The New York Liberty are looking for a closer. Tuesday, they lost to the Atlanta Dream, 85-79, their second straight overtime disappointment. Coming off a franchise record 23-win season, New York was expected to build on last year’s success but have dropped to 2-2 on the season thanks to back-to-back losses in extra time.
Tina Charles can’t carry the New York Liberty offense forever
Without another go-to scorer, New York has blown leads in back-to-back overtime losses.
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In the pair of losses, the Liberty have been outscored by 24 points in the fourth quarters and extra minutes, combined. The lack of offense down the stretch has been frustrating.
“I feel like we need to find somebody that can shoot the ball in the basket,” said head coach Bill Laimbeer. “One of our bugaboos the past few games is that we can’t make shots. We have to find a way to score efficiently.”
Through four games, the Liberty are third from the bottom in effective field goal percentage and true shooting percentage. In its two losses, New York is shooting 34.9 percent from the field.
“Part of it is our mental mistakes and not being in the right spots, not having the right timing,” said Laimbeer. “But we need to have somebody step up and be an offensive threat for us.”
Tina Charles, as expected, has been the main scoring outlet for the Liberty so far, collecting a double-double in every game. In a loss to the Atlanta Dream, she posted 29 points, 10 rebounds, seven steals and six rebounds, playing 42 of a possible 45 minutes.
She rained buckets in the third quarter, scoring 11 points, and drained her fourth career three-pointer in the fourth to tack on seven more points.
But it wasn’t enough to cling on to a lead that peaked to 11 points in the third. She went 0-for-3 from the field in overtime when she was hit with double-teams who kept her scoreless.
“I don’t agree with Bill when he says that [we need go-to shooters],” said Charles. “I’m gonna put that out there, I don’t care. We have go-to shooters. We have Sugar Rodgers. We have Shavonte Zellous. We do have go-to shooters, so I don’t agree with him.”
Rogers looked the part of a lead scorer in the Liberty’s first two games, scoring 43 points on 15-27 shooting in both wins. But the pair has gone 11-of-44 from the field in the two losses since and neither averaged more than eight points per game last season.
The core is much of the same that brought the Liberty to the No. 1 seed in the east a season ago, though. The missing piece is Epiphanny Prince who is rehabbing an ACL injury.
"In the first half of the season last year [Prince] wasn't with us and we had a really great run and we sustained without her, so we do have a great team," said Charles. "It's about wanting it more. Just finishing plays, boxing out."
Re-signing veteran Swin Cash in time to play her first game of the season was key, even if she did only play 14 minutes, scoring just six points. Though Laimbeer doesn’t intend to move Cash into the starting lineup, she may be able to help push a team that’s struggled to close out games.
“She’s huge just vocally and on her presence alone,” said Charles. “Just to have her back was a huge plus for us.”
The Liberty will have to find reliable alternative options to Charles to find success in close games, and things won’t get any easier with the defending champion Minnesota Lynx coming to town next Tuesday.
