The frustration of New York Liberty forward Breanna Stewart was evident following their 108-88 loss to the Indiana Fever on Saturday evening. With nearly a week off, New York had the perfect opportunity to prove its recent skid was just a blip. Instead, despite being well-rested, the Liberty were thoroughly outplayed by an Indiana team playing on the second night of a back-to-back.
In talking about the loss, Stewart called herself out, citing her missed free throws and turnovers as major reasons for the disappointing defeat.
“The feeling after a loss like this, we’ve got to find a way to stop the bleeding,” Stewart said. “One loss can’t turn into two can’t turn into three and now four. That’s a lot. Me, mentally, I’m looking at myself. There’s a lot I didn’t do well today between the turnovers, the missed free throws, things like that. In order for us to be our best, I need to be better… It’s tough right now.”
“The feeling after a loss like this, we’ve got to find a way to stop the bleeding,” Stewart said. “One loss can’t turn into two can’t turn into three and now four. That’s a lot. Me, mentally, I’m looking at myself. There’s a lot I didn’t do well today between the turnovers, the missed free throws, things like that. In order for us to be our best, I need to be better… It’s tough right now.”
Stewart did her part offensively, finishing with a team-high 26 points, eight assists, and three steals while shooting 10-of-16 from the field. However, she also committed four of New York’s 17 turnovers, which proved costly as the Fever converted those giveaways into 30 points.
Making matters even worse, the Liberty’s fourth consecutive loss – and eighth in their last 10 games – allowed the Fever to leapfrog New York in the standings.
The Liberty will conclude their road trip on Monday evening with a matchup against the Dallas Wings at College Park Center and will hope to avenge last week’s 88-77 home loss at Barclays Center.
The Liberty now occupy the seventh spot in the standings, sitting just half a game ahead of the eighth-place Washington Mystics. With every passing defeat, their playoff margin of error continues to shrink.
Breanna Stewart didn’t sugarcoat her feelings on where the team currently stands.
“We don’t like where we are right now, but we are,” she said. “You know what I mean? We’re in the trenches, and we can either keep sinking or we can dig ourselves out.”
“We don’t like where we are right now, but we are,” she said. “You know what I mean? We’re in the trenches, and we can either keep sinking or we can dig ourselves out.”
Hearing Stewart say that, the emotion seeping out of her lets you know just how deeply invested she is in this team. Yet, the Liberty still have too many holes in key areas, with the underwhelming performances of Satou Sabally and Sabrina Ionescu standing out as two of the team’s biggest concerns.
Unless head coach Chris DeMarco addresses these lineup flaws soon, they are certainly a playoff team at risk of missing out this year.
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