The New York Liberty are going through the growing pains in their first four games of the season. New York captured an impressive win at home against the Connecticut Sun, but since then another W has remained elusive.
That was underscored in their latest loss on Sunday afternoon at Barclays Center. There was some expectation that the Liberty would take some time to get rolling under new head coach Sand Brondello.
It’s why the veteran WNBA coach isn’t losing her faith in her team early in the season. She sees both the positives and where the New York Liberty needs to improve to compete with some of the league’s best.
“We got to just get back to focusing on being process-driven not result-driven,” Brondello said. “We’re nowhere near where we need to be if we want to be one of the best teams in the league. We have to go through the mud a little bit and it happens in a season. We’re in it now, but I’m confident we’ll get out.
“But we just need some more games and it will be nice to get (Rebecca) Allen coming back on Tuesday.”
What should bring New York some solace through their current three-game slump is how close their last two games have been. The New York Liberty was able to pull within four in the fourth quarter against the Dallas Wings, but couldn’t get over the hump, and in Friday’s loss to the Indiana Fever, New York forced overtime.
The only blowout has come at the hands of the defending Chicago Sky in the second game of the year.
“You don’t really overreact to it,” Sabrina Ionescu said on Sunday. “We have another (game) coming up really soon here, so I think it’s obviously learning from the mistakes that we’re making. How we’re losing these games, the adjustments we need to make and I think the beauty of it is these games come quick. It’s on to the next one.
“You gotta learn, absorb what just happened and then just move on. You can’t let it trickle into the following games.”
New York does have a rather quick turnaround with the Sun — the only team they’ve beaten so far this season — coming to Barclays Center on Tuesday. They’ll also get Allen back for their next game, which could help with the team’s cohesion.
“Some things will be familiar, so it will be an easy integration, just be remembering some of the stuff,” Brondello said. “It’ll be nice to have a player of her caliber on the bench. … So excited to have Bec back.”
