Washington Mystics poke the Bears.
The Liberty also fought back.
Mystics guard Natasha Crowder waved goodbye to a disappointed Barclays Center crowd after the Liberty lost the regular-season finale on a buzzer-beater from Washington. This disrespect not only bothered the Liberty, but also fueled their playoff run.
They used it to beat Washington 90-75 in their playoff opener on Friday.
“They walked us away from home last game,” Sabrina Ionescu said in an on-court interview after Friday’s win at Barclays Center. “We have to show them what that feels like.”
After she scored 20 of her game-high 29 points in the second half to completely defeat the Mystics, Ionescu further elaborated on the disrespectful behavior.
“We all know what it felt like last game, losing at the buzzer [-beater] On our home court, we understand what adjustments we have to make to prevent this from happening. “Ionescu said.
“And playoff basketball is different. It’s 0-0 both sides and we have to take care of things and not let those opportunities pass us away when we have home-court advantage. So we understand the pressure we put on ourselves and want to To be the absolute best in every game, none of us have forgotten how we felt after the last game and we come into this game with a lot of pressure.”
Liberty took the chip and beat the Mystics with it.
After being less than physical in the regular season finale, they proved that the playoffs are a different story entirely. From the start of the second quarter, Liberty stepped up on defense, breaking the glass and pulling away to win easily.
“We’ve been preparing since Sunday,” said Breanna Stewart, who uncharacteristically scored 10 points on 3-for-16 shooting but also added a game-high eight rebounds. 3 blocks and +18 points. score.
“In the last game, they hit more than us and we wanted to make sure we came out first and hit them,” she added, “and make sure it wasn’t a one-time thing but an ongoing thing. “Things that continued throughout the game. “
