatrics — possibly till October with the New York Liberty continually getting bit by the injury bug. In the spring, the WNBA world groaned at the league scheduling the 2024 WNBA Finals rematch between the Minnesota Lynx and Liberty more than two months after Opening Day. And not only did we have to wait till summer, the league scheduled the 2024 finalists to face off three times within nine days in August. Now the anticipation is ruined with the Liberty slated to enter the matchups shorthanded as Breanna Stewart (leg) and Nyara Sabally (rest) are sidelined with injuries. Stewart exited in the first quarter of Saturday's loss with a leg injury and Liberty head coach Sandy Brondello declined to give a timeline for her return before Monday's road matchup against the Dallas Wings. 'No, not at this stage,' Brondello said when asked if there's a timeline for Stewart's return. Sabally, who is dealing with knee discomfort, is getting some 'time off to get her body right,' per Brondello. 'We'll assess her down the track,' the coach said. That makes two unclear timelines as the Liberty approach the first matchup against the Lynx Wednesday at Target Center. Both teams were slated to face off again on Aug. 16 and Aug, 19. Kennedy Burke is also dealing with lower-body cramping, but she could return to the court sooner than Stewart and Sabally. Burke, who exited Saturday's matchup and missed Monday's game against the Wings, is day-to-day. The injury developments put a dark cloud over the matchups against two teams that are favorites to face of in WNBA Finals once again. The Liberty and Lynx fought to the end in a thrilling five-game WNBA Finals series that ended with New York securing the first title in franchise history after a 67-62 overtime victory. The game wouldn't have been won without Sabally, who was relied on heavily in the second half of Game 5 as Brondello opted to deploy a bigger lineup to wear down Cheryl Reeve's team. And Stewart's 18.6 points per game in the series helped lift the Liberty to a title. Now, we may never get a real regular-season look a the two teams without both contributors. On the bright side, we could get another Finals rematch between the two. Minnesota (22-5) entered Monday with the best record and No. 1 overall seed. The Liberty are 3.5 games behind them in the No. 2 seed. If the season ended tonight, the two teams would only meet each other in the WNBA Finals — now a best-of-seven series for the first time in 2025. The Liberty would have to get past the Las Vegas Aces in a 2-7 matchup and face off against the winner of No. 3 seed Phoenix Mercury and No. 6 seed Indiana Fever for a chance at a third consecutive WNBA Finals berth. The Lynx's path is much easier: a first-round matchup against the No. 8 seed Washington Mystics and a second-round series against the fourth-seeded Atlanta Dream or fifth-seeded Seattle Storm. Another uncertainty for the upcoming matchups against Minnesota is whether Emma Meesseman will be available. Meesseman, who reportedly considered Minnesota as a potential landing spot before committing to New York, is expected to arrive in Brooklyn some time in August after receiving a visa. ____
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a day ago
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Wyatt Langford's bases-clearing double
Wyatt Langford clears the bases with a three-run double to left, giving the Rangers a 3-0 lead in the bottom of the 1st inning
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a day ago
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Sean Murphy's ground-rule double
Sean Murphy's ground-rule double to left scores Drake Baldwin, cutting the Rangers' lead to 3-1 in the top of the 2nd inning
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a day ago
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Paige Bueckers is back to face the WNBA reigning champs. Here's how to watch Liberty at Wings
Paige Bueckers missed Sunday's contest against the Las Vegas Aces, but the presumed WNBA Rookie of the Year is set to go against the league's defending champions Monday night. Though her Dallas Wings are sizable home underdogs against Sabrina Ionescu and the New York Liberty, every primetime Bueckers broadcast commands our attention and previews a gleaming future. How to watch New York Liberty at Dallas Wings Venue: College Park Center — Arlington, Texas Time: 8 p.m. ET, Monday TV: ESPN Streaming: Fubo ($20 off) Watching in person? Get tickets on StubHub. At 7-19, this current version of Dallas is not much more than a first chapter in the Bueckers bildungsroman. The Wings have dropped six of their last seven games; they were thumped by a full 30 points in their July 7 loss to the Phoenix Mercury, and just took a 26-point L to Vegas on Sunday. Tough stuff, for sure, but the salvation here is in Bueckers' immediate translation to the pro pace. Across her last 16 games, the No. 1 pick is averaging a shade below 20 points on 47.2/32.8/85.9 shooting splits. She's also putting up 5.4 assists per game to 2.4 turnovers and 1.8 steals in that span. She's getting the most out of a struggling transition offense and is finding her way through screens, all while retaining the galactic range that made her a college sensation: Dallas' other scoring options are three-time All-WNBA vet Arike Ogunbowale (16 points per game) and defensive specialist DiJonai Carrington (11 ppg). Both guards are shooting below 40 percent from the field, though, and the squad overall is in the league's bottom three for 2-point and 3-point percentages. All that should present a clean get-right game for the Liberty, who arrive in Texas with a 17-7 record and the second-best net rating (the Minnesota Lynx are No. 1). New York plays with the W's fastest pace, tallying more than 80 possessions per 40 minutes. After a June lull, the Liberty had strung together five consecutive wins … before Rickea Jackson's game-winner sealed a Los Angeles Sparks upset over the weekend. No matter. Brooklyn's seafoam ballers are a two-way force. They are comfortably perched atop the Eastern Conference, where only two other teams are above .500 (the upstart Atlanta Dream and the injury-plagued Indiana Fever). With European star and 2019 Finals MVP Emma Meesseman ready to join the Liberty for the summer stretch, 2024's title-holders look just as formidable as they did last year. Crucially, New York's top-line forward Breanna Stewart hurt her leg in Saturday's loss, but she seems to have avoided serious damage. Stewart will ice up as her capable teammates cruise through the early August stretch of their schedule. The Liberty still field Ionescu, Jonquel Jones, Natasha Cloud and a bevy of reliable perimeter shooters. Fusion team of players to wear both jerseys Katie Smith Kayla Thornton Swin Cash Plenette Pierson Natasha Howard Sixth Woman — Isabelle Harrison Liberty at Wings odds Betting/odds, ticketing and streaming links in this article are provided by partners of The Athletic. Restrictions may apply. The Athletic maintains full editorial independence. Partners have no control over or input into the reporting or editing process and do not review stories before publication. This article originally appeared in The Athletic. New York Liberty, Dallas Wings, WNBA, Sports Betting, Fubo Partnership, WNBA Highlights 2025 The Athletic Media Company
