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00:02welcome back everybody to another edition of liberty lately it's your boy dexter henry alongside
00:07the wonderful madeline kenny our new york post women's sports reporter she is in vegas as liberty
00:13have started their west coast trip and oh maddie it did not start out good on sunday night it was
00:19supposed to be a happy night celebrating the first wmba game 30 years ago sparks and liberty liberty
00:26lose on the buzzer beater not a good start to this west coast trip liberty have now lost two in
00:31a row
00:31after winning eight in a row before uh but how are you doing i'm doing great i'm i'm good i'm
00:38well
00:38rested uh you know it's always fun going out to the west coast because you are still on east coast
00:45times you're waking up early like you you know um ask me when i'm on my way back then i'm
00:50gonna be
00:50really tired but no i'm feeling good obviously last night was an extremely disappointment
00:56uh disappointing loss arguably the most egregious loss of the season worst loss of the season um
01:02and but neka hitting that game winner it just was so poetic on the night of you know the 29th
01:09anniversary of the first ever game people keep saying this the 30th anniversary it's the 30th
01:14season 30th year right the first week i said that wrong to you and you know it's funny
01:20no no it's okay it's okay yeah i i caught myself yesterday thinking about this and how
01:25it's being said wrong and i was like yeah the math the math is not math and you got to
01:29remember the
01:2930th season yeah 29th anniversary yes yeah but but what you know why it was so poetic that it was
01:35neka
01:35you know she has been in this league for half of its existence and she has been the president for
01:41two milestone cba negotiations and you know she represents what this league was even like 15 years
01:52ago like the wnba was constantly facing questions about like the long-term sustainability will the
01:58league be around you know for how much longer and and all of that she's seen franchises go away and
02:04now
02:04she's seeing franchises come back and so it just felt like this like like it was like written in
02:11the stars that neka was going to hit that big game winner for the los angeles sparks who obviously she
02:16played a long time with before going to seattle and returning and you know i just thought it was
02:21special and cool no i was it was there's no doubt about it was a great moment what was it
02:25like
02:26because i know they did a lot pre-game and then halftime right so they had the legends out there
02:31in la
02:31you saw a teaspoon was out there rebecca lobo obviously was on the broadcast um with ryan
02:37rucco she was there uh kim hampton was there lisa leslie to wicks micky johnson johnson they had a full
02:45house i mean it was it was cool right like all of these players who were trailblazers for this league
02:49and lisa is so thoughtful in her answers when she was talking about when they were playing it was like
02:55they were just so grateful for the opportunity to play stateside and you always were playing with that
03:01like in the back of your mind of there was uncertainty like you didn't know if that was
03:05going to be the last game or last season or whatever and those original women really were
03:12ambassadors for the sport like it wasn't just about putting on a good product on the court and granted
03:17they had way less resources than the athletes do today um but they were putting a good product out
03:22on the court and then they were spending hours sometimes you know shaking bait shaking hands
03:28kissing babies not shaking these signing autographs until their their hands crammed you know taking
03:37photos until their faces hurt like from smiling i mean they they really put in the work and so it's
03:43you know i've talked to a few players who remember when they were kids and would go to wba games
03:49and see
03:50the effort that players made to like make those connections and that's part of what fuels them to
03:55like pass that on and make those connections now yeah it's beautiful to see it i i remember watching
04:01that first game and i was i was telling my daughter this yesterday because she was watching the game
04:06with me and then she saw it come up and she made me feel old because she's like why does
04:09the footage
04:10look like that i'm like well it was a while ago that was that was you know that was 29
04:16years ago
04:17um and how far it's come right you're definitely right about that but let's talk about the liberty
04:22yes you just mentioned it yeah they had won eight straight now they've dropped two in a row they had
04:28lost to the mystics on friday then sunday losing to the sparks the game you were at um do you
04:34look at
04:34this as just two tough losses or do you see something concerning in how the liberty lost both of these
04:40games
04:41the liberty during their win streak were winning ugly a lot of times um and which can be a really
04:48great trait to have right like sometimes you just got to grind out wins but i think something that's
04:53been a concern that we've talked in length about as the season has progressed is um the turnovers
05:00have been a huge issue and i think it just comes down to you know last year we would talk
05:05about the
05:05liberty would just get so complacent you know and jj didn't say that necessarily they were
05:12complacent but they went in knowing that what the sparks like to do and in the first half the sparks
05:17did not get into like what they how they normally play they had a rough first half and so liberty
05:22got
05:22a little comfortable and then when the sparks started coming back it was like whoa what is happening
05:27and so i think the there are some concerns with this team i mean this team is the most talented
05:33on paper in the league and yet doesn't always play together it doesn't always play like it um and
05:41some of some of it is they have no one to blame but themselves it's not like the sparks were
05:46really um
05:49you know doing things that they couldn't counter it just doesn't seem like the liberty are always
05:54making the right adjustments or reads and so that's something that obviously we have to like monitor
05:59moving forward but definitely not the way you want to start a west coast swing um and especially
06:06knowing who's coming up next which we will talk about later yeah we will get to that uh we know
06:11who's coming up next arguably one of the biggest games of the season just to go back to that sparks
06:16game because you know you and i were talking about this before we started recording you kind of
06:20want to throw the mystics game out the out the window here but you know they won eight in a
06:25row
06:25they're about to go on the west coast for road trip you're gonna have a dud it's gonna happen
06:31but i think the the reason for fans the sparks game will stand out a lot is
06:34the 17.3rd quarter lead this looked like it was going to be a wrap we've seen them put away
06:40a team
06:41before a good team like atlanta uh before just a little bit over a week before that um
06:47what stood out to you most in the collapse because you're right it's a combination of things i agree
06:51with you on that but was it the defense was it the the late game offense the turnovers
06:57the you know was it do you think his lineups were a factor miss free throws there was a lot
07:01going on
07:02but what stood out to you the most about why they lost this game to the sparks i mean i
07:07think it was
07:08just a call like a culmination of things like a a bad cocktail cocktail yeah um you know like
07:16defensive mishaps that neck open three was the result of a miscommunication turning the ball
07:22over brianna stewart you know who is one of the one of the best free throw shooters on the team
07:28misses two of her four late um you know i think that it was just a culmination of things uh
07:35i found it
07:35peculiar that the liberty were playing rebecca allen over benajah laney hamilton at times and you know
07:42chris addressed it post game saying it was part of the reintegration plan um but that was kind of
07:48news to a lot of us because uh pre-game she was he said that he was going to talk
07:53to the staff after
07:54warming up and see if she was going to be on minister restriction or not so that was interesting
07:59um and yeah i think it was just a culmination of all these different things that the liberty have done
08:07a good job at i don't want to say like necessarily masking because it's all been there and we've seen
08:12it um but when when when you're winning you can kind of almost make excuses about it um and there
08:21were
08:21times when the liberty were turning the ball over like 19 times in a game i think they did in
08:25atlanta if
08:26i'm if i'm not mistaken but um they still won the game and you know part of the explanations for
08:32the
08:32turnovers turnovers has been like well you know we're building chemistry it's a new coaching staff
08:37new players a new system this is going to take time um but at some point you know you do
08:45need to
08:45start to see that progress and things getting cleaning up and just prioritize taking care of the ball and
08:52um so i think that yeah the that 17 point collapse was uh not not a great not a great
09:02moment of the
09:03season point back at that as like this is either this is like are they going to respond you know
09:10from that or is it going to be something that's like going to snowball into to more that's always
09:16a question right because you know look i don't want to make too much of it of it and if
09:20we sound
09:20i don't say we sound crazy but we sound we don't want to ring the alarm bells they've still won
09:26eight
09:26out of their last 10 games right but like fourth in the standings or something like that so right
09:32like i don't i don't want to go crazy about it but i agree with you it's their worst loss
09:37of the season
09:37there's no doubt about that this is their worst loss of the season just because of the lead they had
09:42and how they looked in crunch time now in crunch time we saw pauline astier get big minutes uh against
09:49los angeles she i thought she was she was one of the standouts definitely um she had 17 in the
09:56game
09:56had that huge block towards the end of the game yeah five five in the final like two minutes or
10:02so
10:03five points five points in the final two minutes she was really solid do you think she's starting
10:08to force a bigger conversation about being part of closing lineups and how and also just like how
10:14deep chris demarco can go in crunch time where he's just got more options of different ladies he can go
10:19to but you're looking at pauline astier now is when i see her play down the stretch and i know
10:24this kind of ties in with sad but looks like a player that okay the liberty can trust her
10:29to close these games you think she's starting to force those conversations i think that the liberty
10:34realized early on this season that they could trust pauline in these big moments i mean
10:39you know one of the other bad losses this season was definitely portland third game of the season
10:44in portland and i think it i think that was the game that pauline got called for like the three
10:49second violation correct that was one yeah um but but you know what she had such a great attitude
10:56after the game about like i'm never gonna do that again i'm gonna learn my lesson um i don't think
11:02she's done it again um and yeah yeah um and i think like i asked pauline after last night's game
11:09like
11:09how do you handle the that moment like the pressure um and continue to like perform at a
11:14high level and not like let it get to you and you know she said that she like likes those
11:19moments like
11:19she doesn't feel the pressure um it doesn't feel as intense as like maybe from a spectator standpoint
11:26it seems to be um but yeah obviously paul the chris tomorrow ended up closing with pauline with
11:33the starters instead of sabrina unescu which is obviously notable but sabrina um was not
11:39was a very uncharacteristic game for her did not take a single shot in the first half um went one
11:47for three i'm pretty sure from the field and i just wrote about it but i it was like the
11:52least amount
11:53of field goal attempts that she's made since like her second season in the league or something like
11:56that um she didn't have it she missed the layup early in the third quarter that she makes every
12:03you know 99 out of 100 times and it just seemed like at times she was like a tertiary piece
12:11to the
12:12offense which you know when i talked to her she was talking about like as a point guard like
12:16she's looking to facilitate more she's not trying to hunt her shot she's not trying to force anything
12:21she wants to stay aggressive but there is this layer to it of like you know the liberty do need
12:27to help sabrina help herself right like there has to be a way to help sabrina get going earlier and
12:34you know i know there were some fans that were worried that sabrina's not 100 healthy um she said
12:41she feels good she feels healthy like she feels like herself and all of that um and so i just
12:48think
12:50she sabrina heading into it didn't think that the learning curve was going to be that great um just
12:55because she had been around during training camp which is when they installed a lot of the principles
13:00she has been around the team even though she wasn't playing um she felt like you know she had a
13:05good
13:05grasp on everything but i think it's like now implementing it in real time it it's been a challenge um
13:11and so you hope to see like kind of sabrina snap out of this and be more of like that
13:17aggressive
13:19player who doesn't have to think so much um and and you kind of want sabrina in certain situations
13:25to hunt her shot because she is such a elite score right yeah that's it that's the thing for me
13:32it
13:32hasn't looked i don't know you weren't saying this too but i think fans are worried about the injury
13:36we talked about this i think in the last episode it doesn't look to me like she's not moving right
13:41it does look to me like she's thinking too much that's that's the way it looks like trying to do
13:46the
13:46right thing which is so great but almost to a fault if that's right right right that's that's
13:53that's what i'm seeing too and and you just talked about her aggressiveness maddie part of what makes
13:58her a great player is i she's not necessarily your pure traditional point guard but she is can be
14:05aggressive with the shot she can get you a good shot late in the shot clock whether it's a three
14:09or
14:09attacking the rim she has become a better three level scorer in the last couple of years
14:13you're just not seeing that confidence now look some of that might be when you're playing with
14:17injury or you're coming back for injury just that in the back of your mind but it does seem like
14:21she's thinking a little bit too much about the the new offense and maybe that takes time are you
14:26concerned about that with her or do you think the coaching staff should be concerned about that with
14:31her no i don't think so just because of who she is as like a player and an athlete and
14:36you kind of
14:36know that like this is eating her alive more than it's bothering a spectator watching the game
14:42and chris said that like you know they want her to be comfortable they want her to be confident like
14:48they're they don't want to put her in they want to put her in good situations essentially and they
14:52they knew it was going to take time for her to like get her sea legs back so to speak
14:56and so
14:57i think that this is kind of part of those growing pains and maybe it's it's more obvious just
15:03because she was this like piece of the puzzle that wasn't part of the team's wasn't a part of
15:11majority of the team's like winning streak right and then she gets plugged in and you know she i think
15:16she's only scored 10 points once since she's returned and um it just hasn't fit perfectly yet
15:21but that's not to say it won't get there it's just going to take a little bit of time it
15:26feels a little
15:27bit more of like concern because you're like oh it's it's late june but there's still so much time
15:32left in the season yeah there is still so much time left but coming up next they got the aces
15:37on tuesday everybody's been waiting for this matchup and well they'll play the aces two times
15:41in seven days because they will play them in the commissioner's cup uh rematch i should be i should
15:46be at that game so that should be a fun one um i'll be june june 30th at the barclays
15:51center let me
15:51get to host that let's just talk about tuesday i'm sure we'll have plenty of time to preview the
15:56commissioner's cup game but how much should we view this game as a measuring stick for where the
16:02liberty really are because we talked about this a couple games back against atlanta and we thought
16:07that was a good test for them and liberty passed that test well but how much do you view this
16:12game
16:12against the aces as a measuring stick going up against the champs yeah i think anytime the liberty
16:16are playing a championship contender it is one of those like opportunities to measure up see where you
16:22are and you know the the aces have been a little streaky on defense this season i think sometimes
16:27when i look at the aces i think about like um you know they weren't good to start last season
16:33they
16:34close out the season on like a 16 game win streak or something crazy like the regular season i'm not
16:40gonna say it doesn't matter but you know like it just seems like there's sometimes like the aces are
16:46not fully locked in but you know that this is a game that they're gonna be ready for and oh
16:52yeah
16:52i think you know the the liberty are also going to want to you know it's they've lost back-to
16:58-back
16:58games they want to have they want to get right and who's better to get right against than the
17:03defending champions um and so i think yeah it's definitely a big game for them and you know a lot
17:09of the aces are going to exploit your self-inflicted mistakes and so the liberty there's a lot of like
17:16tightening up and cleaning that they they just need to be disciplined is the biggest thing yeah i think
17:22as one thing they can't this is like the atlanta game we talked about they can't turn the ball over
17:25uh as much as they did we saw them here and against the sparks they've got to be better at
17:30that they've
17:30got to be more disciplined i agree with you and when you look at when you look at this four
17:35game
17:35road trip which already started in los angeles right so you still got las vegas tomorrow um you've got
17:41seattle and then you've got the valkyries and golden state san francisco how do you think the final
17:47three matchups of this trip will test the liberty before they come back to the big apple because i
17:52think everybody will circle the aces matchup but look seattle i know they're rebuilding right now
17:59um but you don't you don't want to drop one there and golden state's very tough that's a tough team
18:05liberty this season right and we know yeah we know that too and we saw how tough they played and
18:11well coach they were last year so um how are you looking at just how these final three matchups
18:16will actually test the liberty before they come back home yeah and valhalla is like one of the
18:20best home court advantages in the league so you know the this is not an easy road trip by any
18:26means
18:26that's what kind of made losing to los angeles when you had such a comfortable lead in the third quarter
18:32even more um unbelievable because again that's like not the tone you wanted to set i could see
18:38the liberty you know going i said i could see the liberty going 3-1 on this road trip 2
18:45-2 potentially
18:45and now it feels like 2-2 is probably what we're gonna you know that that would be my bold
18:54prediction
18:56um i i mean look i think that the big i i taught i asked chris about like the road
19:01trip like what do
19:02you want to see from this team the liberty have yet to put together a full 40 minute game and
19:07i think i
19:08said this earlier in this episode that the best game that they've played in my opinion is the atlanta
19:14win and that was not a full necessarily a full 40 minute effort so the biggest thing i think you
19:19want to see is just consistency playing a complete game and yeah just like stringing together good
19:27good possession after good possession good defensive you know possession after good defensive possession
19:33so i think i think it's yeah um just like building off of that identity that they're still trying to
19:40construct yeah i think that's what you'd like to see listen if they could win the next three and go
19:45three and one i think you'd be happy with that but yeah right now i think we all say the
19:49toughest game
19:50should be tomorrow night uh tuesday night against the aces but you don't want to drop any of these
19:55other two once you get to either seattle or or golden state um but i i don't want to put
20:01give any
20:01disrespect to any of those teams those teams could absolutely win um they're gonna play hard
20:05so i guess i guess you might have kind of tied into this but after these two losses we've just
20:10seen because i feel like with this team anytime they they play well everybody's like oh yeah man
20:16this team could win the championship you and i have always kind of preached a little caution on this
20:19in that this team might not look better or in championship form until the end of the season
20:26but what do you need to see from this team over these next three games that can or fans should
20:33need
20:33to see that well maybe have them confident that this is still a championship level team
20:37rather than a team that is still dealing with some issues and some late game questions and playing a
20:43full 40 minutes as you said that's probably the thing i'm gonna go back to now with you maddie it's
20:47like all right when are we gonna see this team play a full 40 minutes is that is it just
20:50that that you
20:51just need to see them for once put together a 40 minute complete game where you'll say okay they're
20:56back at that championship level yeah and i mean it's so easy to sit here in a hotel room or
21:02in your
21:02studio and be like just put together a full 40 minutes on that's so easy um obviously easier said
21:10than done but but yeah i think the biggest thing that i if fans want to like if there's something
21:17that they should be looking out for like you just want to see sabrina look more like the player that
21:21she is um not so much like kind of a shell of the version that we know she is and
21:27so like you want
21:28to see sabrina to take those steps forward and look more and more comfortable in in the system um
21:33maybe facilitate a more a little bit more score a little bit more um just generally be more impactful
21:41on offense turnovers you want to see those trimmed down um i think like those are some of the like
21:47biggest things and and again just like consistent efforts and like defensive deep on defense like
21:53communicating and and making sure that like you're supposed to switch like everyone's on like
21:58everyone's on a string kind of thing and um i think the liberty defensively have been you know
22:05during this winning streak have been really good i think they've been ranked third in the league or
22:09something like that in defensive rating and so i mean like defensively we were talking about that
22:14early on how this team had a lot of concerns on that end they started to clean that up and
22:19now it's
22:19just about like you know your offense complimenting your defense and your defense complimenting your
22:23offense that's we need to see still still a long way to go hey but you know what i wanted
22:29to ask you
22:29because we don't have to really talk about the commissioner's cup anymore because we know the
22:32finals coming up about whether you care about that or not what do you think about the news
22:37what do you think about the news that came out um last week about the league expanding uh the amount
22:44of games in the season what what do you okay i actually do think it's great i love going to
22:49a
22:4950 game i didn't think you were going to be a hater i wasn't asking i just i genuinely wanted
22:53to know
22:54i just i genuinely cared yeah yeah no no no i think i think it's great um you know it
23:00we don't have the
23:01footprint of like what the season is going to look like like when is it going to start when is
23:05it going
23:05to end we know the like earliest date that training camp can open we know the longest that the
23:10playoffs can run um but depending on what the footprint looks like it you do wonder does this
23:16mean more back-to-backs does this mean that's what i was worrying about um does how is that going
23:22to
23:22impact player rest and recovery does this mean you know load management is going to become a more
23:28prevalent thing in the wnba which is obviously something the nba has been battling for years and
23:33are we going to see star players sitting out games because they want to preserve their bodies
23:38um but i mean at the end of the day it's a good thing right like more games means more
23:43money
23:43for everybody and that includes players obviously who were successful in bargaining for the first
23:49comprehensive uh revenue share model and what women's professional sports and so i think that
23:56overall like i'm a fan of it i think it was necessary i am glad that they went to the
24:01maximum they could
24:02which was 50 games i think in 2029 i wouldn't be surprised if they go up to 52 which is
24:06the maximum
24:08um not like the greatest jump necessarily but i i just hope the wnba doesn't ever get to the point
24:14where it's playing such a long season like the nba that it dilutes the regular season importance it
24:21makes like you know there there are a few games throughout a regular season that you kind of
24:27maybe they're not i don't want to say like they're not important no but i get i get what you
24:32mean
24:32you know what i'm getting at like you're just like okay we'll get through that yeah yeah like
24:37that game really going to impact the standings like in the long run right but the more games you add
24:43the
24:43more you you have to wrestle with that right my i think 50 felt like a good number for where
24:51the
24:51league's going and the teams that are coming in because that's the thing i think you have to factor
24:54too right we got more teams coming in and then you know i always listen now that the ladies um
25:00because you gotta think about you what we talked about this at the top where they were just a couple
25:04years ago right with no charter flights and the travel yes the back-to-back factor is going to come
25:10in and i think it's going to be crucial for teams to manage that and for these ladies to manage
25:16their
25:16bodies and how they're resting and all of that stuff but yeah i'm happy for it in the growth of
25:22the
25:22league it only makes sense um to where the league's going i'm with you though don't want to see it
25:28get
25:28too much i don't think the w needs to ever get to a point where we're probably really i mean
25:33depends
25:33on growth but we're really talking about 60 games i don't know if we want to see that i feel
25:38like
25:38keeping it 55 and under is that sweet spot 55 yeah it feels like it right you like the good
25:44max and
25:44because again there you still have players going overseas and playing um a lot of international players
25:50that like really take pride in the opportunity to play in like their home countries and stuff and so
25:54um i think that's always going to be a part the wnba is always going to be a summer league
25:59so to
26:00speak um and play like kind of an untraditional basketball calendar i know that there's some players
26:06who would love to see the wnba like i think sabrina said last year that you know she would love
26:11the
26:11wnba to have a more traditional basketball um schedule but it is what it is uh one other thing i
26:19wanted
26:19to say is that i do want to mention something about the commissioner cup one of my oh we got
26:25maddie
26:26talking about the commissioner cup without me asking um one of my early season predictions which
26:32i'm always happy to you know call out when i get stuff wrong was that the liberty were not going
26:38to
26:38make the commissioner cup and uh hey they proved me they proved me wrong so now you gotta now you
26:47got
26:47now they gotta go win it and really prove you wrong yeah yeah yeah and get the thirty thousand
26:53dollars all right remember this folks when maddie and i are doing a video after the commissioner's
26:57cup final uh we'll see maybe they'll give maddie a well i can't go to can't go to maddie maybe
27:03they'll give mad the liberty will give maddie some credit in terms of inspiring them towards
27:07the commissioner's cup do you think my bosses will give me a check you know no i i'd like that
27:12too
27:12they should check to liberty lady bonus bonus you know what um because that is an extra game
27:19on the schedule that you were not we were not playing to work particularly you because you do
27:23every game so you know what we gotta have a conversation with that no i'm i'm totally playing
27:27i know well kershaw you off the hook you don't you don't gotta worry about that you don't worry
27:31about that at all all right that's gonna do it for this edition of liberty lady that is madeline
27:36kenny check her out follow her she's gonna be doing a great job covering the liberty for the rest of
27:39this road trip we'll see how they finish big game on tuesday night against the las vegas aces
27:44i'm dexter henry we'll catch you next time on another edition of liberty lately peace
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