LOS ANGELES — WNBA All-Star weekend was fun while it lasted.
But the break — if one can even call it that — is over, at least for the Liberty.
While some teams, like the Atlanta Dream, who have been off for nine days, don’t play until Wednesday, the schedule makers weren’t as kind to the Liberty.
After four days away in which the team dispersed from coast to coast, the Liberty regrouped in Los Angeles on Monday for a practice before launching into a five-week sprint before the World Cup break.
New York is scheduled to open this 13-game stretch against the Sparks on Tuesday.
“Now you got to push to finish off really strong before the World Cup,” Sabrina Ionescu told The Post after a spirited practice. “It’s always nice to kind of be able to reset, get a little bit of time. That month was crazy for us with a lot of travel…. It’s already [almost] August, and then September’s the World Cup, and then there’s a couple more games, and then playoffs start. Like, it’s gone really, really fast, and so I think for us, it’s just kind of focusing on this next month.”
The first 27 games of the Liberty’s season were a mixed bag with players in and out of the lineup.
They won the Commissioner’s Cup and strung together an eight-game winning streak.
Then, after a tough start to July, New York snapped a season-long four-game losing skid with back-to-back one-point wins.
The Liberty hope to build off those victories starting Tuesday.
The theme of Monday’s practice was intentionality.
“We’ve flipped the page over, especially at those final two games where we won in some pretty big moments,” Rebecca Allen said. “And I think collectively, on the defensive side, we’ve really picked it up a notch. And I think the communication, the intensity, the helping each other, that aspect has really taken a step up, and that’s something we need to continue and maintain for the 40 minutes.”
The Liberty haven’t been consistently great at weathering adversity this season. The last time they played in Los Angeles on June 21, New York squandered a 17-point second-half lead and lost on a Nneka Ogwumike buzzer-beater. The Liberty have lost more than they’ve won since. This month, New York has made a habit of digging itself into double-figure deficits.
As a result, the Liberty (15-12) tumbled in the league standings — not that there’s any panic. They’re comfortable in seventh place — four games ahead of the ninth-place Portland Fire.
“At the end of the day, a win is a win, and we’re still gonna learn,” Rebekah Gardner said. “Definitely take that good energy [from the past week] into this road trip. And we were talking about we have [13] games before the next break, so they’re all very important for our standing. So we understand the importance of these next three games. Just taking it one game at a time.”
As challenging as this season has been, Ionescu remains unfazed. The team’s goal is still to win a championship and she’s drawn inspiration from the Knicks, who went on a historic run to end the franchise’s 53-year title drought.
“Watching the Knicks and seeing how a team could be down by 20 at some point and 15 in the fourth and in a Finals series, then come back and win, it kind of gives like good insight to understanding how tough you have to be mentally and how connected you have to be as a team to be able to weather that storm,” she said. “For us to be having that adversity early on in a season and find ways to win speaks a lot about who we are as individuals and the togetherness that we have.”
