Liberty Starters Finally Back Together

The pain of placing fifth on the WNBA playoff bracket was temporarily relieved during a celebratory home finale, which saw New York take down the Washington Mystics 75-66 at Barclays Center. The Liberty (26-17) improved to 10-1 when that quintessential quintet hears their names called together at tip-off, and they're a perfect 9-0 when that same group emerges from the showing unscathed, which is enough in the eyes of some to stand as a formidable foe in the postseason despite the struggles that have eaten away at this season.

"We had the right rotations, we were communicating with each other," Jones said of Tuesday's outing. "We understood not just our defensive assignments but what our foundation is as a team, and what we want to try to force it out there. So I think it's a good a good step in the right direction. I would just have to put it together for the entirety of the game."

"I thought we had a really good heart coming out," Brondello noted. "We were very intentional, defensively first, that's been the focus. That's how we feel that we're going to go as we move forward and be successful in the playoffs, as a defensive-minded team. It allows our offense to come out of that."

Making the squad complete was the return of Ionescu, the final missing piece of the opening unit that had missed the previous four and five of the last six due to foot issues. While her trademark three-pointer was a little rusty upon return, Ionescu got the ball rolling with three early assists before ending her night with nine helpers, which could've been more if not for some close misses from a cutting Stewart, which playfully peeved Ionescu in the aftermath.

"I've cut her some slack, but I'm going to be coming down hard on her if she keeps missing them," Ionescu said with a laugh. "But it's been great. It's like you kind of pick up where you left off. It's something I'm always looking for. She's a great cutter, and it's a way to get her easy looks, and it's a way to keep the defense honest a lot of the times when they're not paying attention. It can get an easy one at the rim. She can get fouled or she can kind of just see the ball go in and I pride myself on trying to make her job as easy as I can and I feel like I was able to do that tonight."

The rediscovered cohesion was apparent in the opening period: while slow starts have often forced the Liberty to play from behind and spend most of their allotted 40 minutes climbing back from rocky deficits, the reorganized Liberty let up only 12 in the opening period and went into the halftime break ahead by 15. It marked just the third time that the Liberty have had a double-figure lead at halftime in the post-All-Star portion of its title defense.

"It was really good to have everyone back ... It just really makes all of us happy," said Cloud. "They've been working their [butts] off. We're used to each other, finding each other's chemistry and just really figuring out how to get everybody involved in the offense is our biggest thing, because we have so many weapons, right? And so when something's working, you don't want to go away from it, but you want to make sure that everyone's involved in it."

"Like next game, I have to get Leo more involved. I have to get Sab more involved to make her feel comfortable, but the chemistry is there. That's the selflessness of this team, too, Is that nobody cares who scores, as long as we're scoring the ball and getting stops, it's just about winning games. We're going to be most disruptive, and we're going to be most effective when everyone is a weapon offensively, and then we're getting stops defensively as well."

As if to prove that simple restoration of the five wouldn't solve everything, the Mystics managed to make things at least somewhat interesting with a 10-2 run at the onset of the third quarter. Two of the risers amidst the injuries showed what they learned in their extended time in the spotlight in turn.

Emma Meesseman rolled to a game-best 19 points, the second-best output from a New York reserve this offseason. The one responsible for the tally ahead of her, Kennedy Burke, provided shutdown defense and clutch tallies from deep to keep Washington at bay and score the proverbial vibes sought amidst the summer carnage.

"For us, [the last two games are about] just continuing to build chemistry with the people coming back, fine tuning what our lineups are going to look like, who's going to play, who's going to play, how much," Ionescu, who says she's "built up" perfectly for the postseason after her absence, said. "But also it's just staying ready. It's knowing that, anytime your number's called, you've got to be ready to go out there and and do your job. That's a big part of being a great teammate. We rely on them, and we've relied on them this whole year, our bench, to be able to come in and play big minutes with a lot of injuries. We're excited to see how our depth continues to help us in the postseason."

Though its postseason fate is well-sealed, the Liberty are in the unique position of having something vital to play for amidst irrelevant final tallies. Tuesday's game, as well as the regular season finale on Thursday in Chicago (8 p.m. ET, My9), likely won't develop all of the consistency and chemistry its hoping to gain by the time the playoffs get underway over the weekend, as time has officially run out in that regard.

Even so, the idea that presence is the present for New York emerges as a prevailing thought and could create a postseason party crashing no one saw coming.

"I think we were just kind of waiting to have [everyone] back so to be able to have our style back," Stewart said. "It almost felt like this sense of calm, a sense of comfort a little bit, and just knowing that we're playing on a string. We also had the mindset going into today that it's like, obviously we want to get the win. This is DC's last game. They're going to come out, try to finish with a W. But we were trying things, practicing things for the playoffs, seeing what works, what doesn't, and and just building that confidence going forward."