00:00Another good win for the Liberty. They make it back-to-back wins this time on Tuesday night, 85-76 over the Dallas Wings here at the Barclays Center.
00:08Dexter Henry joined by the great Liberty beat reporter for Winsider, my guy Myles Ehrlich.
00:14And Myles, this was a victory in which the Liberty, they spread the wealth offensively.
00:18Jonquil Jones led the way with a double-double, 15 points and 10 rebounds.
00:22She's starting to look pretty good now that she's had a couple games under her belt since coming back from injury.
00:27Yeah, for sure. And Sandy Brandello talked about it pregame, or maybe at shoot-around this morning,
00:32where she said when you first come back from injury, as basketball players know, everything kind of falls back into place.
00:38But then that adrenaline wears off and you've got to find yourself again.
00:41And we saw some of those errors that are uncharacteristic from J.J. those first couple of games.
00:46But the last two, she's really looked like herself. And she got 15 and 10 tonight, which extends her double-double streak.
00:52The Liberty are now 30 and 0 in regular season games where J.J. has a double-double.
00:55So she looks good on that side. And also having Emma Miesemann behind her means that she's able to be more aggressive on defense.
01:02And we saw her playing more up to the level, offering help to the guards on the perimeter.
01:06And that's just what having some front-court depth can do for this team.
01:11Yeah, front-court depth was absolutely helpful.
01:13And you heard Myles just there talk about Emma Miesemann.
01:15Her second game as a player and member for the Liberty team, 13 points,
01:20played 24 minutes after she played in the Teens against Connecticut the other day.
01:24What did you like about her performance? She provides that depth.
01:27But you saw what she could do on the offensive end.
01:29For sure. It's not just the way that she scores the basketball, because obviously those points are important.
01:34But it's her vision. And the fact that she has not had a single practice under her belt yet.
01:38But she keeps saying, and this morning she said it, she said it after the game too,
01:42that the Liberty are trying to play beautiful basketball.
01:45That they're trying to play this free-flowing offense.
01:47And that that's going to take a little bit of time for that chemistry to build.
01:50But we see it on the picks and pops that she already has some chemistry building with Sabrina.
01:55She's played with half a dozen players on this team already, either overseas or with Tosh Cloud
02:00when she was winning the title back in 2019 with the Mystics.
02:04So she's getting comfortable.
02:06But she said something tonight that was just kind of heartwarming,
02:09where she was asked about just seeing players that she recognized from across the W in these first couple of games.
02:16And she basically said, awards don't really matter to me so much.
02:19It's all about the connections and the friendships that you make while you're playing this game.
02:23And how she was overwhelmed when Natasha Cloud led the Liberty fans in an Emma chant
02:29while she was having her post-game interview with Tina Cervasio.
02:33And just, she said she never could have envisioned that happening at the Barclays Center.
02:37And that it was important for her to come back to the WNBA,
02:41because she hasn't been here since 2022,
02:42to see how the league has continued to grow.
02:46And that she's just already so amazed by that.
02:48So it was really a refreshing perspective from a player that's a veteran that has been here before,
02:53but not in these last couple of years as we've gotten to experience the boom every single day.
02:58Yeah, we saw that.
02:59And that was a really great moment from the fans that Miles just mentioned after the game
03:03with the crowd chanting Emma.
03:04And she had a really nice performance.
03:05And I think we both would say we're very intrigued to see what she can do for this team going forward.
03:09But you also mentioned Sabrina Unescu.
03:11Only nine points in this game.
03:13She's been on a heater lately.
03:14She's been getting buckets for this team.
03:17Was it good to see this team win in a game where they have five players in double figures?
03:22Sab's not one of them, but they're able to spread the wealth around.
03:25What does winning like this do for the team and also Sab's game?
03:28Yeah, she put the team on her back last game against the Sun.
03:33She had 36 points, 11 rebounds.
03:35And over her last six, she's leading the WNBA in scoring with 27 points on 53% shooting.
03:41So those numbers have been spectacular.
03:43Probably the best scoring run with that efficiency of her entire pro career.
03:47But she said, they came out trapping me from the first possession.
03:51And they were attacking her on the defensive end as well.
03:53They were trying to tire her out, trying to fatigue her, and make everybody else beat them.
03:57And the Liberty responded with 25 assists.
04:00And that was just spreading the wealth, getting out of those traps early.
04:04And she said, I love it.
04:05She said, if I'm drawing all that attention, that means somebody else is open.
04:09So really, again, good perspective.
04:11And it's winning above everything for this team who has the hopes of repeating
04:16and knows that it could be anybody's night, any given night.
04:19Yeah, and they've seen that before.
04:21They had just lost the wings towards the end of last month on the 27th of July
04:25and a bounce back performance there.
04:26But speaking of those wings, play them again in a couple of days.
04:30So it's home and home series.
04:31And then big game on Sunday, although without Nafisa Kalia,
04:35the Minnesota Lynx will be coming to town.
04:38What do you make of this next matchup coming up against the wings?
04:40Do you look at this as kind of a trap game, Miles?
04:42They might overlook this team.
04:44Or does this Liberty team look focused with some of the new additions
04:47like Emma Miesem as they try to focus here down the stretch?
04:50Yeah, I think before they can look forward at the Lynx,
04:53who they're, as of now, five games behind in the Sannings,
04:56they need to look behind them and realize that the five games separating them
05:01and the 10th place team, that's the margin there.
05:03So the Liberty don't really have this space because of this four-game losing streak.
05:08They can't afford to look forward too much.
05:11And the last time they were down in Dallas, the wings went up by 30 on them,
05:14and then they were able to come back a little bit.
05:16But that's going to be really fresh in their mind too.
05:19So I don't think there's a look-ahead spot.
05:21I also think that this team is very good at kind of taking it one day at a time.
05:26Sandy Brandello always says she doesn't get too high or too low,
05:29and that mantra has really carried through with this team.
05:32So I don't really worry so much about a look-ahead,
05:35especially against a team that's near the bottom of the standings
05:38that has already handed them a loss this season.
05:39Yeah, that's got to be fresh in their mind when they go down to Dallas.
05:42We'll see if they're able to handle business,
05:44and they'll be back here at the Barclays Center, as I mentioned,
05:46on Sunday against Minnesota.
05:48That is Myles Ehrlich.
05:50Check him out with Winsider.
05:51Does a fantastic job covering the Liberty,
05:53but a great win for New York tonight, 85-76 over the wings here at the Barclays Center.
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