by The Liberty were locked into the coveted No 1 seed, didn't need to sweat, while the Dream were still dreaming of grabbing the eighth, final invite to the WNBA's postseason bashSo Thursday night's regular-season finale between these two teams at Barclays Center only weighed heavily on Atlanta's side of the equation Washington, Chicago were in contention for the last playoff ticket, tooWin, the Dream would be in They would clinch a matchup with the Liberty in the best-of-three first round, with the first two in Brooklyn Lose, they could still get in with help on this final nightWe absolutely packed for a week, Dream coach Tanisha Wright said before the gameGood thing they did They didn't need the help Wright's everything-to-play-for team beat the nothing-to-play-for Liberty 78-67So Game 1 will be at 1 pm Sunday, Game 2 will be at 730 pm TuesdayThe Liberty finished at 32-8, matching last year's team as the winningest ones in franchise history That team fell to Las Vegas in the FinalsWe want to win a championship, Liberty coach Sandy Brondello said That's our ultimate goal But we're still process driven We have to learn the experiences when we didn't play our best basketball, know that playoff basketball goes to another level, we have to go to another level, tooI know we can do that But we can't get too far aheadThey will have a home-court advantage for however far ahead they go in pursuit of the franchise's first WNBA title They also have another advantage this time aroundWe talked about our bench all season long, how vital they've been to our success, how they will be as we move forward, Brondello saidBreanna Stewart scored 16 points for the Liberty, then was rested in the second half The Liberty reserves saw a lot of time in that second halfBrondello didn't make her starters sit out the full game because they didn't want to sit outThey want the rhythm, Brondello had saidThey looked out of rhythm much of the time, thoughRhyne Howard, Naz Hillmon scored 13 points apiece for Atlanta, which finished at 15-25 Former Liberty star Tina Charles, who became the WNBA's all-time leading rebounder in the first quarter, added 10 points, 10 boardsThe Liberty, who won the season series 3-1, fell behind 21-15 after one quarter, they continued to malfunction at both endsThe margin moved to 14 before Atlanta settled for a 43-30 halftime cushionThe Liberty allowed 528 shooting, only hit 323, committed nine turnovers leading to 10 points across the first 20 minutesHillmon scored inside for the first points of the second half to make it a 15-point game The Liberty soon cut it to 10 on a three Sabrina IonescuBut Atlanta countered with a 10-0 burst Jordin Canada canned a 5-footer in the lane for a 55-35 advantageThe lead shrunk to eight with 215 left, but that's as close as it gotOn to the playoffs, the rematch
Published in Newsday (20.09.2024)