After playing two afternoon games during a grueling back-to-back that took place in two different countries, the New York Liberty looked and sounded exhausted. Breanna Stewart just didn’t want to think anymore.
She had 22 points, eight rebounds and two assists in 34 minutes of play on Sunday against the Toronto Tempo in Montreal, after a 17-point performance with seven rebounds and three assists in 37 minutes of play against the Minnesota Lynx.
The Liberty lost both games and Stewart’s frustration showed at 5:30 p.m. that afternoon in Canada, sitting in front of reporters. She sat with her left hand on her mouth, eyebrows furrowed downward while staring at the losing box score. But then, when a reporter asked her now about a stretch of games where the Liberty trailed in double digits, came back to then lose all of them, Stewart’s eyebrows rose. She was too exhausted to even remain furious.
“I don’t know,” she said while playing with her right ear. Stewart is usually not someone kept to just three words.
The New York Liberty are once again at a crossroads. They’ve lost seven of their last 10 games, excluding the Commissioner’s Cup championship win against the Aces around two weeks ago. It looked clear then that the Liberty were asserting themselves and presenting an identity.
Two weeks later, that clarity appears to have been a red herring. Since that Cup championship win on June 29, the Liberty have gone 1-3 with the fifth-best offense and 12th-best defense in that stretch. Their -0.9 net rating during that stretch proves that they’ve competed but haven’t been able to execute fully when it matters most and win games. The team’s 19.4 turnover percentage during that stretch also proves that this team continues to struggle holding onto the basketball, which directly impacts the possession game and, in turn, winning basketball games.
What has caused some of these recent struggles? How much worry should there be when, as of Wednesday afternoon, the Liberty would be the No. 8 seed, just narrowly making the postseason? The playoffs are what this team has spoken about building toward, but New York is now at risk of having to face a much more difficult team in the first round. Not ideal for a team that is operating in a WNBA Finals or bust space.
Struggles playing in clutch time
The one bright spot, however, during this 1-3 stretch has been Sabrina Ionescu, who has averaged 21 points per game, 6 assists and 4.3 rebounds. That’s much more what to expect from Ionescu, who early on struggled to find her footing after a month out with multiple injuries to her ankle and then her back.
Although her efficiency during this stretch is still a work in progress––she’s shooting 43.1% overall and 30.6% from three–– and some of that has come from chucking up shots from deep either too early or too late in the shot clock.
There were moments during the Liberty’s back-to-back double loss to the Lynx and Tempo when Ionescu was willing New York offensively, but she couldn’t get the team across the finish line. The Liberty have struggled to win tight games. Five of their last seven losses have been within single digits.
And this is something relatively new for this team since the superteam era began in 2023. The Liberty’s 2026 net-rating in clutch time, data that reflects performance in the last five minutes of a game within five points, is -3.0, the lowest and the first negative net rating since Stewart and Jonquel Jones arrived in New York.
For reference, the Liberty’s clutch net rating was 13.9 in 2023, 25.6 in 2024 and then 8.6 in 2025.
The obvious point out here is that the Liberty are in these high-pressure situations alongside a first-time head coach, and an incredibly new staff around him. This could improve during the second half of the season, but that’s worth keeping an eye on.
Leonie Fiebich‘s status remains up in the air
The only win that the Liberty have had since the Commissioner’s Cup championship game came against the Lynx on July 3, and that one came with Leonie Fiebich available to play.
During the team’s practice on July 6, a day before the Liberty’s July 7 matchup against the Dallas Wings, head coach Chris DeMarco provided some clarity on why Fiebich was missing. She had left foot soreness that “popped up” after the Lynx game.
Then, the next morning at shootaround, DeMarco explained a little bit more about Fiebich in that she was going to get an MRI. And then when the Liberty left for Minneapolis on Friday, July 10, Fiebich stayed back in Brooklyn. When DeMarco was asked for an update on those MRI results, his response was that the Liberty and Fiebich were looking at a second opinion. “All we know: it’s not a fracture,” DeMarco said pregame on July 11. “We’re trying to get to the root of it right now.”
Not to mention: another one of the Liberty’s 6’4 wings, Satou Sabally, still remains out. DeMarco’s update on July 11 hinted toward some progress and that she was starting the reconditioning process.
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Even without Sabally, Fiebich is a piece of the Liberty’s connective tissue. The on-off numbers via PBP stats prove it just as much. With Fiebich on the floor, the Liberty’s net rating is at 8.13, while it lowers to 1.10 without her. The team’s defensive rating is 104.16 with her and then 108.49 without her. Opponent three-point percentage balloons from 28.57 to 35.58 without her on the floor.
Case in point: she’s a wing who can process on both ends of the floor incredibly well and plays in a way that makes the Liberty’s zone defense function.
Nekias Duncan, one of the hosts of The Dunker Spot Podcast, explained why the concerns of Fiebich missing extended time could stand in the way of the Liberty getting back on track.
“She is incredibly important to their defensive infrastructure in particular,” Duncan said on a recent episode of The Dunker Spot. “As I mentioned, the zone like she has been at the top of that, and in general, she just takes on tough defensive matchups. And I think that relieves pressure from what Jonquel Jones can do around the paint, Breanna Stewart doing a little bit of everything, and so like that is something that looms large.”
Something that also looms large with this team is the idea of making adjustments, and if there are ways to adapt to these key injuries to not just Fiebich but to Sabally, too, instead of trying to fit a square peg into a round hole.
Is it time to pare down experimentation?
To be clear, what DeMarco has endured this season is difficult for a first-time head coach. Even for someone as seasoned as current Toronto Tempo head coach Sandy Brondello, the ins and outs and multiple lineups were a horse pill to handle.
As of this writing, DeMarco’s New York Liberty have played with 11 different starting lineups. Will the 2026 Liberty try seven more different ones in their next 20 games? If so, they’ll match Brondello’s 18 different starting lineups from last season. This is not a contest, and results most likely will be better for this team if the buck stops at 11.
When DeMarco was asked about lineups and general rotations prior to the July 7 Dallas game, which have been anything but consistent, he zeroed in on flexibility.
“We got to be flexible,” he said. “Every game is different, every matchup is different. [Fiebich] is now out tonight, so it’s just so there’s minutes there.”
He noted that their versatility is often what the Liberty will have to pull the trigger on in each and every game. A certain situation could mean bigger players like Raquel Carrera or Han Xu. Another could mean smaller players like Betnijah Laney-Hamilton, Rebekah Gardner and Rebecca Allen.
“It just depends. So every game is gonna be different, and especially players in and out of the lineup, it just makes it difficult. But at this point, we’re almost used to it, and our players have done a really good job.”
Are the Liberty used to it? Are the Liberty even confident in what DeMarco wants them to do? Steve Jones, also from The Dunker Spot Podcast, explained the main question he continues to ask about the 2026 team.
“Establish what you know you can do offensively,” he said. “Make yourselves a strength… are you able in those games because of your versatility, or the styles that the other teams are playing, putting you in different scenarios? That’s a question I’m asking.”
A theme that has emerged as of late has been how the Liberty rebound out of their zone, a defensive scheme they are using much more than they were used to under Brondello.
“I just think it’s the overall theme for us,” DeMarco said prior to the Tempo game on Sunday. “I don’t think it’s just in the zone. I think in general we have to scan a little bit better, whether that means hitting a body, whether that means locating where the ball is going, whatever it is. But the ball is everything. We have to go get it.”
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When DeMarco says “scanning,” he’s referring to players on the floor understanding what’s happening on the floor in front of them. It means having “the right focus.”
How did the players feel about this? When Madeline Kenney spoke to Stewart about the rebounding issues at the end of the Lynx game, Stewart replied that this was mainly a personnel issue. “Knowing who’s gonna crash and who you have to box out,” she told Kenney. “That’s the only downfall to our zone, it’s really hard to find a body when you’re matched up to space. … But it’s a hurdle that we have and it’s something that we have to kind of get over the hump.”
A new cognition pattern is something that takes time. Do the Liberty have time to get over the hump? Are the Liberty moving the cart before the horse? Are they being too experimental without knowing what actually works? Fiebich and Sabally being in-and-out is difficult. Is it time for adjustments rather than experiments to ensure that wins can be stacked rather than lost?
New York has spoken about a desire to be unpredictable against opponents, which is why there’s so much experimentation. And there’s an argument to be made that being unpredictable is something the Liberty have so far achieved this season. But that’s not necessarily a compliment.
