Liberty getting dominated by Sky rookie only puts spotlight on potential Achilles heel
The 13-win Sky have given the championship-hopeful Liberty more trouble than they should have this season. Scratch that, it’s rookie Sydney Taylor who’s been the main problem.Taylor torched New York in each of their previous two matchups, dropping 24 points in the June 17 meeting and 31 more July 22.New York barely escaped each game, winning by one point twice. In their most recent meeting, Taylor went 9-for-17 from the field and 4-for-7 from downtown.She nearly helped Chicago pull off the upset had Sabrina Ionescu not rescued the Liberty with a frantic late-game comeback.Taylor is averaging 14.2 points this season, and her status for Tuesday’s game against the Liberty is “questionable” as she’s been dealing with a left groin injury. But New York’s struggles against the Sky highlight a larger issue.If the Liberty can’t stop Taylor, how can they expect to slow superstar guards on championship contenders in the playoffs?New York’s perimeter defense has looked bad for some time this season.
It got embarrassed in last week’s 106-92 loss in Indiana during which Caitlin Clark and Kelsey Mitchell combined for 50 points. Indiana went 16-for-24 from 3-point range, which the Liberty somewhat shrugged off as an unusually hot shooting night by the Fever.The problem, though, is the high frequency with which the Fever generated good — sometimes wide-open — looks that night.It’s been a recurring issue exacerbated in the past seven or so weeks.The Liberty also allowed the Sparks to shoot 6-for-9 from deep during a 40-point fourth-quarter surge Thursday.This season, the Liberty are bottom five in the league in opponent 3-pointers made (9.3 per game) and opponent 3-point percentage (35.5 percent). It’s gotten even worse over the last 15 games, with New York allowing 10.1 made 3s per game while opponents are shooting 38.4 percent from behind the arc. The Liberty’s injury situation at wing has made that problem dramatically more grave.Leonie Fiebic...