The New York Liberty (4-1) fell to the Chicago Sky (2-1), 90-81, on Thursday night in front of a sellout crowd of 12,049.
The New York Liberty got outplayed. There is no other way to put it but they got “Spooned”. The Theresa Weatherspoon-led Chicago Sky came into Barclays Center and defeated the Liberty behind a monster performance from Marina Mabrey, with 21 points, 6 rebounds, and 7 assists. The Sky went on a 19-5 run in the fourth quarter, which was too much for the Liberty to overcome.
It was another theme game for New York, celebrating Asian American and Pacific Islander Night, but also a special night because it was the first time facing off against Head Coach Theresa Weatherspoon at Barclays Center. Theresa Weatherspoon played for the Liberty from 1997-2003 and is one of the original players of the WNBA. She was inducted into the New York Liberty Ring of Honor in 2011.
When asked what memories come to the forefront for Weatherspoon on her career with Liberty, she responds, “Every time I step in here, it is what it is. You step in here, you feel it. This is where you play, this is where you poured every single thing you had in you. It was not in this gym, but it was in that uniform.”
The two teams met in the preseason where the Sky handed the Liberty a 35-point loss in Chicago. Going into Thursday’s matchup against the Sky, the Liberty was only one of two teams still unbeaten, looking to start the season 5-0 for the first time since 2007. The Chicago Sky had different plans for the Liberty. They pretty much had command of the game from start to finish, with only two lead changes. New York’s biggest lead being 3 and Chicago lead by as much as 14.
The Sky’s physicality caused early foul trouble for Jonquel Jones, who only scored 8 points and had as many fouls as rebounds, with 5. Nyara Sabally played quality minutes and had the only positive +/- on the team, with +13, but wasn’t enough to contain Chicago’s front court. She tied her career high for points in a single quarter with six in the first quarter. Sabally also tied her career highs in points and assists, finishing with eight points and two assists.
Sabrina Ionescu led the Liberty offense with 19 points and six assists. She also hit two three-pointers to extend her streak of regular-season games with at least one made three-pointer to 30. This is the longest active streak in the WNBA.
Breanna Stewart added a double-double, scoring 18 points and 10 rebounds. This is her 5th straight double-double against the Sky, a new career high against a single team. Stewart also passed Cappie Pondexter (50 games) for the fastest to 1,000 points with the Liberty in franchise history, doing so in her 45th game as a Liberty.
The Liberty couldn’t seem to get it going, with a lot of point-blank missed shots similar to their preseason game against the Sky on May 7. Another obvious callout was the officiating of the game with many questionable calls but ultimately was not the deciding factor of the game. The Sky played to win for their head coach T-Spoon and celebrated the victory with a warm embrace to their coach in the locker room post-game. New York trailed by as many as 14 points in the fourth quarter, which was the Liberty’s largest deficit of the 2024 season thus far.
The Liberty will look to bounce back this Saturday as they head to Minnesota to take on the Lynx at 1 pm EST at Target Center.