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00:02welcome back to another edition of liberty lately coming to you from the barclays center
00:07i sound happy but it was not a happy night for the new york liberty as they fell to the
00:12dallas wings 88 to 77 dexter henry joined by the great madeline kenny and maddie we wanted to see
00:20or we were hoping to see fans were hoping to see the liberty you know head out into this road
00:25trip
00:25which we'll get to later on a good note but they don't do that tonight they pretty much were done
00:29in by a second quarter which you outscored and only scored 11 points in that second quarter
00:34yeah was it just the second quarter or did you see more that went wrong in the liberty's latest loss
00:39i think the biggest thing was the second quarter that game that's that's just where the game got
00:43away from them and you know the liberty have a tendency sometimes to play with their food a
00:47little bit too much i think that the the wings just got a little hot there and we're getting out
00:52in
00:52transition defense wasn't as great for the liberty and so because of all of that it was just kind of
00:57like this perfect cocktail of issues for playing the liberty um trailed by 16 at halftime they cut
01:04the lead down to single digits multiple times in second half but in the end just couldn't really
01:09get out of their own way officiating was something that we talked about post game with krista marco and
01:15also he had some snarky comments to make and um or sarcastic might be a better word sarcastic yes
01:21sarcastic and uh sabrina unescu also weighed in on that yeah i want to get to that in a second
01:26but
01:26let's hear from coach demarco because he talked about what went wrong for the liberty in this game
01:33yeah just a lack of execution and then you know it's hard it's hard to run off as we're taking
01:38the
01:38ball out of the basket so i think especially the first quarter you know we had some unforced turnovers
01:42and we gave up a lot of offensive rebounds and those are times you can kind of build the lead
01:46and
01:46dictate the game and you know have it go your way a little bit so i was really happy with
01:51the team
01:51in the third quarter the way we competed got back in the game and that's what it's going to take
01:55especially with players out of the lineup all right so we heard from coach demarco there we also heard
02:01from him he called the officiating in this game against the wins he called it awesome you asked
02:04him a question he called it awesome he was being sarcastic folks that was not him really saying that
02:09the officiating was awesome but you also heard from sabrina nescu she was not happy with the
02:13officiating this has been a topic throughout the w among fans teams players everybody's been talking about
02:19this where are you on the officiating right now in this league did chris demarco have a serious
02:24gripe here do players fans have a gripe about this officiating right now yeah i think so i think the
02:29most egregious uh which granted you know the officials have to go back and look i'm sure the liberty are
02:35going to submit that play to be uh reviewed was the out of bounds which happened like literally right
02:40here where we're standing um and where it appeared that jessica shepherd may or may not have elbowed
02:47rebecca allen in the nose um the ball went out of bounds wings continued to keep possession of the
02:52ball um beck allen ends up leaving the game with what appeared to be a dent on her nose is
02:58it safe
02:58to say that you saw the video we yeah so we was maddie and i sitting together watching the game
03:03we have
03:03the tv in front of us and we looked at it and at first because we heard some other media
03:08members
03:08next to us saying it looked like there was blood but then we looked and we're like no because you
03:12watched her walk away when you looked at it you saw a dent in her nose i'm not saying it's
03:16broken we do not know it didn't look good update it did not look good and obviously
03:21extremely concerning and i think the biggest thing with officiating is if you're going to call it one
03:25way you got to call it on the other you cannot miss the obvious you know contact calls like that
03:29that's been there's been several within the last few weeks that i've gone uncalled and have to go back
03:34and like be reviewed and like that should have been reviewed on the monitor you know since it was
03:39above the head contact and i think the other thing too is um again just with some of the the
03:45way that
03:45the game got a little clunky late it was just you know if you're calling a moving screen on one
03:50side
03:50you got to call it on the other and what's reading unescue said essentially is that you know it feels
03:55like flopping and flailing has never been more of an issue for the wnba than it is this year just
04:00because it continues to get rewarded and there she was very um let's say like very she approached like
04:08a politician in her response and so i think she literally said if she gets fined that's going to
04:15be crazy because she felt like she played it very down the middle but again like officiating they're
04:19not going to blame the loss on officiating obviously but i think it's something that
04:22is going to continue to be like a work in progress the league really needs to address the issues
04:27um in that area yeah i think they do and and listen all everybody wants teams fans media we all
04:33want you to see balance and you know i don't say fair or unfair but you just want to see
04:38it called
04:39the same both ways and also accountability i think that's the other word for me is that you'd like to
04:43see accountability when it comes to officiating the same way we hold players coaches accountable
04:47we hold ourselves accountable hopefully if you're a good journalist right so that's that is the same
04:51thing when you look at this loss i know people will say you just saw the liberty get up for
04:56the aces
04:56in the commercialist cup last week we did our episode you saw them get up for the team the best
05:00record in the league the minnesota links but then they lose to the dallas wings and this is no shade
05:04to the wings who now have more wins this season than the liberty but do you feel like this team
05:09is either being too comfortable with certain opponents or playing down to their competition
05:13i think for some of the games you would say that they were playing down like i look at that
05:16like
05:17los angeles sparks that that complete second half meltdown what happened in seattle like those were
05:22clear examples of the liberty playing down to their opponents for tonight i think it was more of just
05:27getting a little too like comfortable and allowing like playing with their food a little bit too much
05:32and again that second quarter is what really put them in and if you're playing from down 16 like
05:38coming out of the halftime that's that's not a easy hole to crawl out of especially against a team
05:43like the wings that has you know some shooters that can get hot really quick the you know a walk
05:47and
05:48jessica shepherd were both phenomenal tonight jessica shepherd with her third triple double
05:52um a walk was three assists away on the triple double so a lot going well for the bigs tonight
05:58so yeah yeah defense has got to be better stew we talked about that after this game saying
06:02look we can't wait till we're down 17 to start 16 whatever to the low to mostly we're down can't
06:08wait until it gets to that point to get things going particularly defensively now one of the other
06:12major storylines surrounding this liberty team and i think you saw it here tonight it's been
06:17ijalani hamilton um she has not played much recently you and i've talked about this before
06:21she did play against the dallas wings and once she came in the game she had a pretty nice ovation
06:27from
06:28the crowd fans are really behind her want to see her play what's the latest with her because her role
06:32is really uncertain right now and you did get a chance to talk to her and the rest of the
06:36media did
06:36before the game here yeah you know i think the the most difficult part is that benijah was
06:42she started at the beginning of the season she's a starter right she misses time for some personal
06:47reason she comes back she's coming off the bench and then she's had several dmps within the last
06:51two weeks and i think that you know there is a grinding frustration maybe some disappointment
06:56um in the challenge that she has been faced with this like fluctuating role where she might be playing
07:01one night she might not play play the next this was her first game today since june 28th i believe
07:06it when last time they played the the valkyries in san francisco and so you saw a little bit of
07:11rust
07:12within her game but you know there are definitely questions looming regarding whether or not
07:15benijah will be here after the trade deadline you know she was asked point blank about that pre-game
07:20and she essentially said that they're working through all of this the conversation she's having
07:25you know ongoing conversations with head coach krista marco and general manager jonathan cole
07:30obviously she means so much this franchise and fans don't want to see her go and she's so beloved
07:35within that locker room as well she is very much like a you know connected tissue type player within this
07:40this team and so i think there would be things beyond what she provides on the court that the
07:45team would potentially lose if they were to trade her um also looking at the trade market like what
07:50is uh what do you get in return what do you get in return um you know you're moving a
07:55contract that
07:55expires up to the end of this year there's just like a lot of factors and liberty don't really have
07:58a lot of cap room also to to navigate with so it's very much like a complex situation um
08:05um yeah we'll just have to kind of see that that deadline is august 2nd opposite you said you
08:11talked about maddie her looking rusty tonight and you know we were watching and we saw her
08:16she took some shots she did not finish well at the rim she did absorb some content but for me
08:21she looked a little bit more aggressive than you've seen from her did you feel the same way do you
08:25feel
08:25like that's a positive for her going forward i think so it seemed like there was some intentionality
08:29to try to get her going and i think just you saw uh you know there was one where she
08:34was at the top
08:34of the key with like shot clock winding down she carved up the defense a little bit and got to
08:38the
08:38rim and unfortunately just like missed it um i think that one might have hit off the back of the
08:42rim if i remember correctly yeah but but i just think that again it's it's finding that flow it's
08:47she missed so much time you miss an entire season you miss all the offseason uh it's gonna take time
08:53to get your legs back and i think like going from playing some games like 15 minutes to other games
08:58playing not at all um i think it's hard to find your rhythm and flow and i think we're kind
09:03of
09:03sitting out with her yeah i think we are one of the good things that came this week that's going
09:08to excite liberty fans is jonquil jones named as an all-star reserve a really nice honor for her
09:14again you thought this was deserving for jonquil to be named to the all-star team totally well
09:18deserved i mean i i had her on my ballot to be an all-star starter just because of how
09:22great and
09:22phenomenal she was in the month of june i think it was kind of what something like a little over
09:26underrated or maybe overlooked uh by people just because she impacts the game in so many different
09:32ways for liberty and i feel like if you're not seeing it every day if you're not checking in
09:37with the liberty you might not appreciate it as much as i know everyone within that locker room
09:41appreciates her and um a lot of people within the locker room were today were super stoked that she
09:47has that opportunity this will be her sixth all-star and second one since she joined the liberty
09:50yeah huge accomplishment after the game we heard from jonquil about making also team also heard
09:55from brianna stewart her thoughts on jj being named to the all-star team this year
10:00it means a lot to me um you know obviously um a different type of offseason for me when having
10:06surgery and having to bounce back from that it was uncharted territory something i've never had to deal
10:10with before and so um yeah it feels good to be playing at an all-star level um so thank
10:15you for
10:15everybody that voted for me took the time to do that um but yeah it feels good it feels good
10:20to be
10:20able to go out there and represent the league yeah i um i'm really happy jj got the all-star
10:26nod i think
10:27that um she deserves it every year and um i think chris said the other time that we were up
10:32here like
10:32sometimes people take what jj does for granted um and you know she's huge to what we do here in
10:39new
10:39york um she's obviously a player that's won a lot of things and she just definitely deserves it
10:43uh this year so hopefully we'll be on the same team i know right yeah who's who's drafting us
10:54all right last thing we got to talk about you're back on the road again liberty on the road four
11:00game road trip and this is not going to be an easy one uh they will play the links they
11:04will play the
11:05tempo they will play the wings who they saw here and then they will play the fever to end that
11:10road
11:10trip so a very tough four game trip before they come back home to play the chicago sky before the
11:15all-star break what are you going to be keeping an eye on on this road trip where the last
11:21time
11:22they won the road that did not go so well for the liberty so this feels like a big road
11:25trip for them
11:26yeah this feels like a chance to prove that you guys are like a team that can win on the
11:29road and
11:29win in tough environments where you don't necessarily have the fan support i think the thing that i'm like
11:34most curious about is leone fibish um she obviously didn't play tonight against the dial swing she was
11:39out with some foot soreness she got an mri um team does not have an update yet on her status
11:45moving
11:45forward whether you know chris demarco described it as like a day-to-day thing if if they're without
11:50leo this is going to be even more of a challenging road trip just knowing how much of a glue
11:55player
11:56she is her defense which she provides like i think that you were kind of seeing her absence in that
12:01second quarter specifically when they were trying to stop the bleeding and really couldn't um and so i
12:06think that's something i'm looking for i think it's just again like progressing and continuing to stack
12:11those wins and stack days playing a complete 40 minutes all the different cliches that i could
12:15like just throw out there right now or all the things um but but i do think that you know
12:20defensively there are some things that they need to tighten up a little bit and i think offensively
12:24as well like you've got to get a more consistent rhythm with sabrina so maddie does this feel like
12:30maybe a road trip where they have to come out with a winning record because of what we saw the
12:34last
12:34time on the road and they have to prove that they can win games against her on the road against
12:39a good competition do you feel like they need a 3-1 record here i i do for sure because
12:43i and i
12:44think there's a few different reasons for that one just to prove that you can win on the road
12:47um two you want to start to stack some of these games together and i think three you want to
12:52have
12:52that momentum heading into the all-star break nobody likes to head into the all-star break on a
12:55losing on a losing streak and i think that again there's gonna be a lot of challenges heading into
13:01the all-star break but i think that this is something this is the time when the team needs to
13:05come
13:05together and needs to just like grind out and also standing is starting to matter the standings are
13:11starting to matter you know all these head-to-head matchups matter um in terms of just seating and
13:16and home court advantage down the line so you know these are these games are really important and ones
13:21that they've taken seriously yeah long season all the games we say are important but now we're getting
13:26to that time where you want to have a nice stretch here before the all-star break we'll see if
13:30the
13:31liberty can do that really tough four games they are going to be tested they fell here at the
13:35barclays center hopefully you can get the good vibes going on the road maddie will be back on the
13:40road uh i'm still good well i am going to be on the road but not dealing with that but
13:43they'll be
13:44elsewhere but we will be back to give you more stuff next week on liberty lately we thank you for
13:48joining that is madeline kenney i'm dexter henry we'll catch you next time on another edition of liberty
13:53liberty lately
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