Liberty Blame Self for Game 1 Collapse, While Dream Question Their Perspective

The New York Liberty has analyzed their Game 1 loss to the Atlanta Dream and concluded that their third-quarter struggles were largely self-inflicted. However, Atlanta star Rhyne Howard expressed skepticism about this assessment, implying the Liberty might be avoiding the reality of being outplayed.

"I would probably say that too if I didn’t want to admit that we got beat by somebody else," Howard said Tuesday. "We know how we played. We know what we’re going to continue to do. If they want to think it’s self-inflicted, then that’s just on them."

The Liberty were aware of the Dream's strategy to capitalize on opponent errors, yet they committed 21 turnovers in Game 1, which the Dream converted into 32 points, tying a WNBA playoff record. The third quarter proved particularly detrimental, with the Dream's defense forcing nine steals and scoring 16 points off turnovers, halting the Liberty's offensive flow.

"This is not me trying to point or anything, I just think that there’s things that we can run to kind of get the ball a little bit more, a little more flow, a little more energy," Jonquel Jones said after the loss. "At times, we were kind of a little bit stagnant with what we were running."

The Liberty's ability to adapt to the Dream's defensive pressure in Game 2 will be crucial. Breanna Stewart suggested that the team over-prepared for Atlanta's defense, which stalled their offensive rhythm.

"We planned too much around that instead of playing our style and offensively doing what we know we can," Stewart said. "We have to get back to our tendencies. ... The wheel will create an opening for someone to drive middle and if the nail help is there, then we should have open shots."

Sabrina Ionescu, who scored 27 points in Game 1 but had only one assist against five turnovers, emphasized the importance of driving to the paint.

"When we’re being aggressive and getting downhill into the paint, it’s either looking to score or kick and that really opens up the floor for us," Ionescu said. "So I think that just has to be key."

Both Ionescu and Jones agreed that the Liberty were responsible for the Game 1 outcome.

"Looking back, it was a lot of our own doing, just sloppy with the ball, making passes that weren’t there, just getting it taken out of our hands," Ionescu said. "That’s the positive in it all is a lot of the stuff we can control and not necessarily only what they were doing but how we can be better through it."

"We didn’t handle the pressure well," Jones added. "I think they really watched film and saw that if they could get in our passing lanes in the half court that they would be effective as well and they were able to do that. So yeah, definitely it was on us. It wasn’t really anything that they were doing and I think that our level of intensity that we had in the Minnesota series, I think that level of intensity dropped a little bit and if we had that in Game 1, it would have been a different game."