New York Liberty Painting Their Way Through WNBA Playoffs

Defensive crackdowns have forced the New York Liberty to shore up their interior game in pursuit of a WNBA championship.

Conversations about Brooklyn paint sometimes feature debate about the works of the borough's artists, such as the late Jean-Michel Basquiat. The New York Liberty's canvas creates a far more obvious, if not equally effective result: two points.

Autumn in New York can be an eye-pleaser but cooler temperatures often force some inside. With the pursuit of an elusive WNBA championship extending to October, the Liberty have opted to do the same. 

Inside jobs have been paced the Liberty's ongoing path to the WNBA Finals, a trek that continues on Friday when they seek to break a 1-1, best-of-five deadlock with the Connecticut Sun in their favor (7:30 p.m. ET, ESPN2). That's perhaps expected when one's roster includes Stefanie Dolson, Jonquel Jones, Nyara Sabally, Breanna Stewart, and Han Xu (who has missed the ongoing postseason due to international commitments). But the stats didn't back up the hype, at least not in the traditional sense. 

The new-look Liberty flexed their muscles on the statsheet, finishing at or near the top of nearly every major category. They sank, however, in terms of interior scoring: only 39.8 percent of their tallies came in the paint, which was 11th of the WNBA's 12 teams. New York did muster 11.5 second-chance points (3rd) but often chose to dazzle from the outside. Less than 60 percent of New York's points came from two-pointers, by far accounting for the lowest mark in the W.

Sabrina Ionescu (20) penetrates the interior / Brandon Todd, NY Liberty

All that and more is quite forgivable in the midst of a 32-win season. It wasn't, however, by design. New York holds itself to lofty standards but being the female answer to the Golden State Warriors was never one. 

The Liberty have hardly hidden their love of the three-pointer: each of the three Liberty teams that have called Barclays Center their full-time ranks no worse than eighth on the list of most single-season triples in the WNBA record book. 

This year's group ran with that theme, becoming the first squad in Association history to hit a quadricentennial (444). In her third full season, Sabrina Ionescu hit the deep-ball jackpot in Las Vegas with a historic outing in the All-Star festivities' annual extra-point contest, one that beat out anything posted at either the male or female professional level. 

The postseason is often a time of adjustment and tinkering. What worked in the regular season, especially in excess, is often neutralized by virtue of facing the best of the best. To that end, the Liberty had only nine games where they hit eight triples or less (5-4 in such contests). It's already happened twice in this postseason, including last Sunday's semifinal opener against Connecticut, a 78-63 loss that effectively put homecourt advantage in Mohegan Sun Arena's favor. 

But the great teams have often found a way to make the best of brutal situations. The Liberty have fully accepted such a fate.

"I think if the ball is moving, and we're playing that the way we want to do I don't think we're really worried about percentages or stats," Liberty facilitator Courtney Vandersloot said. "We want to win the game and sometimes, in the playoff,  it kind of changes, it's not the same as the regular season. When you're playing a team multiple times, they take things that you're good at away and we have to find different ways to be really good."

The resiliency and ability to adapt was on full display in Tuesday's recovery in Game 2: New York shot 3-of-14 from three-point range in a first half that saw Connecticut inch closer to a 2-0 series lead with an advantage that ballooned to 12. Once it reached a dozen, a New York timeout led to a gradual transformation.

Things started off on familiar grounds in the form of a Betnijah Laney three. But en route to closing the gap, the Liberty painted the town seafoam. Particularly impressive was the efforts of Ionescu, who got by with a mere single triple in the victory, instead opting to invade the paint. She wasn't always successful when it came to the doubles but earned equally valuable trips to the foul line, ones that got Connecticut defensive regulars Rebecca Allen and Tyasha Harris in foul trouble. 

All but six points of New York's 20-12 run were built with either free throws or paint shots. Forced to trench the interior, Connecticut allowed New York to get back open from deep in the second, as the Liberty shot 7-of-12 the rest of the way en route to a tied series and an 84-77 advantage.

Ionescu reached a new brand of Liberty history in the win, as her battering drives to the foul line allowed her to tie a team record for most successful free throws, duplicating a 10-of-10 performance from Sugar Rodgers in 2015. Asked after the game if she could ever recall making such an impact in the paint in a previous endeavor, Ionescu understandably, if not humorously, remarked that she was too tired to recall.

"We were figuring out ways to attack and not settle," Ionescu said of the interior attacks. "I think in the first game we settled on taking really tough shots and not getting into the key. For us, it's understanding when we get into the paint, what that creates for everyone else and ourselves, and how the defense plays us." 

The adjustable Liberty offered a preview of what was to come in the opening round: with the Washington Mystics threatening to force a best-of-three set to the nation's capital by limiting New York to only four three-pointers, the Liberty instead enjoyed 52 points in the pace to earn an overtime triumph and win their first playoff round since the aforementioned 2015 trek.

"We understand how they're going to play me," Ionescu said. "(They're) obviously playing me as a three-point threat, so (the key is) using that to my advantage. Being able to get downhill is great for us offensively and so we're continuing to apply pressure on their defense."

"It's about getting into the paint either to support the rim or get to the foul line, but also being able to kick it out or hit  (Jones) over a lot of rolls ... It was just continuing to read and how they're going to play me by not settling for jump shots and understanding what I'm able to do by getting my two feet into the paint."

It's not your parents' Liberty, it's not your sibling's Liberty .... heck, it's hardly even your Liberty. 

But if it leads to a champion Liberty, no one will be complaining.