Breanna Stewart’s 38 points not enough for Liberty as winning streak ends with loss to Lynx

The Liberty have openly made winning the WNBA title a goal, and Sunday they got a preview of a potential Finals foe. And it wasn’t pretty.

In a sneak peak at what would be the likeliest finals matchup, the Liberty gave away the game, digging a huge hole and falling, 88-79, to Minnesota.

The defeat didn’t just snap the Liberty’s five-game winning streak and give Minnesota the season series, 3-1.

It also wasted a great Breanna Stewart outing, and a chance to clinch the top overall seed in the playoffs.

“Hopefully, we meet them again and it should be fresh, and we can learn a lot from it. But I just felt like they wanted it more than us. We didn’t have the physical presence we needed,” said Liberty coach Sandy Brondello, who preached accountability and staying together in the postgame locker room.

“We got smacked in the head. So how are we going to respond? So hopefully get another chance to play them in the playoffs. But we weren’t our best. So let’s learn and be ready for the next two games to finish the season.”

The Liberty (31-7) saw their cushion on West-leading Minnesota for the top seed shaved to two games.

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If they lose out and the Lynx — who’ve won six straight to improve to 29-9 — win out, the Liberty would drop to No. 2.

When they faced Minnesota on May 25, they fell, 84-67, in their worst loss of the year.

On Sunday, they trailed by 25 in the third, rendering the fourth-quarter rally moot.

Stewart had 38 points and 18 rebounds, pouring in 17 in the fourth quarter alone.

But trailing by two dozen after three, even that fourth wasn’t enough.

Once again against the Lynx, they were measured and found wanting.

And left humbled.

“This is exactly what you need to happen because right now we’re not good enough,” Stewart admitted. “We know we have two games left, we know we want to clinch one to seal homecourt advantage, but also know we have to work. We have to be better, and we want to be our best come playoff time.

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“But our team, we have the experience, the mindset and mentality to look at this, take this one on the chin and see what we can do better.”

They’ll need to be better in so many ways.

They struggled when the Lynx junked up their defenses.

Minnesota packed the middle of the free-throw line and collapsed quickly.

Jonquel Jones was held to nine points and five boards.

Sabrina Ionescu (13 points, eight assists) was the only other Liberty player joining Stewart in double figures, but shot just 4 of 21.

New York fell behind, 16-6, out of the gate, and never found an offensive answer.

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The Liberty trailed, 35-18, early in the second quarter when over-helping led to an open corner 3 by Bridget Carleton (team-high 19 points).

It swelled to 74-48 on Kayla McBride’s 3 late in the third, the quarter ending with Ionescu missing three 3s on the final possession.

With the Liberty going into the fourth down, 74-50, they reeled off 13 unanswered points to try to get back into it.

Ionescu found Kayla Thornton for a 3 to cut the deficit to 74-63 with 7:05 remaining in the game.

Ionescu found Stewart for a 3-pointer that made it 80-72 with 4:39 to play, and her free throws cut it to 85-77 in the final minute.

But they got no closer.

“I think it’s good. It’s always a blessing in disguise sometimes to get punched in the mouth and have to be able to respond,” said Ionescu.

“I didn’t shoot the ball. I was 4-for-21, which isn’t great. But I’m going to continue to stick with it, knowing I’m definitely going to be better than I was moving forward. I need a game like this sometimes to just knock some sense into me and understand I can’t show up and play like this for us to win.”

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