Chemistry is still coming as Liberty’s season opener nears

Saturday’s second and final preseason game for the Liberty would be the WNBA’s dream championship series. On one side the Western Conference superteam Las Vegas Aces led by superstar Candace Parker and on the other side the East’s superteam in New York led by Breanna Stewart.

But before we get anywhere close to that scenario, the Liberty will have to get better acquainted with one another. New York played their only two preseason games of the year last week after opening training camp earlier this month and only got Stewart and Jonquel Jones into practice on Friday.

They’re still waiting on Courtney Vandersloot, who has been in concussion protocol.

“We just have to play as much as you can. It’s the only way you do it,” Liberty head coach Sandy Brondello said about the process of creating chemistry. “It’s by doing it. The practice yesterday was the best we’ve had because we added Stewie and JJ. Now I think the next time, once Sloot is cleared next week, I think the practice is going to get better and better. Because Sabrina is playing the one, we know she’s a great one, but she’s gonna be off the ball a fair bit too.

“How that looks, how we can put them in the best position, but yeah it’s just a process. Keep working.”

The Liberty dropped both preseason contests this week, but Brondello didn’t have three of her superstars on the court for the first game — a 63-57 loss to the Connecticut Sun — and the head coach didn’t seem keen on showing her hand too much in the loss to the Aces.

New York has still been in evaluation mode as they try to narrow down players for the few open roster spots they will have. Stewart played 23:25 in the loss to Vegas and Jones was on for 15:27.

“Just to get better every day and that’s what we’ve been doing,” Sabrina Ionescu said about the process. “We’ve been holding each other accountable. We’ve been figuring out ways we have to build chemistry and we have to do it quickly. The nice part is we’ve been able to get some preseason games in and finally have our roster coming together. The beauty of it is we play in less than a week and those games count.

“We’re able to take what we’ve learned from these two preseason games that we’ve played and really put it to the test against great competition.”

The Liberty open their season on Friday against the Washington Mystics before returning to Barclays Center next Sunday for the home opener against Indiana. New York won’t see Las Vegas again until the end of June.

The team was trying to keep the focus and perspective on getting better, but Brondello acknowledged that the budding rivalry between two superteams in the league is good for the WNBA and its profile. Ionescu added that the Liberty are aware that every team, not just the Aces, is gunning for them.

“I think for us any opportunity we have to play a team, we know there’s a target on our back. We know that’s only going to make us better,” she said.