Breanna Stewart Sends Message to Liberty Fans

"We know that they're supporting us no matter what, through the ups and the downs," Stewart said when queried by Jackie Powell of The Next. "The lows don't ever last as long as they feel. We know our fans, have our back and we're a team that's going to keep fighting. Wherever we are, wherever we end up in the playoff situation, we'll be ready."

The memories of last season's championship run have definitely been invoked by the metropolitan fanbase amidst a rollercoaster follow-up: the Liberty (24-16) started off 9-0 but have endured mostly .500 basketball ever since. Such struggles have placed Liberty in fifth place on the active WNBA playoff bracket with four games to go.

Combined with potential surges in season ticket pricing, and it's no wonder why Liberty fans have sought out a time machine, even if there's reasonable hope that things will even out once New York gets a full contingent back: the Liberty is 10-0 when Stewart, Sabrina Ionescu, and Jonquel Jones all take the floor together this year.

New York is still alive for the second seed, two games behind runner-up Las Vegas with four to play. Saturday's loss cost them a chance to secure a tiebreaker against Phoenix, which would face the Liberty in the best-of-three opening round in the current set-up.

The injury bug has been hard to exterminate: as only one player (Marine Johannes) has appeared in all 40 games to date. Jones and Stewart have each endured lengthy absences and Ionescu has missed three of the last four games due to foot ailments.

Still, the Liberty have been insistent on making its own fate, and no medical assistance can cure its costly generosity: just under half of Phoenix's points — 39 of 80 — were earned via tallies off turnovers or second chance opportunities created through offensive rebounding.

"It's not good enough. It's not going to cut it," Stewart said of the team's current play. "Any of the things that we've done today, and honestly, for a while, it's not going to get us to where we want to be. This is not a championship level basketball at this point, and everybody needs to recognize that and understand that. We need to get there, and that starts with the mindset and then putting it onto the court."