00:03a disappointing end to the Liberty season. It came to an end here at the Barclays Center in
00:07Game 3 of their WNBA semifinal series as they fell to the Atlanta Dream 85-83, which means the
00:13Liberty got swept. Now, I predicted a sweep, but it was the other way. It did not go this way.
00:18You
00:18got to give credit to the Atlanta Dream as they out-muscled the Liberty in this series. They
00:23out-executed the Liberty in this series. And you saw that again tonight. Now, the Liberty had a
00:27much better effort in Games 2 and 3 than they did in Game 1. They even had 16 turnovers in
00:33Game 2,
00:34which I talked about, only 9 tonight. This was a very closely contested game. It was very close
00:39throughout. The shooting percentages were pretty even. The Liberty only got out-rebounded by 1 on
00:44the glass. The turnover margin was also closer in this game. So there were things you like better
00:48about the Liberty's effort. Effort wasn't a question. Atlanta just out-executed them down the
00:53stretch, and the Liberty fall here. And it's a very disappointing end to the season because
00:57at the beginning of the season, when we were doing the show, and Madeline, Kenny, and I were talking
01:02about what went on with the Liberty and the expectations for them coming out of the offseason,
01:07it was championship. That was the talk for the Liberty, and they fall short of a championship here
01:12as they are swept by the Dream. But after the game, head coach Chris DiMarco, his message was
01:17still proud of his team. Yeah, well, first off, I want to say our players fought like hell.
01:23They played so hard. And whether it was getting out of that first round and had a chance to play
01:30in this
01:31one, or it was just these three games. I'm so proud of our players and how hard they played. You
01:36can't
01:36always count on makes and stuff happens, but as far as the fight, the attention to detail, and the effort,
01:45it was all there. Yeah, I just thought we had some missed opportunities throughout. Basketball is
01:52about the possession game, and we obviously struggled those first two games and made some
01:58adjustments and tried to speed the game up a little bit. They have a hell of a team, hell of
02:03players.
02:03They fought, and I'm just really proud of our team. Now, while Chris DiMarco was proud of his team,
02:09one of the questions that came after this loss to the Dream was, what is the future for head coach
02:15Chris DiMarco? And he was asked if he was told anything about his future, and Chris DiMarco said
02:20as far as he knew that he would be returning next year as head coach. Now, when you think about
02:25the
02:25head coaching situation and following last season, Liberty firing Sandy Brondello, moving on from her,
02:31and then hiring Chris DiMarco, a coach who won a championship, there was going to be a lot of
02:35scrutiny and a lot of eyes on Chris DiMarco and how he approached his team.
02:39And obviously fell short of expectations here, did get the upset in the first round over the
02:44Lynx. However, it is a disappointing finish for the Liberty to get knocked out by the Dream,
02:50and that's not taking credit away from the Dream, but just the expectations and standards
02:54that this team had. Now, Chris DiMarco was asked that. He talked about the fact that he expected
02:59to be back as Liberty head coach in 2027. He also talked about the fact that he expects to just
03:04get
03:04right back to work. There's not going to be any break. This is a loss that he's sitting with,
03:07the players are sitting with, and they are going to get right back to work. However, the players
03:11were also asked about whether or not they thought Chris DiMarco should or would be back in 2027.
03:19And take a listen to what Brianna Stewart had to say.
03:21I think it just jumped to kind of talk a thing about that right now, echoing what they said,
03:30like obviously those decisions aren't ours. But I think like my focus and what I'm thinking
03:39about right now is just like missed opportunity. Now, when you hear Stewie there, that is a much
03:47different tone than she had last year when she was asked about Sandy Brandello returning,
03:51very different tone. She was almost incredulous that the question was asked. And the players
03:56talked about Stewie did this too. The days was not their decision to make. This was about the front
04:01office. They were also asked about personnel, things with this team, which I'll get to a bit later,
04:05but this was not what they talked about. And part of the talk in this game was what made
04:10Atlanta such a difficult matchup. And I think when you look at these series,
04:13and we talked about this in our Liberty Lately Roundtable preview, what was going to make us
04:18a difficult matchup? And although we all picked the Liberty to win, we knew it was not going to
04:22be an easy series because of what Atlanta brought on the defensive end, their length, their ability
04:28to generate turnovers and then score points off of those turnovers and the physicality. They
04:32really brought it in every sense. And you saw the speed of Jordan Canada in this series really
04:37frustrate the Liberty guards as she was able to get into the paint, also did a great job of shooting
04:41from downtown Atlanta, just a really complete defensive team. And you saw that the defense,
04:47the athleticism that really hurt the Liberty in this season and in this series and throughout the
04:53season. So it didn't really misspeak there in this season that did hurt the Liberty as well too.
04:57And after this game three loss, coach DeMarco also talked about what made Atlanta such a tough
05:04matchup for the New York Liberty. They just, they play a different brand of basketball with some of the
05:08switch about the switchability on a ball with their physicality. You know, some of the teams we
05:12struggle with, and I'll say with the Valkyrie is the same. It's just, it's a different brand of
05:16basketball. And I actually, I mean, again, I thought our players matched it, if not exceeded it at times.
05:22And end of the day, like, you know, some shots go in, some don't, and you're battling for loose
05:27balls. And like, where's the whistle going? All that stuff matters. And I just thought we had the
05:31right focus. And, you know, they had a little bit of a lead. We fought back, had our own lead
05:34and we just didn't close. So again, good team, well coached team. And yeah, really, I really,
05:44I really think going forward, we know, we know exactly what it's going to take with teams like this.
05:50And going forward, when you look at this series, anytime it comes to the playoffs and it's done and
05:54you look at a series, you're looking at the team that knocked you out. And what does your team need
05:59to do to get to that next level? Now, this is a team that has a championship core. There are
06:03four
06:04players still on this team that are from that 2024 team that won it all. But now you're starting to
06:10play different teams. And can you match that level of physicality? Can you match that level of
06:15athleticism? And one of the questions that's going to be asked about this Liberty team going forward
06:20into this offseason is, is the roster construction right? And I think
06:24it's more than a fair question. Do the liberties need to make tweak to their rosters to be able to
06:29play with teams like the Atlanta Dream, like the Golden State Valkyries who are still playing
06:33and gave the Liberty a lot of trouble this season? It'll be interesting to see what Jonathan Kolb and
06:38company do, not just in terms of personnel in coaching, but also in the players on the floor.
06:43And Brianna Stewart was asked about that. And if the Liberty needed to do anything to tweak to
06:49their roster going forward and what she would like to see or thinks that the team needs more
06:53of, and this is what she had to say, you know, you see, you see Atlanta and, and they really
06:57just work well together. I think that for us, it just took a while to find our identity and what
07:06we were going to do defensively and how we were going to kind of play with teams. So, um, I
07:11don't,
07:12I'm not going to tell you exactly what this, what we need, uh, cause I just, I don't think that's
07:16appropriate, but, um, defense is, is really what, like people say, defense wins championships.
07:25It's true. It does. And, um, Atlanta, they have three of the top players in the top three in steals,
07:33you know, and, um, it's, it's no compare and contrast because we're the New York Liberty, but
07:38like, um, we just needed to like really understand our identity a little bit better
07:43from the jump. I think the most interesting thing that Stewie said there was about this team not
07:49knowing their identity from the start. She had another quote in the press conference where she
07:53said that playing a season is not like cramming for a test. You have to know that identity from
07:58the jump and the Liberty just never really got there this season. Maddie and I have talked a lot
08:03about how inconsistent the team has been this season. You never really felt like they had
08:08any consistencies. They started to play a little bit better towards the end of the season. You saw
08:11that in the first round matchup against the Minnesota links, which appeared to be a very
08:15good matchup for them. But you also saw this season, the teams that they struggled against,
08:20as I mentioned, like golden state, like Atlanta. So now that bodes the question, what is next for
08:26the New York Liberty? And that's a really loaded question because you're going to have to think
08:31about, okay, Jonathan Cole said that he needed to get the next coaching hire, right. When he moved
08:37on from Sandy Brondello, did he get it right? Does he need to tweak that again? Should we tweak that
08:42again? Do players on the roster need to be changed? What do the Liberty need to do? I think they
08:47could use
08:47some more athleticism. I think they could use another two-way guard on this roster that could
08:52really help them. Those are all things that are going to have to be answered in this offseason.
08:56Is Satsu Saboli part of the plans in 2027? Chris DeMarco talked about how she could have helped
09:00in this Atlanta series, and this would have been a fantastic series for her. I do agree with that.
09:05And I do think Satsu Saboli would have been a huge help, but obviously the focus is
09:08on her getting healthy and then being able to return in 2027. So this offseason is going to
09:13have a lot of questions for the New York Liberty. We're not done here on Liberty lately, as Maddie
09:19was not able to be with me for this, but she will join me next week. We are going to
09:23do a debrief of
09:24the season. We'll do a deep dive, look more ahead into what the Liberty need to do. So there's more
09:29coming away on Liberty lately. We'll have you covered throughout the offseason, but
09:32it is a disappointing end for the fans that were here at the Barclays Center, and they gave
09:37their team a nice ovation coming off the floor. Fans wanted to see more. They wanted to see their
09:41team get back to the WNBA Finals. This is a team that had been there two seasons in a row
09:46before
09:47last season, and now two seasons where they have not gone to the WNBA Finals. But as Stewie also said,
09:52getting to the WNBA Finals is not easy. And when you have experience like they do, and they've lost a
09:57lot
09:58experience on this team with only four players that have been on that 2024 championship team,
10:02it's hard to get back. And I think the Liberty of finding that out, and what's next for them is
10:06going to be, how do they retool? And how do they not have wasted opportunities with Brianna Stewart
10:11still playing at a high level? And I know she doesn't want any more wasted opportunities, and this
10:16organization seems to be very focused on trying to get back to the mountaintop. So that's something we
10:20will definitely talk about. This offseason will break down more next week. But it was a fun season here,
10:25covering Liberty at the Barclays Center. So much more to come your way on Liberty Lately. So for the
10:30last time here in 2026, Dexter Henry signing off from the Barclays Center. We'll catch you
10:35with more stuff on the next edition of Liberty Lately.
