Sandy Brondello's fiery message before Liberty clinched No. 1 seed

09/17/2024 11:56 PM

The New York Liberty have officially accomplished all they can in the 2024 regular season. Their 87-71 victory over the Washington Mystics on Tuesday night gives them the No. 1 seed in the WNBA Playoffs, set to begin on Sunday.

New York has one more regular season game, Thursday night at home against the Atlanta Dream. It won't matter for the Liberty, but it could decide whether the Dream go to the postseason.

But that will be sorted out Thursday. For now, the Liberty can travel back to New York in a better mood than they arrived, fresh off a disheartening home loss to the Minnesota Lynx on Sunday.

The Liberty came out of the gate strong, dictating the tempo by forcing turnovers and getting out in transition. It was intentional as head coach Sandy Brondello encouraged her team to use the disappointment they felt after the Minnesota loss.

"Be pissed off with how we played in that last game. I know I was," she said. "We haven't done anything yet."

It's hard to make too many comparisons between the Lynx loss and Tuesday's win. The Lynx are the second-best team in the league and Washington is now 13-26. Nevertheless, there was a lot to like.

The “pissed off” Liberty put up 29 in the first quarter and were able to coast from there, getting a season-high 40 points off the bench. That included 12 from Nyara Sabally on only five field goal attempts and 15 minutes of action.

Jonquel Jones had 11 points and seven rebounds of her own as the Liberty scored 50 points in the paint. Together, they exploited a short-handed Mystics team, playing without forwards Aaliyah Edwards and Shakira Austin.

"I thought that's an area we could establish [Jones] and [Sabally]," Brondello said of the team's post play. "Our cutting was good. Sometimes we cut too much and kill our spacing, but I thought we had appropriate cuts and attacked their over-help and got some easy baskets at the rim."

With their win, the Liberty tied their franchise record for wins in a season with 32 (set last year). Brondello is hoping the team has started to make the shift into playoff mode.

"[The 1 seed] was one of our goals. We set out trying to get that home court advantage," Brondello said. "We know it's going to be extremely hard, but getting home court…we want to play in front of our fans as much as we can."

Sandy Brondello makes her Leonie Fiebich awards pitch

As part of the Liberty's onslaught of bench points, Leonie Fiebich scored 13 on 6-9 shooting. It was her 18th game of recording a plus-minus of +10 or better, passing Maya Moore for the most such games by a rookie in WNBA history, according to the Liberty.

With Fiebich an all-Rookie and Sixth Player of the Year candidate, Brondello used the postgame press conference to make her pitch on the rookie's behalf.

"We don't win all these games without her impact," Brondello said. "She's so versatile and does whatever the team needs, and it's great just to see her grow around the team.

"All-Rookie, that's a no brainer and Sixth Person of the Year, that should be a no-brainer as well."

Sabally has watched Fiebich since the start of the season and is not surprised by her teammate’s impact.

"She’s been a pro for so long and now, her coming in here and using that kind of knowledge and what she did overseas, and she kind of just picked right up," Sabally said. "Just seeing her being able to kind of translate that into the W that fast is really astonishing."

another great possession, I'd say Leo looks pretty comfortable in this offense by now: pic.twitter.com/8DOzgB1BZa

— Lucas Kaplan (@LucasKaplan_) September 18, 2024

For her part, Fiebich stayed humble, acknowledging her progress but crediting her teammates for their roles.

I've been watching [my teammates] over the years, but actually to be on the court with them is a bit different," she said. "How they think, what reads they make, and what the defense gives us. I think if we all read the game well, good things happen."

And plenty of good things have happened this season. At 32-7, the 2024 Liberty can become the most successful regular season team in franchise history on Thursday. The game will tip at 7 p.m.

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