Liberty Drop Regular Season Finale Amid Tina Charles History

The New York Liberty will face the Atlanta Dream in the opening round of the 2024 WNBA Playoffs.

Aug 28, 2024; Los Angeles, California, USA; New York Liberty guard Sabrina Ionescu (20), forward Kayla Thornton (5), guard Courtney Vandersloot (22), forward Nyara Sabally (8) and forward Breanna Stewart (30) react in the second half against the LA Sparks at Crypto.com Arena. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-Imagn Images / Kirby Lee-Imagn Images

BROOKLYN-Former New York Liberty star Tina Charles ended her first season with Atlanta on a dreamy note.

WNBA history awaited Charles at Barclays Center on the final day of the regular season, as her historic evening secured a 78-67 victory for the Atlanta Dream that, in turn, clinched the eighth and final WNBA playoff spot. That sets up a first-round matchup between the two teams after the Liberty locked up the No. 1 seed on Tuesday.

Charles' serendipitous box score (10 points, 10 rebounds) created the 195th double-double of her Association career and she also became the all-time leader in rebounds. (1,414).

Need only a victory to join the postseason party, Atlanta (15-25) took care of business early by erasing an early Liberty lead with a run of 11 consecutive points to build an impenetrable lead. Four different women reached double figures for the Dream, who shot 52 percent from the floor over the first three periods while expanding their lead to 20. Naz Hillmon and Rhyne Howard each had 13 to lead the way.

Once Atlanta jumped out to mostly-permanent double-figure lead, the Liberty sat their primary women: Breanna Stewart was held out of the second half entirely after scoring a team-best 16 points while Sabrina Ionescu was removed shortly after scoring her only points of the game on a three, extending her streak to 63 consecutive games with at least one.

New York rewarded those who stuck around by affording its reserves one last showcase. Jaylyn Sherrod stole the show with eight of the Liberty's 18 points in the final period and overall energy that brought Brooklyn to its feet and shrank the Atlanta lead to as little as eight. Fellow rookie Marquesha Davis added four more and also pulled in two rebounds as she and Sherrod were the only New Yorkers with a positive plus/minus. Another reserve, Nyara Sabally, had 14 points in defeat to tie her career-best.

Game 1 of the first-round playoff series will be staged on Sunday afternoon in Brooklyn (1 p.m. ET, ESPN).

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