The afternoon following the eighth-seeded Liberty’s historic sweep of the top-seeded Minnesota Lynx, Liberty co-owner Joe Tsai took to social media with a brazen declaration.
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Tsai → follow → declaration
“Seeding doesn’t matter,” Tsai posted to X Wednesday.
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Tsai → matter → X
“We’re the best team in the playoffs.
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We → ’re → playoffs
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you → get → things
tRY IT NOWIn front of their home crowd, the Liberty made history on the Barclays Center court, becoming the only No. 8 seed to topple the No. 1 team and proving naysayers wrong.
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Liberty → try → naysayers
The Liberty walked into this series against the Lynx as underdogs and went on to eliminate the league’s best team this season in two games.
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Liberty → walk → games
The Libs, led by their big three, looked for two games like the team projected in the preseason to seriously contend for the WNBA title.
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Libs → lead → title
The Liberty believed they could survive whatever the playoffs threw at them.
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playoffs → believe → them
Then, they proved it during a best-of-three series.
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they → prove → series
“We’re all learning and growing together,” Rebecca Allen said after the Liberty’s series-clinching win.
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Allen → learn → win
Now, they get ready for a best-of-five WNBA semifinal against the fourth-seeded Atlanta Dream, who ousted the No. 5 Washington Mystics in two games.
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who → get → games
The Liberty appear to be a team finally starting to understand who it is after grinding through an uninspiring regular season.
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it → appear → season
They put together two inspiring performances that led to a stunning first-round upset.
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that → put → upset
Very few picked the Liberty to actually do it — not that the team gave weight to what those outside the locker room were saying.
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those → pick → room
“I don’t really care personally because I know how good of a team we are, where we can be, where we can go,” Leonie Fiebich said.
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Fiebich → care → team
“We have a goal and it’s pretty clear that we’re all locked in and we’re ready to go.”
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we → have → goal
The Liberty’s statistical profile didn’t pop off the page in the regular season.
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profile → pop → season
They finished sixth in offensive rating, seventh in defensive rating and seventh in net rating and finished with one fewer win than a year ago.
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They → finish → win
But New York overwhelmed the Lynx when the stage lights turned on.
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lights → overwhelm → Lynx
The Liberty held the Lynx to 75 and 71 points in Games 1 and 2, respectively.
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Liberty → hold → Games
They outscored Minnesota in the paint 74-50.
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They → outscore → paint
The Liberty’s game plan to fluster Rookie of the Year winner Olivia Miles worked.
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plan → fluster → winner
Stewart was a wrecking ball in Game 1, finishing with 34 points, 12 rebounds, six assists, two blocks and two steals.
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Stewart → wreck → points
In Game 2, Jonquel Jones took over inside and Sabrina Ionescu rediscovered her flow while Stewart looked on brand.
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Stewart → take → brand
Suddenly the team that spent much of the regular season looking like it was searching for itself looked like it had found itself at exactly the right time.
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it → spend → time
“When you have that three-headed monster coming at you, obviously, it’s really tough,” Stewart said.
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Stewart → have → you
“And setting that tone every night is something that’s important going forward because it’s the playoffs.”
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it → set → tone
Amid a tightly contested playoff field, the Liberty look far more stable now than they did entering the postseason.
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they → contest → postseason
An established championship trio — featuring Stewart’s versatility, Jones’ interior presence and Ionescu’s shot-making and creativity — gives the Liberty an advantage on most teams.
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trio → feature → teams
They have wings who can score and defend.
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who → have → wings
New York’s bench is capable of holding a lead when the starters sit, and first-year coach Chris DeMarco and his staff are figuring out what works.
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what → hold → lead
“We are an eight seed even though we don’t feel like it and we need to be that,” Stewart said.
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Stewart → feel → it
“We have to have that chip on our shoulder and … the chip of winning, wanting to win a championship changes to being people thinking that they’re gonna be able to just do whatever they want to us … so I think having that mindset and mentality is great going forward.”
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having → have → mindset
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