In Friday night’s Game 3, the No. 2 seed New York Liberty’s offense came alive, finally looking the whirring machine it was for much of the second half of the 2023 WNBA season. New York defeated the No. 3 seed Connecticut Sun 92-81 to take a 2-1 semifinals lead.
With another offensive outburst in Sunday’s Game 4 (3 p.m. ET, ABC), the Liberty likely are to earn their first trip to the WNBA Finals since 2002, setting up the much-anticipated superteam showdown against the awaiting No. 1 seed Las Vegas Aces. To extend the series to a Game 5, the Sun must find a way to contain and counter New York’s offensive prowess.
Here’s three things that will determine if the Sun force a Game 5 or if the Liberty will be Finals-bound:
Can the Sun defense again dictate the tempo?
Through the first two games in New York, the Sun, even in their Game 2 defeat, dictated the terms and tempo of the contests, using their athleticism, physicality and intensity on the defensive end to disrupt the Liberty’s offensive flow. The ball did not ping around the half court and eventually land in the hands of an…
