The New York Liberty already have a playoff spot guaranteed. However, for Liberty forward Breanna Stewart, the team is not approaching any of its games with any less intensity or seriousness. The goal remains to win as many games as they can and finish as high as possible in the standings.
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And with what Stewart said on Monday’s edition of the Game Recognize Game podcast, the quest of getting a higher position in the standings is not just to determine the kind of team they might face in the playoffs. For her, and the Liberty as a team, it is simply about playing their best basketball and putting themselves in the best possible position heading into the postseason.
“We want to get the highest seed possible. It’s not really about who we’re going to match up with, but more so us playing our best. And uh, we just had a tough one last night against the Valkyries. They’re a really good team. They play really well together. But, you know, knowing that we have one more game tomorrow against Chicago before we head into this World Cup break.”
“Those final four games are going to be really determining to see where we finish… The home-court advantage doesn’t really matter, you know, in the playoffs. It matters the experience, and that’s something that I’m going to fall back on.”
Ahead of the FIBA World Cup break, which runs from August 31 to September 16, the Liberty suffered a 79-60 loss against the Golden State Valkyries, a result that further affected their chances of moving higher in the standings. However, their last game ahead of the break against the Chicago Sky ended in a win. The Liberty defeated the Sky 85-66, with Breanna Stewart herself registering 13 points and nine rebounds.
The plan now, as Breanna Stewart revealed on the podcast, is to try as much as possible to win their final four regular-season games after the World Cup break. They will face the Minnesota Lynx, Toronto Tempo, and Atlanta Dream in their remaining games, with the Atlanta Dream appearing twice on their schedule.
Right now, the New York Liberty are seated in sixth place in the WNBA standings. And the goal, as Stewart pointed out, is to get as high as possible over the course of the final four games. Of course, their position in the standings really does determine which team they will eventually play in the playoffs.
Specifically, eight teams will qualify for the playoffs. And the way it is structured is that the No. 1 seed, seated No. 1 in the standings, which happens to be the Minnesota Lynx right now, will face the No. 8 seed. In the same vein, No. 2 faces No. 7, No. 3 faces No. 6, and No. 4 faces the No. 5-seeded team.
As it stands, the New York Liberty, being the sixth-seeded team, will face the Las Vegas Aces, who happen to be No. 3 right now.
However, as Breanna Stewart explained, winning the games ahead of the playoffs will be far more important for boosting their confidence and consistency. While securing a higher seed helps, the Liberty have lost three games in their last eight games, and two of these have come against teams that have made the playoffs.
Before the Valkyries, the Indiana Fever beat New York 106-92. Although they have already avenged that loss with a close 109-102 win, another concerning loss came against 10th-place Chicago Sky, who didn’t even qualify for this year’s playoffs.
So, to a large extent, they seem to have their destiny in their hands as they play the Atlanta Dream twice in their remaining four games. Win those two, and maybe the Toronto Tempo game as well, and they are guaranteed to move up at least one place.