![]() ![]() The Liberty then fell to the team twice in August, first 79-106 and then 64-80. The Liberty is 1-2 against the Mercury – barely beating them 85-83 when they first faced off in June. The Liberty finished the 2021 regular season with an overall record of 12-20. The team will face the fifth-seeded Phoenix Mercury at 10 p.m. So yeah, I’m really excited for us to see what we’re gonna do.” The way that we played, it was enjoyable to watch, it was enjoyable to play. I think that’s why you saw in the last game against Washington. She continued, “I think we come forth and we put our best foot forward and we make sure that we just play together. ![]() Looking ahead at playoffs, she said these games are “no different than any other game.” “This is a whole different team from 2017,” Allen told reporters Tuesday. Liberty guard Rebecca Allen is one of the last players on the current team that also played on that team four years ago. This year’s playoff berth is the first time the Liberty have made it to the post-season since 2017. It’s a really, really potent combination of experience and drive.” "There’s an edge to them because of that. “Having players having gone through those moments, and then you have players like Betnijah - who haven’t spent a lot of times in the playoffs necessarily - recent leaders that are hungry," he said. “Having coaches on the staff who’ve gone through successful playoff runs - that’s really big. There’s no substitute for that experience,” he told reporters. ![]() That mesh of personalities will be invaluable for the team’s post-season run, Hopkins said this week. Related: Now 25, the WNBA celebrates as longest-running women's pro leagueĮssentially, the idea was for the franchise to mesh promising young talent with veteran players to propel the franchise into a long awaited new chapter. That’s because it represented a significant improvement for the young squad compared to past years, likely a reflection of the franchise’s much-anticipated “hybrid rebuild." If you ask any member of the Liberty franchise, this season would have been a success even without clinching a playoff berth in the final hour. And thankfully things fell our way, and right now we have this extended season.” “I think we haven’t had a lot of the results that we wanted, but we have shown a lot of growth – just coming together, playing together, playing for one another, just building that chemistry. “It means a lot for us, just as a group, to see where we started and where we’ve come to,” Laney told reporters on Monday. It's also an indicator that whatever the young team has done this year is also working. Securing this playoff spot is an indicator that this 2021 season has been a successful one for the Liberty - despite a string of losses that may have pushed naysayers to write the Liberty off from post-season play. Regardless of where staff or players were, they all received the same text from Head Coach Walt Hopkins when their playoff spot was secured: “It’s time to get to work.” Others, like guard and forward Betnijah Laney, watched while recovering after training. Many of the Liberty’s players sat in their Brooklyn apartments, watching the games and awaiting the fate of their season together. The team's playoff berth, the franchise's first since 2017, came only after the Los Angeles Sparks fell to the Dallas Wings, and the Washington Mystics fell to the Minnesota Lynx in the final day of regular season play on Sunday. The WNBA team will tip off their post-season run Thursday night against the fifth-seeded Phoenix Mercury, after securing the eighth and final playoff spot in a series of unlikely events. The New York Liberty have reached the post-season - even though the odds were stacked against them. Watch Video: Sabrina Ionescu: WNBA sets the example on COVID-19 vaccines ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Details
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |