NY Liberty vs. Chicago Sky preview: A Commissioner’s Cup road trip!
Photo by Cooper Neill/Getty Images
The Liberty are back on the road for a three game road trip. First up? The Chicago Sky, who have been in the center of a firestorm since Saturday afternoon. Handling business. On Sunday evening, the New York Liberty began their defense of the Commissioner’s Cup in front of a sold out crowd of 17.401 at the Barclays Center on Sunday night. The Indiana Fever were on the other side as they tried to string back-to-back wins together on the second night of a back-to-back. The Liberty got down to business from the opening tip-off and never looked back. The seafoam dominated and won by 36 points to conclude a 3-0 homestand. That’s good business.
The opponent tonight is trying to find themselves. The Chicago Sky have tons of energy and are looking to make it back into the playoffs for the sixth straight season. They played an intense, emotional game against the Fever on Saturday afternoon and lost by one point. There was a LOT happening in that game, which we’ll get to in a few.
Where to follow the game
MY9 on TV. YES App and Fox Local for streaming. NBATV for the out of towners. Tip after 8:00 p.m. ET.
Injuries
Nyara Sabally missed Sunday’s game with a back injury. She’s out tonight.
Diamond DeShields has been dealing with a non-COVID illness, but she’s expected to play.
The game
Chicago took the first meeting.
So, let’s take a quick trip back to the end of the 2023 WNBA Finals. If you remember, the Liberty organization and the trio of Sabrina Ionescu, Betnijah Laney-Hamilton, and Jonquel Jones were all fined for skipping media after being requested for the postgame scrum outside the locker room. The Liberty got criticized by media and fans alike for not fulfilling that particular obligation and it led to discussions about media access, telling certain stories, etc. This time, it’s the Sky who are on the receiving end of that criticism. After Saturday’s game, the Sky did not make Angel Reese available for media outside the locker room and she + the organization were fined as a result. This is not the first time the Sky have done something like this, as Annie Costiable of the Chicago Sun Times reports:
“Following the Sky’s 86-82 loss to the Sun on May 25, the team did not make players or Weatherspoon available for 30 minutes after the game’s conclusion. Delaying post-game interviews has been a common practice for the Sky over the years.
Failing to make players available is another pattern of behavior that dates back to the Sky’s 2019 playoffs. Despite being requested by media members, former Sky guard Courtney Vandersloot was not made available postgame following the team’s 93-92 loss to the Aces.
Following a mass exodus of players in 2023 free agency, the media were told Sky ownership would be available to answer questions at media day. They never showed up.
“It honestly has become the Sky’s reputation,” said Terrence Tomlin, co-founder of The Bigs.”
It’s hard to shake a negative reputation after years of behavior like that. As more eyes are on the Sky, how the organization handles it with the media, how they improve the infrastructure of the franchise, etc. will be under a greater microscope. All eyes are on you, and you need to make sure you’re on top of your game.
In the meantime, the Liberty will look to keep Reese off the boards. Reese is averaging five offensive rebounds a night, tops in the league thus far. She’s also sixth in free throws attempted at close to six a night. For the Liberty, the job will be to avoid fouling Reese once she gets those rebounds. She’s only shooting 38.8 percent inside the restricted area and tends to rush her shot attempts when she gets the ball down there.
With no Nyara Sabally tonight, the Libs will run with the trio of Jonquel Jones, Breanna Stewart, and Kennedy Burke at center. During the Liberty’s homestand, JJ avoided foul trouble and when she’s on the court, she got to dominating and owning the paint. With the return of rookie Kamilla Cardoso, the Sky have a jam packed frontcourt and they have a bunch of players to contest JJ. For Jones and the Liberty, they can avenge their early season loss by keeping the Sky off the glass and winning the paint battle.
This game will likely be won in transition. The Liberty sometimes get a bit too loose with the basketball, and the Sky took full advantage in the first meeting as they scored 19 points off 14 NY turnovers. Chicago is first in fastbreak points and second in points off turnovers. If the Liberty are able to control the flow of this game, they’ll have a chance to be set within their halfcourt defense and make scoring a lot harder for Chicago.
Player to watch: Chennedy Carter
National TV games always lead to the most discussion. When you’re the only game on and everyone’s watching, what you do is magnified and tends to shape the perception of you. For Chennedy Carter, she entered The Discourse with the following...
Here's an extended look at the Caitlin Clark - Chennedy Carter incident, there was more to it than the shoulder check and Clark was clearly talking to her on the way back up the floor from the prior basket by Indiana pic.twitter.com/1XG1RyzTw4— CJ Fogler account may or may not be notable (@cjzero) June 1, 2024
That fracas overshadowed what was a truly excellent game from Carter as her 20 points kept the Sky in a game they ultimately lost by one point. Naturally, she got asked about in postgame since she was one of the team’s best players of the game. She declined to answer in the postgame when asked, but got to commenting on Threads about it. So there’s that.
The thing about Discourse (capitalized intentionally) is that it becomes less about the thing that happened and more about the reaction to what happened. We see that playing out now with ESPN becoming the center of this discussion. The players are just vessels for most of us to get our takes off, what’s considered to be important discussion, what the Media is or isn’t doing, etc. If you're online long enough, it's a routine you can spot from a mile away.
The key to navigating a situation like this if you’re a player is to tune out the noise and go back to doing the work to the best of your ability. Carter spoke about everything on Monday afternoon and said:
“At the end of the day, it’s all love outside of basketball. When we’re in those four lines, it’s smoke. After, it’s all love, I promise. We’re a genuine team. We’re genuine people. We didn’t hit her like she was out on the streets. It’s just basketball.”
That’s a good note to close on.
For the Liberty, they’ll try to keep Carter from getting to the basket. She tuned them up to the tune of 12/6/4/1 in 18 minutes the last time these teams faced off. The book on Carter since she entered the WNBA in 2020 was that she’s great at getting to the rim, but you can play off of her and force her into jump shots. She’s gone 6-12 from the midrange area this season, which is an absurdly small sample, but still. It’s a heck of a lot better than her previous seasons (38.8 percent in 2020, 25 percent in 2021, and 37.8 percent in 2022). If Carter can develop a reliable jump shot and avoid missteps, she’ll ensure she stays in the rotation and can build to become a star player in the league.
Carter will likely draw the matchup of her fellow 2020 draftee. Sabrina Ionescu has continued to find her way to the basket and have success in the paint. Those paint touches have given her a new dimension on offense and allowed the Liberty to find more avenues to score as they try to get their three point percentages back to normal. For Ionescu and the Liberty, ball movement will be essential to their chances tonight. It doesn’t feel like it, but the Libs are tops in offensive rating this season. They can still be a heck of a lot better as they continue improving their chemistry, but this is a solid foundation to start with.
From the Vault
A few days ago, Hacks wrapped up their third season. Let’s take it all the way back to the beginning!
More reading: Swish Appeal, Chicago Sun Times, Chicago Tribune, The Strickland, The Local W, New York Daily News, New York Post, The Athletic. Fansided, Just Women’s Sports, SI All Knicks, Winsidr, Her Hoop Stats, CBS Sports, and The Next
New York Liberty Game Notes - New York Liberty
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