Liberty have no margin for error now

The Liberty have hit their low point.

Prior to Wednesday night, the superteam had never faced elimination nor lost two games in a row during this season. Yet, after the alarming 104-76 blowout loss to the Aces in Game 2 of the WNBA Finals, that has turned upside down.

Heading into that game, Liberty coach Sandy Brondello and her players were in a similar position to where they were in the semifinals when they dropped Game 1 to the Sun.

So, the Liberty had the confidence they could respond to the defending champions to avoid the 0-2 hole.

Sunday afternoon at the Barclays Center is their last chance to find that answer in a Game 3 that has zero margin for error. 

The rough patch has come at an inopportune time for the Liberty.

The Aces, however, went through their own troubles during the regular season.

In August, they dropped five games, three of which by a margin of 15 points or more.

Additionally, three of the five losses, including the Commissioner’s Cup, were at the hands of the Liberty. 

“The defense was superb. The offense was superb. At the end of the day, they’ve been doing this the whole time, really,” Aces head coach Becky Hammon said of her team’s performance after Game 2.

“We had our little rough stretch, and we should. Every team should have a rough stretch. You shouldn’t go through the season just skipping along. You should hit a rough patch, and when you hit the rough patch, you get to see what you’re made of. And I know what my team is made of.”

Neither Brondello, Breanna Stewart nor Jonquel Jones had an exact answer for what went wrong Wednesday night. Rather, there were too many answers.

They admitted there was no overall sense of urgency, aggressiveness or resistance to what the Aces were giving them. The backcourt also struggled again as Sabrina Ionescu and Courtney Vandersloot combined for 19 points, shooting an ugly 5-for-19 from the field and 3-for-11 from deep. 

Transition defense was also nonexistent. 

“No one was matched up to anyone,” Brondello said and later added that the allowed uncontested shots were “unacceptable.”

She had trouble finding the answer as to why her team that beat Las Vegas three times during the regular season had yet to show up in the finals. However, she admitted one possible factor was experience. Stewart, Jones, Vandersloot and Stefanie Dolson are the only four Liberty players who have played in the WNBA Finals. 

“Oh, definitely,” Brondello said when asked whether experience had influenced the series. “They’re the champions from last year. They rise to the occasion, and they all did. We couldn’t even limit anyone. I think that helps with their chemistry. They do things really sharply. They know where they’re going to be, where they’re going to be open. … The pace that they played at just had us in circles really.

“But we’ve shown that we’re capable of that, but I think their defense really took a step up too. I mean, their physicality bothered us.”

Maybe time will prove to be what the Liberty needs along with more high-stakes games under their belts. But time is not on their side, and neither is history. 

No team has managed to recover from an 0-2 deficit to win a WNBA Finals. One hope on the Liberty’s side is that the Aces failed to win one game at Barclays Center during the regular season, losing by 38 points in the first game and falling behind by as many as 17 points in the second.