Sometimes, headlines don’t tell the whole story. This time, they do.
Photo by Sean D. Elliot/Getty Images
You shouldn’t take things for granted. When it comes to accomplishing a goal, you have to put your best foot forward and treat the task with the seriousness it deserves. If you don’t, you’re setting yourself up for trouble. We thought the New York Liberty learned this lesson. Turns out it didn’t stick to memory.
During Wednesday’s pregame, Sandy Brondello mentioned that the team was a bit “complacent” against the Dallas Wings on Monday night even though they were specifically warned not to take them lightly. The Liberty didn’t heed that warning and fell behind by as much as 30 points before they bothered to show up after halftime. They entered this weekend series against the league’s worst team hoping to get back on track. The Connecticut Sun have been the worst defense in the WNBA this season and are in a full on rebuild mode. You never would’ve known if you just watched them tonight.
The Liberty actually got off to a darn good start. They took an early 14-5 lead and were hitting all the right notes
AND1️⃣ for @sabrina_i20 to get us started in CT pic.twitter.com/obs2aprx59
— New York Liberty (@nyliberty) August 1, 2025
Unfortunately for the Liberty, they started to let the Sun back into the game. Connecticut got the lead down to five after one and then turned on the jets from there. French rookie Leïla Lacan started to percolate and break the Liberty defense down
“We took our foot off the gas just a little bit and it gave them confidence,” Jonquel Jones acknowledged after the game. “They started blowing up a lot of our actions, especially trying to get the ball in the dribble hand off actions. They were really physical with us, and it kind of messed up our timing and got us on our back foot a little bit. I think it could help them to kind of turn the game around.”
The tape proved Jones’ assessment correct as the Liberty turned it over a season high 23 times and we saw the Sun consistently make things hard on the Liberty
It also didn’t help that the Liberty could not get rebounds. The Sun outrebounded New York 42-29 and there were too many moments where Connecticut just out worked New York on the glass
Jones had to do a lot of work on the perimeter and that kept her away from the glass as she acknowledged in postgame. With that in mind, that meant everybody else needed to pick up the slack. They did not. Marina Mabrey grabbed a season high ten rebounds and Aneesah Morrow grabbed a season high six offensive rebounds.
Sabrina Ionescu did her best to keep the team in it as her 23/7/5/2 kept the Liberty in it, but it wasn’t nearly enough to overcome all of their mistakes and deficiencies. What do you get when you have a season low in points, second lowest rebound total, and season high in turnovers? The worst loss of the season.
Final score: Connecticut Sun 78, New York Liberty 62
The loss was their fourth in a row and second this week to a team they honestly had no business losing to. Naturally, when you lose a game like this you question the effort of the team. I certainly did. Sabrina Ionescu would disagree with my assertion
Sabrina Ionescu defended the team’s effort tonight: “I don’t think we did revert back to what we did in Dallas. This was Liberty basketball. The score might not depict it, but how locked in we were, the energy, the effort [was there].” (Q: @madkenney)
— Myles (@MylesEhrlich) August 2, 2025
Be that as it may, this week has been disastrous for the Liberty. They’ve been outplayed, cost themselves winnable games against non-playoff teams, and just have not done the work needed to be a good rebounding team.
When you’re a championship team, you’re rightfully held to higher standards. And when you face a team that has struggled all season long on defense, it’s more than fair to expect better than 33.9 percent shooting from the field and 22.2 percent from three point range. Even without three key players, the Liberty have more than enough talent on the roster to be competitive most nights. They should not be 12th in the league in rebounding after being top two in each of the past two seasons. The Liberty have a lot to work on right now and if they continue to give games away, they will fall short of their stated goal of being a top two seed.
The team is running on fumes and could use a bolt of energy to get them back on the right track. Lucky for them, that bolt of energy has arrived…
Help is on the way
Photo by FIBA/FIBA via Getty Images
Emma Meesseman officially signed this morning and made the trip up to Uncasville to join her new teammates. The Liberty made the official announcement in style
At shootaround on Friday morning, she explained why she decided to return to the WNBA after two and a half seasons away:
“It changed. I wanted to try it again and see with all these fans following the new players, new young players. I love basketball, so I was trying to play as much as I can.”
Our very own Lucas Kaplan broke down Meesseman’s fit in a great story on the site last week. Meesseman goes from a luxury on the Liberty to an absolute necessity. The team needs some help, and she’s here to help get them back on the right track.
Next up
Photo by Chris Marion/NBAE via Getty Images
We’ll do it again on Sunday. Tip off after 1:00 p.m ET.
- Boxscore: Connecticut Sun 78, New York Liberty 62 – WNBA
- Game Highlights: Connecticut Sun 78, New York Liberty 62 – WNBA
- Liberty suffer inexcusable loss to WNBA-worst Sun for fourth straight defeat – Madeline Kenney – New York Post