'Go time': Chicago Sky show New York Liberty how WNBA champions play in decisive Game 3 win
NEW YORK — The new kids on the block showed up ready to claim the spotlight.
Trailing by three early in the fourth quarter, the New York Liberty were aiming for a first-round upset over the No. 2 seed Chicago Sky. Chicago responded by ending the game on a 22-7 run and taking the winner-take-all Game 3 of the WNBA playoffs first-round matchup, 90-72.
By doing so, the Sky not only ended the upstart campaign of the seventh-seeded Liberty and their young star Sabrina Ionescu — they reminded everyone why they are the defending WNBA champions and are six wins away from becoming the first team in 20 years (Los Angeles Sparks, 2001-02) to repeat.
The response was necessary for a team immediately put on the ropes after a Game 1 loss. A season on the brink was the wake-up call the Sky needed.
"We knew what we had to do," coach and general manager James Wade, the 2022 WNBA executive of the year, said after the game. "(The players) were all on a mission and you could tell it was a collective mission. I think we just decided that it’s ‘go time.’ We wanted to show them what we were really made of and we responded in Game 2. We just built on it after that."
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The Liberty, replete with a young core of Ionescu (14 points, six rebounds, four assists), forward Betnijah Laney (15 points) and Natasha Howard (14 points), simply had no answer for "go time." Both teams faced off in an elimination game, but Chicago was on another level. Wade said his team developed a different sense of emergency following Game 1 in Chicago, and it proved too much for the inexperienced Liberty.
“When you’re competing against the best, that kind of gives you an outcome of where you think you are, where you need to get better at,” Liberty coach Sandy Brondello said after the game.
The depth of Chicago was once again its calling card. Seeking a third WNBA title, Candace Parker nearly had a triple-double but instead settled for her 25th career postseason double-double. Kahleah Copper, the 2021 WNBA Finals MVP, and Allie Quigley (4-for-8 on 3-pointers) each had 15 points. Courtney Vandersloot had 14 points and dished out 10 assists.
Brondello said Chicago's chemistry, crystallized throughout their 16-16 campaign in 2021 that ended with a ring, has only become stronger in 2022.
"I think they're going to be hard to beat (the rest of the playoffs), quite honest," Brondello said.
"Our goal was to make the playoffs. And then it’s a new season. Look, we went into Chicago and beat them in the first game. I think we woke them up a little bit to be quite honest because now they’ve gone to another level. This is what their experience brings out in them.”
There is a difference between a team whose goal is to make the playoffs and a team trying to win it all. The former makes important games close. The latter makes the close games seem like blowouts, like the Sky did to the Liberty on Tuesday, a night both teams looked every bit the part of their stereotypes. Chicago responded to New York's run with poise and composure. The Liberty lost the turnover battle, 14-7, and often squandered opportunities to cut deficits or limit Sky runs.
"We pushed them. We tried," Brondello said. "Things didn’t go our way (Tuesday). But we’ll be back better and stronger next year."
That didn't stop a sellout crowd of 7,837 from becoming deafening when Ionescu managed a five-point play in the first 25 seconds on the fourth quarter. Wade called timeout. Copper watched her coach huddle with veterans Parker and Vandersloot.
“I’m sitting there and watching this all develop,” Copper said. “Then we go out there and we execute.”
The Sky absorbed the Liberty's best punch. It hushed the Brooklyn crowd. And best of all, it preserved their chance of reaching the WNBA record book.
Follow Chris Bumbaca on Twitter @BOOMbaca.