Libs routed by Lynx, off to 0-5 start

The Liberty found that confidence they've been looking for. Unfortunately for them, it got lost in the third quarter of their game against the Minnesota Lynx on Wednesday at the IMG Academy in Bradenton, Fla.

The Liberty fell to the Lynx 92-66, extending its losing streak to five to start the season.

“I just thought (the Lynx) played harder,” Liberty coach Walk Hopkins said of his former team. “I thought they wanted it more. They were just really determined in that third quarter to take pain and they took it. And we didn't respond.”

The final score doesn't tell the full story of the matchup. Though it also doesn't paint an entirely different picture from what we've seen so far: a young team still getting used to each other and still struggling together.

“We gotta be more consistent on staying good all together, doesn't matter who's on the floor,” Amanda Zahui B said. “I think we're still growing… We're doing all the small things that we didn't do to begin and we started to do well, now we're just gonna put everything together.

“We are young. We are new to each other. But we just got to keep on building and stay as positive as possible.”

The Liberty had been shooting 55% from the field at the half, then finished the game shooting a hair over 39%. The Lynx are now 118-4 when opponents shoot under 40%, but this time, it wasn't entirely to the credit of their defense.

“I don't think (the Lynx) were doing anything that stopped us from [scoring],” rookie Leonna Odom said. “I think we stopped ourselves from, you know, we just went away from what was working.”

The Liberty also relapsed in fixing their turnover problem. The team had been averaging 16 turnovers a game and were seeing improvement in that area. Wednesday they turned the ball over a season-high 24 times, which ended up being 30 points to the Lynx.