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00:03what's up everybody welcome to another edition of liberty lately dexter henry madeline kenny
00:08maddie joining us from the atl where the liberty lost to the dream 92 to 82 in game one of
00:14the
00:14wmb semifinals liberty liberty i'm calling you liberty maddie i hope you are doing better than
00:21the liberty were in the third quarter how you doing i am doing well yeah that was a tough third
00:26quarter um i think that's when we started seeing things just really unravel and uh atlanta they
00:32upped their defensive intensity and were really imposing their will and the liberty unfortunately
00:37were unable to match it and they were just dribbling right into defenders at times i'm glad you just used
00:43that term there imposing their will when talking about atlanta because when you look at this game
00:47one maddie how much of this loss for liberty was atlanta imposing their will and how much of it
00:53was the liberty just getting in their own way like which mattered more here when you look at this
00:58game yeah when i talked to jonquo jones after the game you know she told me that this was a
01:03very
01:03winnable game and they all felt that after the after the loss they all felt like it was a very
01:08winnable
01:08game and they actually feel like it was a lot more of some self-inflicted errors and just shooting
01:13themselves in their own foot um obviously kudos to atlanta for upping their defensive intensity
01:18so much so that the liberty weren't able to match it and then i think you know the liberty all
01:23of
01:23them said that they were very level-headed um and very composed but that third quarter as an outsider
01:30watching them they looked very frazzled by the pressure that atlanta was enforcing and so i think
01:37um you know they can be all composed and poised mentally but also your play is telling us a totally
01:44different thing and they just totally unraveled the game got away from them very valiant effort
01:49in the fourth quarter to cut the lead to you know the dream led by as many as 16 points
01:55and they got
01:55it down to five on four different occasions over the last like six minutes and so that might make
02:02you feel a little bit better um and the fact they only lost you know i they lost by 10
02:07it looks like
02:08but i mean it doesn't look like that they did lose by 10 but um it wasn't i don't think
02:14the score tells
02:15the whole story of the game and so you're a liberty fan i don't think you're discouraged necessarily i
02:22think you should feel you know your hope is always to if not win both games on the road uh
02:28to split it
02:29and there's another opportunity on wednesday yeah there's an opportunity to get that split on wednesday
02:34i think one liberty fan had tweeted at me saying yeah i'm not worried about this despite the
02:38performance um i agree with you i thought they looked frazzled in that third quarter i was surprised
02:43at how many times they kept trying cross-court passes even when we saw atlanta play those passing
02:49lanes well we talked about it in the round table um how they could intercept those passes how they
02:54would look to put the pressure on right at half court and we definitely saw that in this game you've
02:57got to tip your hat to atlanta the dream did a fantastic job defensively i thought angel reese
03:02in particular was amazing in that third quarter she looked like the defensive player of the year
03:06that she is she was tremendous there but when you look at the numbers maddie 21 turnovers that became
03:1232 atlanta points we also talked about this in the round table preview right that that couldn't happen
03:18the live ball turnovers that went to points when you separate what we just talked about right the
03:23the mistakes under pressure from mistakes that the liberty could have avoided what bothered you the
03:29most and and what do you think needs to be changed by wednesday is it just the liberty not
03:34having no self-inflicted wounds here that we saw here in game one i think uh to a certain degree
03:41yes
03:42but the ball got kind of stuck at times the the movement was not nearly as fluid as it's been
03:48and
03:48the liberty are at the best when the move the ball was being shared um and there were times that
03:53you know it got into like just one or two players had the ball and um the other three are
03:58just kind
03:58of standing there and so i think you know jj had mentioned like maybe there's an opportunity to call
04:05certain things um to help get out of stagnant situations um she wasn't she made it very clear
04:12that she was not pointing any fingers but everyone kind of you know they all talked about the ball
04:16needed to move better it just wasn't being it wasn't moving and so i think um a lot of that
04:21had to do
04:21with what atlanta was doing because you know if they're intercepting these like passing lanes or
04:26jumping into them like they were um that might make you a little bit more timid to pass the ball
04:33off um and even sabrina said that this could be a series where you might be over dribbling a little
04:39bit but i do think that the liberty could do a lot of a lot better job at sharing the
04:43ball and i think
04:44that that's one of the biggest things that they have to change from um this game to the next is
04:50that
04:50you know your offense you can't afford to go stagnant and go i think in the third quarter
04:54they went like a stretch of nearly six minutes without a field goal can't have that happen if
04:59you want to win and then defensively i think that there's some things to clean up um you know they
05:05tried a different defensive scheme in the second half jj called it a box in two um yeah they're playing
05:10like a triangle and i thought it was a triangle too okay yeah she said but maybe it's just misspoke
05:15but
05:16you know it's something that they haven't really i haven't really seen them run you know if they
05:20have it's been very small um i don't think they've ran it at all actually to be honest and um
05:25with that
05:26you know uh you might be grabbing a body but it led to some leakage for you know atlanta to
05:35get like
05:35an offensive rebound and so that's something too that they have to work on um so yeah yeah i'm glad
05:44you actually brought that up i'll just i it's interesting because when you are playing zone
05:48when you are playing they have played we have seen the liberty play zone this year but not
05:52right but not that specific specific zone matchup this year and you hit the nail on the head whenever
05:58you play zone and you play that specific kind of zone you are susceptible if you do not have the
06:03right communication to offensive rebounds we saw that hurt the liberty multiple times in that third
06:09quarter even at times in the fourth quarter when they were trying to come back so i think that's
06:13something that could be cleaned up with communication i will also say i like that they
06:17went to the zone i like that they try i like that chris demarco tried to throw a new wrinkle
06:21against a team that doesn't is not really a team you fear that much from the outside granted two
06:27players i'm about to bring up in a second jordan canada and dawana bonner did do a great job from
06:32the outside and hitting the shots they were supposed to hit but i understand why you want to play the
06:36percentages against the dream so let's talk about that jordan canada 25 to wanna bonner who played
06:43way more minutes than i think she probably even expected to play because of alicia gray going out
06:48with injury we'll get to her in a second she had 23 which one do you think presented the bigger
06:53game
06:53to headache for new york and what do you think new york should change about how they defend both
06:57players going forward i think jordan canada he kind of knew what you're getting you know she's
07:02she's way faster than olivia miles and so uh you know leo had talked heading into the series the
07:07pickup points are going to look a little bit different but you know dawana bonner is really
07:11the x factor for the dream in this series the fact that she can come in off the bench and
07:16just
07:17change things so much there were so many times where she was just like swooping in
07:21you know backdoor cut gets gets the offensive rebound puts it back up for her bucket and
07:25just she always seems to be one of those players that's like at the right place at the right time
07:30um obviously most experienced player on the floor so that helps but um i think this is like
07:35what her 17th season or something like that and so i think you know that experience is definitely
07:40showing she was huge for them when gray went down um and she's they're easily their most
07:46reliable person off the bench so this is not that deep of an atlanta dream team that's something
07:51that the liberty have an edge is that they can go deeper into their bench but you know in the
07:57playoffs sometimes depth is not what swings the series and yeah dawana was huge i think
08:03it's just being a little bit more aware and i think also knowing when there's a depth we're
08:11going to talk about gray but like whatever her status is you know that that'll really impact
08:16the series moving forward as well yeah it will one thing i want to get to that you spoke about
08:22earlier i thought was a good point too was we saw the liberty got within five uh it was actually
08:28four times they cut it to five in the fourth quarter but atlanta atlanta they answered each
08:32time do you think they can take anything from that comeback they showed to cut it to five that
08:37you think they can carry into game two at all yeah i mean it just came down to like not
08:43getting
08:44defensive stops in the end um you know and then atlanta hitting some timely buckets and so
08:50like that that was the separator in the fourth quarter is that the liberty you know they were
08:55playing a lot better on offense and they they got some stops obviously but i don't want to discredit
09:01everything but it just like every time they got within five it's like okay you need a defensive stop
09:05and then get down on the other side and get a bucket and then it's like a one possession game
09:09right
09:09and just never able to put that together and so you know i think it was obviously um it's
09:16disappointing to lose but i think there was positive positivity to take out of it and again like
09:23the vibes with the team afterwards weren't you know overly negative or disappointed um you know
09:33i i just take it as a team that is a veteran team that's been here before they went down
09:381-0 in
09:39the series and came in the finals and came back and won it all so i think there's just that
09:43experience and knowing that game one it matters but what matters more is how you respond in game two
09:52and we'll see how they respond in game two now for status in game two alicia gray she left game
09:58one
09:58with a hand injury what's the latest you've heard about her status and how do you think the liberty
10:02should prepare for wednesday with her available versus her possibly not being available yeah i think
10:08uh we don't have an update carl smesco said that he didn't have a media update after the
10:13game um it looked like it was her pinky and ring finger on her left shooting hand and i think
10:19even when you saw her come back in in the second quarter um after initially exiting and going to
10:24the locker room and getting it taped up you know she airballed a three and immediately took that tape
10:28off and then what was so impressive about her and you can just this is a testament to her toughness
10:33is
10:33you know her defensive intensity did not diminish by the injury like she has this
10:38you know her hand is probably in pain and or fingers or whatever it was exactly injured and
10:45you know she's she's diving for a loose ball and getting the steel and then passing the ball up and
10:50it goes the other way and so um gray is really important to this team but it also showed today
10:56you know she she leads the team too in scoring averaging 19 points per game this season um but it
11:02just
11:02goes to show that you know that type of injury or moment can really like rock the team and what
11:11really impressed me was the dream's ability to not fold in that moment of like oh we just lost like
11:20our best score and she's such a downhill threat and like now what kind of thing and so um obviously
11:26it definitely impacts on how the liberty are going to approach game two and you know we'll probably
11:32have more of an idea come monday or tuesday but um yeah i think obviously it's just honing it on
11:41dewan bonner because she really swung the game in favor for them today and jordan canada too i mean
11:45like i think she had five steals she was she was incredible like can't say enough good things about
11:50hard play today yeah both those players were tremendous for the dream in this one all right
11:55as we close here you predicted the liberty to win in four uh my prediction is dunzo i predicted
12:01the sweep that is obviously not happening uh what's your where's your confidence meter at
12:05after game one because you talked about how the players there's you know veteran group they're still
12:10fine they they're like look we've been here before we're not tripping off of being down one game um
12:15is your confidence meter in the liberty still winning this series still high and how much did this game
12:21change your belief in the liberty's chances here in the semi-final series yeah i you know confidence is
12:27still there in my pick still was on the table they could very well go win in the next three
12:32games i
12:33think the dream are very determined and they are playing their best basketball at the right time
12:43you know they were one of the hottest teams since the all-star break um they have the defensive player
12:50the year on their team they have better like two-time champions and uh or multi-champ multi-time
12:57champions and like dawana bonner and jordan canada and i i just think that you can't sleep on what the
13:03dream are and as high as you know lucas miles you and me were when we did that round table
13:10we all kind
13:11of walked out of it and we're like maybe we shouldn't have all picked up you know and like but
13:16but i like
13:16you can't you can't disrespect the dream as an opponent you know they beat the mystics by double
13:23digits in both of their games in the first round they're on a multi-game winning streak i can't
13:30remember off the time blanky on what it is but like obviously it's more than two um but they they're
13:37a
13:37tough team and so i i think if you're the liberty this is kind of a little bit of a
13:42reality check it's a
13:43time to acknowledge respect and then lock back in so i would say confidence like there's no panic
13:53there's no like overarching our back is against the wall and we it's do or die time we're not there
14:00yet but we'll see what we're saying after wednesday's video we yeah we'll see what we say after on wednesday
14:07night when wednesday night liberty will look to try to even up the series at one before it comes back
14:12back to brooklyn we'll see what happens there they fall in game one 92 to 82 and we'll see what
14:18the
14:18next couple of days are mad and kennedy will have you covered with all of that through practice and
14:23over the next couple of days before game two maddie enjoy the rest of your time in atl i will
14:28talk to
14:28you wednesday night appreciate you
14:30you
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