Brondello Looks For 2nd Straight WNBA Finals Appearance
Photo: Special to the NY Beacon
By Shara Talia Taylor
The New York Liberty bounced back from last week’s loss to start the WNBA playoffs with a 83-69 victory over the Atlanta Dream at home Sunday.
The Liberty ended their regular season last Thursday night as they lost to the Dream 78-67 at the Barclays Center. New York returned with vengeance and energy to face Atlanta over the weekend in Brooklyn to start their best-of-three series for the first round of the playoffs.
Thursday’s game
“This is our home court,” Coach Sandy Brondello said in her Thursday night pre-game interview about what she wanted the team to focus on for their last game. “Every time we come out. We want to make sure we’re playing in the right way.”
Coach Brondello hoped for a win for rhythm going into the playoffs, but Atlanta took the moment. The Liberty were outscored in the first three quarters and had 17 total turnovers compared to the Dream’s 14 turnovers.
Breanna Stewart led New York with 16 total points. Rhyne Howard and Naz Hillmon led Atlanta with 13 points each.
Sunday’s game
“You don’t want to lose home court advantage,” Coach Brondello said during pregame on Sunday when asked about flipping the switch after a loss. “You want to take care of all of the hard work that we put into the off season. They’re ready.”
She said she reminded players of how difficult the first round of the playoffs were last year and reiterated how teams could rise up after being behind.
Breanna Stewart, Sabrina Ionescu, Jonquel Jones, Courtney Vandersloot and Betnijah Laney-Hamilton started Thursday’s game, Leonie Fiebich replaced Vandersloot in Sunday’s starting line-up.
This time the Liberty outscored the Dream in each of the first three quarters. Fiebich led the Liberty offense with a career-high 21 points. Stewart had a double-double with 20 points and 11 rebounds.
Courtney Vandersloot passed Sue Bird to become the WNBA’s all-time leader in playoff assists with her 365th career postseason assist to Stewartt with about 4:58minutes remaining in the fourth quarter.
“It’s always nice to be recognized, especially with some of the greats,” she said. “With Sue and Lindsay (Whalen), I mean those two I competed with, I’m sure Ticha (Ticha Penicheiro) is up there too, but those two I competed with a lot of my career. I definitely looked up to them.”
She finished the game with four points, three rebounds, three assists and two steals. The Liberty looked to close out the series this past Tuesday night. If they didn’t, the deciding game 3 will played Thursday night in Atlanta.
Recent Comments