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 Fiebich, New York’s most important perimeter stopper, hasn’t played a game since July 3 because of a foot injury.
Satou Sabally, signed in the offseason in part to give the Liberty another big, versatile wing defender, has been dealing with the aftermath of her second concussion in less than a year.
Then, there is Betnijah Laney-Hamilton, the former WNBA All-Star and key piece of the 2024 championship team who is no longer with the Liberty.
The Liberty thought they had wing depth heading into the season.
Now they don’t. The three players who were supposed to give New York size, versatility and defensive flexibility on the perimeter aren’t available, causing a major strain on everyone else to pick up the slack.
The front office deserves some heat for this problem — maybe not all the heat, but a healthy dose.
On one hand, general manager Jonathan Kolb doesn’t have a crystal ball to see into the future on injuries.
On the other hand, Kolb signed Sabally knowing she had an injury history. And there’s always uncertainty when a player is coming off major surgery and a long layoff like Laney-Hamilton was at the age of 32.
But also, how much fault lies on the coaching staff for scheme and game prep and the players for execution?
There’s plenty of blame to go around.
New York is struggling to put the clamps on dynamic guards.
Fiebich is expected to return at some point this season. Sabally’s future, though, is less certain.
Fiebich should provide a boost once she is back in the mix.
Until then, though, the Liberty might be stuck treading water.
