Game 3 Perfect End to Imperfect Liberty Season

The injury bug bit once more in what became the finale, as Leonie Fiebich took a Kahleah Copper knee to the mid-section that forced her to miss some time after a sterling opening minute. Once she was able to return, the game became an all-too-real microcosm of the championship follow-up.

Injuries, after all, only go so far in post-mortem analysis: not a soul in, say, Indianapolis is likely to sympathize with the Liberty, as its Fever is moving onto the W's final four without franchise faces Caitlin Clark, Sydney Colson, Sophie Cunningham, and more.

Whereas the magic championship win was earned via clutch rebounding and timely toughness, New York struggled to maintain control of Phoenix physicality, allowing the Mercury to get to the foul line 10 times in the open period to provide the literal difference after the opening decade. Equally vital was a minus-12 output on said boards in the first half (after dominating such a discussion in the victorious opener of the series), which sealed the Liberty's fate in eyes of some before it was truly decided.

The Liberty defense did to keep Phoenix headliners like Copper and DeWanna Bonner in check, but self-inflicted errors—struggles to haul in the rebound, looking ahead to the offensive possession rather than going after the board cleanup—helped Phoenix build and maintain a lead. Despite Finals heroine Nyara not playing, a Sabally once against helped the Liberty's season in style, as her older sister Satou put up a 23-point, 11-rebound double-double that encompassed all areas of the floor.

Individual performances, complete with personal adjustments, indeed helped press things forward and provide hope: Sabrina Ionescu broke out of an early shell to score a dozen second period points, a good bit coming on interior penetration, while an ailing effort from Breanna Stewart should not be forgotten.

But buried in her mastery was the fact she literally had no help on the scoreboard: non-Stewart New Yorkers were 0-of-9 in the final period, negating near-heroics from the two-time MVP dealing with an MCL sprain endured in Game 1.

The Liberty lost its outside identity (Kennedy Burke and Jonquel Jones going a combined 0-for-11 in defeat) and failed to adjust, missing all but one of its 17 tries with an extra point on the line and never expanded its rotation beyond the six that played at least 20 minutes. Perhaps most damning, Phoenix headliners like Bonner and Copper both rose up when it mattered most, hitting clutch baskets that helped spell the Liberty's doom and render injuries long-forgotten.

"People are injured all the time. People are always playing through stuff, physically, mentally," Stewart said, perhaps capturing the Liberty's predicament in a sterling two sentences. "But [I was] trying to be my best, and really focusing on getting back then focusing on myself and doing whatever I could to kind of keep us in [But] it wasn't enough. So while it might be memorable, it still sucks."

The fleeting positives of the night may be the fact that both Stewart and Ionescu made de facto verbal commitments to the metropolitan future, with Stewart firmly declaring "I'm coming back" shortly before offering a lengthy vote of confidence in head coach Sandy Brondello.

That, however, is hardly enough to erase the sobering reality that the follow-up to last year's joyful bus rides to city hall is a quiet flight back from the desert, and New York reps are aware that such a fate was avoidable despite all that transpired out of its control. Conversely, the Liberty claims that bulletin board material is in full supply for the future, with Brondello believing that the Game 3 defeat created an invaluable intangible.

"Obviously we're very, very disappointed, but I couldn't be more proud of just how we came out and competed today," the tenured Liberty boss said. "We faced a lot of adversity this year, which happens in pro sports. But, you know, tonight, we left it all out there, and that's all you can ask from a team. Phoenix, just executed a little bit better when it really mattered there, but, yeah, this will, this will serve as a motivation for this team. It's a move forward and just continue to get better."