The New York Liberty may be without another key player as Marine Johannes is listed as questionable for Monday's game against the Dallas Wings due to an ankle injury. Johannes appeared to tweak her ankle during Saturday's loss in Indiana and exited the game with 8:42 remaining in the fourth quarter.
Coach Chris DeMarco did not provide an immediate update on Johannes's condition following the game. The Liberty are already dealing with injuries to Leonie Fiebich and Satou Sabally. Fiebich has been sidelined since July 3 with a left foot injury and did not travel for the current road trip. Sabally has not played since June 23 and remains in concussion protocol. DeMarco has indicated Sabally will not return before the All-Star break.
The Liberty's schedule saw a postponement of their originally scheduled Thursday game against the Wings due to travel issues, pushing the matchup to Monday. New York enters Monday's game on a four-game losing streak, having lost eight of their last 10 contests. This skid is the team's worst since 2022, prior to the arrival of Breanna Stewart.
With championship expectations this season, the Liberty currently hold a slim lead, sitting only a half-game above the eighth and final playoff spot and 2.5 games away from missing the postseason entirely. Stewart acknowledged the team's current struggles, stating, "We don’t like where we’re at right now but we’re f–king there, you know what I mean? And playing with that and realizing that we’re in it, we’re in the trenches and we can either keep sinking or we can dig ourselves out and that’s something like as an organization we all have to do and this group, we continue to show up every day, for sure, because we have vets, we have pros in here and these losses are not going to rattle us, but at the same time, we need to be better."
The Dallas Wings, meanwhile, are on a six-game winning streak after defeating the Sparks on Sunday.