WINNING UGLY
Fans at Madison Square Garden were celebrating the Liberty’s third straight season-opening win as the players left the court.
In the locker room, the music subsided. The cheering stopped. And Bill Laimbeer’s screaming began.
The Liberty’s 73-64 win over the San Antonio Stars — last year’s league-worst team, playing without No. 1-overall pick Kelsey Plum, and star guard Moriah Jefferson — wasn’t enough to disguise all that had gone wrong, and all that could prevent the Liberty from claiming their firstever WNBA championship.
“From top to bottom, I thought this was as bad of an effort as we could have put forth,” said Laimbeer, who coached the Liberty to the best record in the Eastern Conference the past two seasons. “They want to be all talk, they can be all talk. They won’t go anywhere. … We can’t expect to play like that and expect to compete for a championship.
“With all due respect to San Antonio, we should’ve won this game by 20-something points. Everybody could’ve had some playing time, had a lot of fun. Instead, now I’m angry and we’re going to have to have hard practices, and I’m going to be right in there butt all day the next three days, as I should, and I’m not taking my foot off their throat.”
Despite leading by 18 in the fourth quarter, the Liberty allowed the Stars to trim the deficit to nine in the final minutes, forcing Laimbeer to reluctantly bring back resting star Tina Charles off the bench to prevent a possible stunning upset.
The coach called out Kiah Stoke for being “out of shape,” and criticized his second-unit for getting pushed around.
“I’m not going to sugarcoat anything this year,” Laimbeer said. “We’re going to talk about what reality is.
“I hope this is the worst game we play all year long. It was awful.”
Charles, who led the league in scoring and rebounding last season, had a team-high 12 points and seven rebounds, but the former MVP hit just 6 of 19 shots from the field and was disgusted that the Liberty allowed 13 offensive rebounds and committed 13 turnovers.
“It’s very concerning. It’s very alarming,” Charles said. “We need to strive to do better. When you play a team like that, that’s not at their full strength and doesn’t have two key players, you’re supposed to stomp them. You’re supposed to keep the pedal on them and we didn’t do that.”
Charles’ supporting cast was stronger than in years past, with four other players finishing with double-digit points. Brooklyn’s Epiphanny Prince scored 11 points, and new Liberty forward Cierra Burdick hit her first five shots off the bench. Recently acquired center Kia Vaughn had seven points on 3-of-5 shooting from the field, and Long Island’s Bria Hartley added four rebounds and three assists in her first home game at the Garden.
Laimbeer didn’t see the positives, though, aside from the updated standings. He saw a talented team that looked as close and as far from a championship as it ever had been.
“They have to learn what it takes,” Laimbeer said. “We don’t have it yet.”