AP Player of the Year Breanna Stewart and the Liberty will begin their quest for the franchise’s first WNBA title Friday night in Brooklyn. AP Photo by Bebeto Matthews
The New York Liberty won a franchise-record 32 games this season.
They grabbed their first-ever title trophy by defeating defending WNBA champion Las Vegas for the Commissioner’s Cup.
They also boast the Associated Press Player of the Year in Breanna Stewart, who could be crowned WNBA Most Valuable Player later this month.
All of that will mean nothing come 7:30 p.m. at Barclays Center Friday night when the second-seeded Liberty’s record will be back to 0-0 before Game 1 of this best-of-3 first-round playoff series against the No. 7 Washington Mystics.
“We have a very special group and I’m very excited about what we’re going to do in the playoffs,” said New York forward Jonquel Jones Sunday after the Liberty had their season-high eight-game winning streak snapped with a 90-88 loss to the Mystics in Downtown Brooklyn.
Washington (19-21) earned a 2-2 regular season-series split with New York (32-8) when Brittney Sykes turned Natasha Cloud’s lob pass into a buzzer-beating basket for the win.
Though they finished 13 games behind the Liberty in the standings, the Mystics proved tough enough to spoil Opening Night for the WNBA’s newly formed “Super Team” in our nation’s capital and ended their campaign with a heartbreaking defeat.
That makes them potential spoilers as New York begins its bid for the franchise’s first-ever WNBA championship.
“I think they get up for us,” Liberty coach Sandy Brondello said of Washington, which earned the seventh seed by winning two of its final three games.
“This is a really good team that had a lot of injuries (during the season). So they feel good about themselves too.”
The Mystics will be without center Shakira Austin for at least the first two contests due to a hip injury that has kept her out since a June 25 loss to New York.
But…
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