Chicago Sky falls on New York, Liberty lose 101-53 in preseason opener
Photo by Melissa Tamez/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images
Chicago didn’t just come to play, but to dominate. New York came to scrimmage. At least Jaylyn Sherrod was fun to watch. It was a very considerate, team-wide effort, for the New York Liberty to miss every semi-open layup they took in the first quarter of Tuesday night’s preseason game against the Chicago Sky. Each starter missed at least one shot inside the restricted area to begin the night, and it allowed the hosting Sky to turn their building up to high in the only preseason game it’ll see before things turn real next week.
For the Sky, at least, it was a good start.
Angel Reese, the LSU rookie, put up 13-and-5, scoring a bunch of tough, off-hand layups, even over Breanna Stewart for her highlight of the night...
.@Reese10Angel starting us off in the second #skytown pic.twitter.com/sjFvE2J2Hm— Chicago Sky (@chicagosky) May 8, 2024
Marina Mabrey got the party started with some deeeep threes, Dana Evans got into the paint at will whether in transition or the half-court; Chennedy Carter kept that theme going off the bench, and Chicago rolled to a huge 101-53 victory. (Decidedly not a typo!)
No player, not even Reese, was more fired up about the win, during the win, than Head Coach Teresa Weatherspoon, a Liberty legend who showed no mercy on Tuesday. Preseason be damned, she even picked up a technical foul ... up 20 ... again, in a preseason game.
More power to her, though. It was a 40-minute party for Weatherspoon’s squad, igniting Wintrust Arena to bust down the door into a new era, even with #3 overall pick Kamilla Cardoso recently ruled out for at least four weeks with a shoulder injury.
The Liberty will give this one a chuckle and move on, and maybe talk 5% more trash to the Sky in their matchup on May 23 than they otherwise would have, but the loss sets up a theme for year two of their title-contending era: Where’s the motivation gonna come from?
Look, there’s no sense in reading too much into Tuesday’s loss — which came with nearly half of their expected regular-season rotation either resting or not with the team yet — but it won’t be the last time they’re not the most easily motivated squad on the court this season.
It’s easy to fall in love with the process when you haven't done it yet. But in year two, the Libs can’t just fast-forward and return to high-leverage games in the fall; they gotta first do the grind again. Meanwhile, teams like Chicago are chomping at the bit to even taste the grind.
Just some food for thought, not solely related to Tuesday’s preseason debut, in which New York couldn’t even work on their bench units, the key focus of their preseason: Reserves Leonie Fiebich, Ivana Dojkić, Kennedy Burke, and Nyara Sabally were the four players missing.
Head Coach Sandy Brondello was not quite as forgiving in her postgame comments: “We just got our butts kicked, everywhere. I mean everything. It’s an embarrassing effort, I don’t care that it’s preseason ... our starters didn't get us off to a good start. We missed a lot of layups early, but they just took us out of everything.”
There was some noteworthy action, though. Undrafted rookie Jaylyn Sherrod electrified her bench and Liberty fans at home, going steal-bucket-steal on the first three possessions she was on the court for...
OH IGHT @JaylynSherrod Big steal with the finish! pic.twitter.com/wSAqSQmQHT— New York Liberty (@nyliberty) May 8, 2024
“She has speed,” said Brondello postgame. “She could guard Dana Evans. No one else could.”
Fellow rookie, second-rounder Esmery Martinez hit a corner three and flashed some on-ball defensive skills with a steal here, a closeout there, etc.
Neither will make the team, to be sure, but Brondello and GM Jonathan Kolb both reiterated throughout training camp that if the Liberty were to bring a player in mid-season, whether through the hardship exception or otherwise, it’s always preferable to see a familiar face walk through that door.
The crown jewel of the draft and the only player likely to make the final 11 — which Kolb has indicated will be the count for the roster — Marquesha Davis, was welcomed to the league a couple times by Carter, but managed to score four points in a perfectly fine debut.
Sitting next to Sherrod and Davis in post-game, Brondello said, “It’s unfair for these young players, their first game in the WNBA, to have to come into that.”
And perhaps it was, but Sherrod, a blurry point-guard out of U of Colorado by way of Alabama, didn't seem too disadvantaged. After her performance, she was asked what shelearned in her first pro game: “Really, just to be aggressive and be fearless. I think that’s kind of my M.O. We know we’re gonna mess up, we’re rookies, but just gotta keep putting one foot in front of the other.”
Sherrod had no trouble immediately applying what she learned, playing like a 5’7” bottle of Mentos-filled Diet Coke, hacking away for three immediate fouls after her two steals, and continuously trying to get into the lane on offense. Perhaps the only real takeaway from Tuesday is that she’ll be a WNBA guard one day, when she discovers that the brakes are right next to the gas.
There’s no reason she won’t, either. Not only are the tools there, but so is the confidence necessary for an undrafted PG to crack the top 144.
“I mean, the job doesn’t stop just because you make a mistake, you know? Everybody makes a mistake on their jobs, it’s not like you just automatically get fired,” said Sherrod at team practice before the team departed for Chicago. (Though she then jokingly conceded that “some professions are more strict than others.”)
But while acknowledging that there might be those mistakes along the way, Sherrod also said, “I think my game translates no matter what, just because it’s not about talent for me. For anybody who’s ever followed me in my career, [they] know that I’m one of the hardest working kids out there, and nobody is going to have more, passion or more energy than me on the court.”
And after one measly preseason game, we can conclude that that’s not just talk. Jaylyn Sherrod indeed plays like her hair — fittingly dyed orange at the moment — is on fire, and thank goodness for that. She almost made the blowout on Tuesday night kind of watchable.
Next Up
Photo by Brian Babineau/NBAE via Getty Images
The New York Liberty travel to Connecticut to face the Sun in their second and final preseason game, a rematch of the ferocious Eastern Conference Finals last season. Tip-off is scheduled for 7:00 p.m. ET on Thursday night.
Chartered flights are here
Cathy Engelbert dropped a bomb on the WNBA world on Tuesday afternoon, announcing that the WNBA is planning on starting a full-time charter flights program beginning this season. For every team!
“This is a pretty historic moment for the league,” said the commissioner to the Associated Press. “I think players will be thrilled.”
You think?
According to Ben Pickman and Sabreena Merchant of The Athletic, WNBA GMs were caught off guard by the news, which served as a happy surprise for the whole community. Brondello, Jonquel Jones, and Breanna Stewart learned of the news simultaneously, while on a pregame Zoom presser, and reacted as you’d expect.
“We think it’s amazing if it’s true,” said Jones. “We understand that there’s a lot of games this season, and we want to be able to play our best. Charter is definitely going to help with that.”
Breanna Stewart and Jonquel Jones react to the WNBA adding private charter flights for all teams "We're gonna charter to Connectcut" pic.twitter.com/gc8Kz0CmCR— New York Liberty Videos (@SNYLiberty) May 7, 2024
This comes nearly three years after New York Liberty owners Joe and Clara Wu Tsai were fined a whopping $500k by the league after their repeated use of charter planes during the second half of the 2021 season, a violation, the league powers decreed, of the collective bargaining agreement.
History has absolved them.
Libs lose assistant general manager
One of the architects of New York’s star-studded roster is Going to California.
Golden State’s unnamed WNBA franchise, which will begin play in the 2025 season, has hired Ohemaa Nyanin as their general manager. Nyanin thus closes the book on a five-year run with New York, which ended with her occupying the assistant general manager’s seat.
Joe Lacob introduces new Golden State WNBA GM Ohemaa Nyanin pic.twitter.com/67CqDIRHem— Warriors on NBCS (@NBCSWarriors) May 6, 2024
Jonathan Kolb bid farewell to his right-hand woman with a statement Tuesday, who had been with the Libs as long as he had:
“Ohemaa was my first call in 2019, and we have shared an unbreakable bond ever since. To say I’m ecstatic is an understatement. Ohemaa effortlessly threads the needle of being authentic while graceful. She is proof positive that if you put in the work, dreams can come true. I consider myself so grateful to have the opportunity to miss someone so much.
The ‘Golden State’ got brighter today. Go shine, O.”
It is still unclear just how the New York Liberty will shift around their from office in the wake of Nyanin’s departure.
Box Score: Chicago Sky 101, New York Liberty 53 - WNBA
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