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SAN FRANCISCO — The Liberty finally clinched a playoff spot Tuesday night.
But hold the applause.
New York has Phoenix to thank.
The Mercury beat the Fever, 85-79, granting the Liberty the fifth postseason berth three days after they failed to secure their own destiny Saturday against Phoenix.
And though the Liberty officially have a chance to defend their 2024 WNBA title this postseason, they don’t have much to celebrate following their 66-58 loss to the Valkyries.
Sandy Brondello said the Liberty haven’t talked about playoff positioning. Their focus, she said, is improving and winning.
“It’s about us playing consistently great for 40 minutes and we haven’t done that consistently great all season long,” Brondello said before the game. “So I need to do a better job, our players just need to hang in there and compete where we can. … We need to play better obviously and then we need to build some confidence over these next few games and I trust the team with our full team back, I think no one would really want to meet us in that first round.”
But Tuesday’s showing didn’t inspire much confidence in this group that’s staggered through the past 10 weeks of play.
Even with Sabrina Ionescu ruled out with a big toe injury, the Liberty are a better team on paper than the Valkyries. They have big star players, such as Breanna Stewart, Jonquel Jones and Emma Meesseman and dynamic role players.
But Golden State has the fight that the Liberty have lacked for a lot of this season.
Stewart and Natasha Cloud scored 19 points apiece.
But the rest of the starting lineup — Jones, Kennedy Burke and Leonie Fiebich — combined for only eight points on 3-for-10 shooting, which is unacceptable.
The Valkyries outscored the Liberty 26-8 in the second quarter — marking the fewest points Golden State has allowed in a quarter in its inaugural season.
In the third quarter, the Liberty saw the Valkyries lead swell to as many as 24.
With New York struggling, Brondello deployed Rebekah Gardner, who had watched the first 25 minutes from the bench.
Gardner provided the Liberty with a jolt of energy, grabbing two steals in less than five minutes. The Liberty cut the Valkyries lead to 12 by the beginning of the fourth quarter.
But they couldn’t recover.
The Liberty ultimately had their overall worst shooting performance of the season, going 31.6 percent from the field. They also went 7-for-27 from deep (25.9 percent.)
The Valkyries — who have the No. 1 defense when playing at home — have held each of their past three opponents to 63 or fewer points.
After the win, Golden State center Temi Fagbenle said the Valkyries are in “playoff mode” as they hope to earn one of the final three remaining spots.
As for the Liberty, this was a pivotal three-game road trip as they try to muster some momentum heading into the playoffs.
But the defending champions have failed to do that in their first two stops.
The Liberty have three games left in the regular season before their title defense really begins. They wrap up this road trip Friday in Seattle.
