Sunday’s WNBA playoff opener between the top-seeded New York Liberty and the eighth-seeded Atlanta Dream went accordingly.
The Liberty began rapid, by no means trailed and cruised to a resounding 83-69 house win. They’ll have a possibility to comb the best-of-three first-round sequence on Tuesday evening with Recreation 2 in New York.
“They punched us within the mouth. That is precisely what they have been intended to do. They are of their house, they are intended to return out like that,” Atlanta trainer Tanisha Wright mentioned.
“Now we need to discover ways to reply to it.”
A enough reaction Tuesday will have to function extra aggression from the Dream, particularly within the early mins.
Within the opening quarter of Recreation 1, the Liberty outrebounded the Dream 11-3 and restricted the guests to 35.3 p.c capturing as they led by means of as many as 18 issues.
“Their physicality in point of fact afflicted us,” Wright mentioned. “We need to make that adjustment and needless to say it is playoff basketball.”
The Dream may additionally wish to tweak their defensive scheme towards New York rookie Leonie Fiebich. The ahead tallied a career-high 21 issues on 7-of-8 capturing and made all 4 of her 3-point makes an attempt on Sunday.
Fiebich’s profession day got here in a unprecedented get started, one thing she did in simply 15 of the Liberty’s 40 regular-season video games.
“No matter position I am in, then again many mins I play, it isn’t important,” she mentioned. “I am gonna carry the similar on a daily basis.”
Fiebich additionally imposed herself on protection. She helped restrict Rhyne Howard, Atlanta’s height regular-season scorer at 17.3 issues in step with sport, to 2 issues as New York opened a 48-30 halftime lead. Howard completed with a team-high 14 issues on 5-of-14 capturing.
Liberty trainer Sandy Brondello mentioned she began the 6-foot-4 Fiebich over Courtney Vandersloot, indexed at 5-foot-8, to provide New York extra dimension when protecting Howard and her teammates.
Given Fiebich’s good fortune on Sunday, Brondello instructed she might keep on with the rookie over the 14-year veteran Vandersloot on Tuesday.
“For now, we will stay (the beginning lineup) like that, however we will do no matter we predict is ultimate for the staff at the moment,” Brondello mentioned.
A win Tuesday would ship the Liberty to the semifinals for the second one instantly season. New York misplaced ultimate yr’s best-of-five WNBA Finals to the Las Vegas Aces in 4 video games.
The Dream, who have been swept out of ultimate yr’s first around by means of the Dallas Wings, would host Recreation 3 on Thursday if important.
–Box Degree Media
