When the New York Liberty (6-3) look good, they look great, but each of their losses this season has at least made us wonder about pressing the panic button, though it’s likely too early to do that.
Their third loss of the season came Tuesday night at Barclays Center in Brooklyn. Without Sabrina Ionescu (hamstring, day-to-day), they fell to the 3-5 Atlanta Dream 86-79.
Ionescu’s replacement in the starting lineup, Marine Johannès was nearly the hero with a three that cut it to 76-70, a three that cut it to 80-75 and a foot-on-the-arc two that cut it to 82-79 with 1:04 remaining.
Johannès hurt her own cause when she couldn’t slow her momentum while running after a loose ball and fouled Allisha Gray near mid-court with just three seconds left on the shot clock for the Dream and 42 seconds remaining overall. Barring a miracle, Atlanta wasn’t going to score there and the Liberty would have been in great shape down just three. Instead, Gray went 2-of-2 at the stripe to make it 84-79.
I say “hurt her own cause” because you just knew that Johannès was going to take another three and most likely make it. Like no biggie, she’ll still save the day even though she made it a little harder on herself.
Indeed, Johannès took a three on the next possession … and it…
