The New York Liberty couldn’t take the victory over the Chicago Sky, despite it being eliminated from playoff contention, Chicago didn’t play like it. The Sky dominated the free throw line and the paint to take the 91-85 victory.
Chicago scored 52 points in the paint and New York couldn’t find an answer all game. The Liberty resorted to fouling, whether it was on purpose or not, to stop the onslaught. The Sky took 29 attempts from the free throw line and made 25 of them, compared to New York’s 12-of-15 shooting from the stripe.
The Liberty were also outmatched in the rebound battle. New York hauled in just 27 boards, while Chicago grabbed 42.
Kamilla Cardoso was the main catalyst of the night with 22 points and 15 rebounds, followed by Angel Reese with 21 points and 10 rebounds, and Ariel Atkins with 19 points, five rebounds, and five assists.
“They’ve got some really big bigs, and they’re aggressive and they got nothing to lose,” said head coach Sandy Brondello. “They’re not in the playoffs. That’s the easiest thing to play, isn’t it? Is go out there and play hard. And we didn’t come ready to play today, which is disappointing.”
Natasha Cloud was left wide open behind the arc three times in the first quarter and she took her chances each time, however none of the attempts fell. New York started the game 2-of-9 from downtown and just when triples became its plague, Marine Johannès took a shot.
Johannès knocked down two consecutive threes to take a 23-22 lead into the second quarter.
The Liberty continued their momentum and rattled off two triples to start the second quarter to lead 29-27, but slowed down offensively from there. While New York made 13 three-pointers in the game, it struggled inside the arc.
Cardoso grabbed an offensive rebound and put it back up to tie the score at 29, showcasing exactly how she was getting the better of New York.
The Liberty began breaking the Sky’s defense down by spreading out the court with ball movement. They embarked on an 8-0 run to take the 40-35 with 3:50 left before halftime.
The duo of Ariel Atkins and Cardoso fueled the Sky and they snatched back the lead. However, Cloud knocked down a three right as the buzzer went off, giving New York the 46-44 lead at halftime.
The Liberty came out of the locker room aggressive and forced two Chicago timeouts in the first four minutes. New York went on a 9-4 run in the span, and its increased effort on the boards was evident. However, the effort was momentarily, and the rebounding battle was won by the Sky again.
“We’ve known this for a long time, but everybody’s gotta give us their best effort,” Jonquel Jones said. “And when we come out and play that way, it’s gonna be hard to beat teams, because teams are ready to play us.”
Just as the Sky took a one-point lead at 64-63 with 1:21 left in the frame, Jones knocked down a triple to keep the Liberty’s advantage. Jones posted 25 points in the game to go along with seven rebounds.
The Liberty couldn’t break away to start the fourth quarter, but they started to gain steam after Emma Meesseman and Cloud made back-to-back shots, sandwiched by an 8-second violation by the Sky.
However, Reese drove into the paint to sink a layup and make it a one-point game at 72-71 with 6:33 remaining in the game. Reese took off from there, scoring 11 points in the frame.
The game became a free throw battle from there, and New York ended up on the losing side of it. Despite the Liberty going 10-of-11 from the stripe in the frame, the Sky had three more makes on five more attempts.
“We have to play more physical in the beginning and set the tone early,” Jones said. “Whether that’s with the post players, or anybody that we’re playing against, guards as well. And then we’ll be able to adjust to how the refs are calling or basically showing the refs that this is the way of the game, or the way that we want the game to be played. But we can’t decide that we want to wait until the second half to bring that up more physicality.”
