NY Liberty vs. Golden State Valkyries preview: Late night hoops!

The Liberty’s Western swing continues on with a stop at the WNBA’s newest team and coolest new atmosphere

In the course of a long season, you’re bound to hit a few rough spots. For the New York Liberty, that rough patch has come now. The team was shorthanded heading into Sunday’s game against the Seattle Storm and lost 89-79. They’ve been in a bit of a rut and Lucas Kaplan broke it down here.

The opponent tonight has been the biggest surprise of the WNBA season. The Golden State Valkyries have been super impressive and added one more win to the plus side after dominating the Connecticut Sun on Sunday night.

Where to follow the game

My9 on TV. Liberty Live and FOX Local on streaming. League Pass for the out of towners. Late night so we getting started after 10 PM.

Injuries

No Jonquel Jones or Leonie Fiebich. Sabrina Ionescu missed Sunday’s game with a neck injury. She should be back tonight.

The following players are in Eurobasket:

• Janelle Salaün (France),
• Iliana Rupert (France)
• Justė Jocytė (Lithuania)
• Cecilia Zandalasini (Italy)
• Julie Vanloo (Belgium)
• Temi Fágbénlé (Great Britain)

Oh my!

The game

The Liberty won the first and second games.

Turnovers will tell the tale of this contest. The Liberty coughed it up 21 times in Seattle and the Storm burned them for 22 points off of those turnovers. Some of that was due to new lineups getting acclimated to each other, but a lot of it came down to execution and not being able to handle the Storm’s pressure. With game reps against a contender under their belt, they should be better equipped to handle it this time.

Breanna Stewart will continue to be the center of attention for the Liberty offense. Stewie has made it a point to get to the rim and it’s allowed her to live at the free throw line. She’s attempted at least seven free throws in four straight games, and look for her to continue pressing the issue and getting to the rim. Old friend Kayla Thornton will be tasked with stopping Stewart, and KT has quietly made an All-Star case for herself. With increased responsibilities, her numbers are at career highs across the board as she’s continued to bring that tenacity, hustle, and grit. It’s emblematic of a team wide mindset, as Temi Fagbenle explained recently:

“We’re a team of sixth women. We come from different teams around the league. We know what it takes to be great teammates and we know what it takes to step up and do what we need to do for the team to succeed. So whoever leaves, it’s going to be fine. Someone is going to step up. And we’re going to do it together. That’s really the strength of our team, I think.”

That’s what’s up.

This will be our first time watching the Liberty in BALHALLA! The vibes in Chase Center have been absolutely incredible and every game feels like a party. That festive atmosphere is something the Liberty are used to at Barclays Center, so it’s awesome that we have another awesome fan environment in the W. It makes the games even more fun!

Player to watch: Tiffany Hayes

How good is a team that their big off-season pickup hasn’t even had a chance to fully showcase their game? Tip Hayes has only appeared in six games thus far after suffering a broken nose earlier in the season. She’s back and is gradually getting up to speed. Tip has scored in double figures each game back and her presence gives the Valkyries something resembling a lead option on offense.

The hometown kid is back! Sabrina Ionescu is making her pro debut in the Bay Area, and there had been wishcasting from fans about Sab possibly heading west and joining the Valkyries. She spoke about that with media on Tuesday and put all that talk to rest

Well alright!

For Sab, being back should help the Liberty offense a great deal. When she’s dialed in, she’s getting to the rim, can run the second unit while Natasha Cloud sits, etc. The Liberty are missing the Finals MVP for a good while, so Sab will have to take on more of a scoring role. She had her worst game of the season last week against the Mercury and struggled with the Merc’s trapping defense. Golden State makes things hard on opponents in a variety of ways, so look for Sab to take last week’s lessons and apply them to this contest.

Valuation Game

On Tuesday, Sportico released its WNBA team valuations. Its Kurt Badenhausen the Valkyries at $500 million, making them the first women’s sports team to hit that mark. The New York Liberty ($420 million) and Indiana Fever ($335 million) were next on the list:

Liberty sources put the valuation at $450 million after Jack Ma, Joe Tsai’s partner in Aliababa, and five American businesswomen bought a “mid-teens” stake in the team. Badenhausen had the Valkyries at No. 1 in part because of their revenue stream.

From the Vault

It’s NBA Draft night, and a whole lot is going on. Dallas Mavericks fans will be happy as they’re first and will take Duke’s Cooper Flagg. The Brooklyn Nets have a long night ahead of them and we’ll have all the coverage here for you at Barclays Center and beyond. Back when the Nets were in New Jersey, they won the first pick on two occasions. Here’s how it looked

More reading: Team Thirteen Valkyries Blog, Valkyrie Nation, The Valkyries Blog, Swish Appeal, Chicago Sun Times, Women’s Basketball Roundup, No Cap Space, The Strickland, The Local W, New York Daily News, New York Post, The Athletic. Fansided, Just Women’s Sports, SI All Knicks, Winsidr, Her Hoop Stats, CBS Sports, and The Next