The Liberty head to Dallas to take on the Wings on Thursday in hopes of salvaging the second half of what’s been a rough road trip.
New York has lost seven of its past 10 games, dropping to 13-11 on the season, which puts it in eighth place.
The Liberty rallied from double-digit second-half deficits against the Lynx and Tempo, but ultimately lost both to start this road trip.
Will the Liberty course correct against the red-hot Wings?
Dallas won its first two meetings against New York this season and entered Thursday undefeated in July.
A win against the Liberty would extend their win streak to six, which would be the longest in team history.
The Wings have been successful against the Liberty because they’re able to exploit everything New York has struggled with: turnovers, shoddy rebounding, inconsistent play and flimsy perimeter defense.
The Liberty also haven’t shot the ball well in either of their games against the Wings.
Each of the Liberty’s losses against the Wings followed similar scripts.
They win the opening 10 minutes and then have a catastrophic quarter — digging themselves a massive hole that proves too deep.
On May 24, the disastrous quarter was the third, when Azzi Fudd blitzed New York and finished with a then-career-high 24 points. The Liberty were outscored 28-17 in the third and lost 91-76.
In the most recent meeting, New York stumbled in the second and was outscored by a whopping 18 points to trail 47-31 at halftime.
The Liberty found success early in their last game by attacking inside. As great as Jessica Shepard has been across the board this season — she owns all three of the league’s triple-doubles recorded in 2026 — the first-time All-Star isn’t a shot-blocker. In fact, she’s the only regular starting forward in the league who’s yet to record a block this season.
But then New York went away from what was working.
After the July 6 loss, coach Chris DeMarco called out the team’s lack of execution.
“It’s hard to run offense when you’re taking the ball out of the basket,” he said. “So I think, especially the first quarter, we had some unforced turnovers and we gave a lot of offensive rebounds.”
Rebounding out of the zone defense — which the Liberty have deployed at the highest frequency in the league — has been a problem area for New York.
The Wings are a team that will fight for extra possessions, evidenced by averaging the sixth-most offensive boards per game in the league.
Dallas is also one of the most lethal teams in transition.
The Liberty have blamed officiating for some of their recent shortcomings. They’ve also noted the lack of lineup consistency with players being in and out for various reasons. New York is without Leonie Fiebich (left foot soreness) and Satou Sabally (concussion protocol) for the foreseeable future.
But at some point, the Liberty need to look in the mirror.
Will New York show signs of improvement Thursday? Or will it be status quo?
Time will tell.
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
