DC Ya! Liberty Make Mystics Vanish in Playoff Thriller
BROOKLYN-New York Liberty fans had waited eight years to win a playoff round. Five minutes was nothing.
A wild conclusion to Game 2 of an opening round set against the Washington Mystics yielded not only a 90-85 overtime victory but the Liberty's first postseason advancement since 2015. Though it was far from easy, New York swept the best-of-three set from Washington for a chance to play for their first WNBA Finals appearances in over two decades.
"I don't know if we're thinking about getting this team back to somewhere where the Liberty hasn't been in eight years, but, you know, this the first time that we've been able to do this as a group," Breanna Stewart said of the lengthy postseason victory drought. "Today there were highs and lows, and we knew it was going to be emotional. Obviously, DC is going to go out swinging, going out with whatever they have. (But) we stayed the course no matter what, we didn't stop playing until the final buzzer and we came with came away with the win."
Stewart backed up her established MVP case to the tune of 27 points while Jonquel Jones had a 19-point, 14-rebound double-double. It was necessary as the Liberty's often-reliable three-point shooting disappeared, hitting only four on 23 attempts.
Natasha Cloud set a career-high and a Washington postseason record with 33 points in defeat.
Facing elimination, the seventh-seeded Mystics were looking for an unprecedented third win against the 2023 Liberty. Along with defending champion and top seed Las Vegas, Washington was one of only two teams to earn multiple wins against the revamped New Yorkers.
Early on, metropolitan advancement seemed inevitable: New York held an 11-point advantage at halftime, much to the delight of a sellout crowd that featured fellow New York basketball stars Carmelo Anthony, Julius Randle, and Mikal Bridges. Stewart and Betnijah Laney led the way with a united 25-point effort over the first 20. At that point, New York had allowed less than 20 points in five consecutive periods.
But Washington stormed back with a defensive showing of their own, winning the third period 21-13. The Mystics went up by as much as six, taking that fateful lead past the midway mark. A triple from Laney's New York's last of the night and their first of the second half, wound up slicing the lead to one with 2:18 left, and neither led by more than two possessions until the 2:28 mark of overtime.
Brandon Todd, NY Liberty
A rare off night from deep forced the Liberty to improvise: ranking 11th of 12 in percentage of points scored in the paint, New York put up 52 of its 90 tallies in the interior en route to victory.
"We had 52 points (in the paint). That's probably our season high, isn't it? So that was good," Brondello said. "Sometimes you just have to find a way, what's the best way to win and they're the easy ones at the rim. JJ did a few rips from up high, a few isos at the top. So that's all JJ."
Even though New York wrangled momentum back and put a partisan crowd in hysterics, a Brittney Sykes triple and freebies from Cloud put Washington back ahead by two. But the Liberty got back to the line twice: Sabrina Ionescu missed a pair but a crucial Jones rebound and putback on the second got her to the line, where she handled business. Consecutive turnovers on the final possessions of regulation set up the extra period, won by the Liberty 14-9.
Ionescu said after the game that her second miss was intentional after she failed to sink her first. It provided immediate redemption for Jones, who earned immediate redemption after a turnover on the prior possession led to Cloud and Washington's go-ahead double.
"What was going through my mind was that I had to redeem myself after turning the ball over, honestly. There was no other option but to make the free throws," Jones said. "I was just saying what I normally say to myself when I shoot free throws, just kind of making it familiar and not getting outside of the moment."
"You got to have a good miss because you want it to land in your best, offensive rebounder's hands and for us that's JJ," Ionescu said. "I knew where she was going to go and I just tried to miss a little long and to the right. I wish I hadn't missed the first one but the game always has highs and lows and to be able to miss and get the award and then get fouled and get two free throws it worked out as as we had hoped."
Cloud's final triple of the night gave Washington a brief lead in the extra period but a Laney fadeaway and two quick baskets from Courtney Vandersloot, who made up for an otherwise-tough shooting night (3-of-11 with 10 assists), put the Liberty ahead for good. With advancement on the line, the Liberty hit 4-of-5 from the field and 6-of-6 from the foul line to close things out.
"I knew that I just wanted to stay in the mentality that if my team needed me to make one play tonight, I was going to be in the right mindset to be able to make that play," Vandersloot said. "It wasn't about me and I wasn't concerned about the shots or this or that. I was just trying to play the hardest I could to make the right play."
The Liberty will now wait to open Barclays Center for the winner of the decider between the Connecticut Sun and Minnesota Lynx on Wednesday night. Game 1 of the best-of-five semifinal set lands on Sunday afternoon in Brooklyn (1 p.m. ET, ESPN).
