The Liberty opened their seven-game homestand with a dud and they had no one to blame but themselves.
New York, playing its first game in a week, suffered an 87-70 loss to the equally well-rested Golden State Valkyries.
The Liberty made their bed with multiple turnovers, missed shots and poor execution on defense.
“It’s disappointing for us to lose no matter what,” said Jonquel Jones, who had 16 points and eight rebounds. “It’s just obviously a learning experience for us. It’s still early in the season, we’re not making excuses, but we do understand that we’re not where we want to be. And we’re definitely not in playoff mode (yet) nor do we expect to be so we’re still learning, we’re still going to grow from this and we’ll be OK.”
It was almost exactly a year ago when the Liberty welcomed the Valkyries to the league by crushing the 2025 expansion franchise in back-to-back games.
But this time around, the Valkyries took the lead and never looked back.
New York trailed 25-15 after the first quarter.
Whatever was said in the Liberty’s huddle between quarters worked — at least initially.
The Liberty opened the second quarter with a 10-2 run, capped by a Rebekah Gardner 3-pointer that put New York within two.
That would be the closest the Liberty would get.
Valkyries coach Natalie Nakase called a timeout to regroup her troops. Golden State regained control from there, taking an eight-point lead at halftime.
Part of what kept the Liberty in the game was that Golden State’s hot shooting at the start cooled off. The Valkyries went 5-for-10 from deep in the first quarter before shooting 2-for-10 from behind the arc in the second quarter.
Things didn’t get better in the second half. The Liberty were outscored 21-12 in the third quarter.
Chris DeMarco appeared to wave the white flag when the Liberty were down by 20 with 6:48 left in the fourth, sending Han Xu in for the first time that night.
“I feel like not much went right,” said Breanna Stewart, who had a game-high 18 points and nine rebounds. “We gave a lot of 3s up to a pretty good shooting team and then we couldn’t get back into it. Defensively, like setting the tone of giving 25 points in the first quarter gave them a level of confidence and a head of steam that we couldn’t contain for the moment.”
The Liberty collectively shot 6-for-24 from deep, while the Valkyries converted on 13 of their 35 field goal attempts from behind the arc.
Golden State — who added Gabby Williams, one of the league’s premier two-way wings, in free agency — flustered New York with its scrappy defense and suffocating ball pressure.
Turnovers have been an issue for the Liberty as they find their groove in the new offense. The Valkyries capitalized on those miscues, turning 15 New York turnovers into 17 points (most of those occurred in the first half).
“We got to find a way to execute better offensively but also create more turnovers defensively,” DeMarco said. “We’re still trying to attack the rim. I thought we had some good looks from 3 and we just had a lot of momentum killers whether it was fouling 3-point shooters or turning the ball over when we had opportunities in early offense.”
The Valkyries have a quick turnaround, with a game in Indiana Friday.
Meanwhile, the Liberty have two days to regroup before hosting Paige Bueckers and the Dallas Wings on Sunday.
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
