There was a taste of the playoffs on Thursday night as Liberty hosted the Storm of Gabby Williams. Under the watchful eye of Dwyane Wade, Sabrina Ionescu's teammates confirmed their domination of the regular season with a 77-70 victory.
The New York franchise, which found Betnijah Laney-Hamilton (18 points) as a starter, took advantage of a 12-0 run spanning the 3rd and 4th quarters to make the difference. With a record of 28 wins for 6 losses, the Liberty will need one or two more wins to ensure home court advantage throughout the playoffs.
For their part, the Storm (20v-14d) are aiming for 4th place in the standings, synonymous with home court advantage in the first round, but the franchise is losing ground to the Aces (21v-12d), who have overtaken them thanks to three straight wins. The good news for Seattle is that Gabby Williams has finally found the target with 17 points on 8 of 13 shooting, and the Frenchwoman adds 4 rebounds and 5 assists. For her, the Storm lacks mental consistency.
“We're going to have to be almost perfect from now on.” she answers about this 4th place. “You can't afford to have mental holes if you want to achieve this.”
The other good news is that the Storm is done with its road trip and that Skylar Diggins-Smith's teammates will be back in action on Sunday, when they host the Mercury.
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
How to read the stats? Min = Minutes; Shots = Shots made / Shots attempted; 3pts = 3-pointers / 3-pointers attempted; LF = Free throws made / Free throws attempted; O = Offensive rebound; D = Defensive rebound; T = Total rebounds; Pd = Assists; Fte: Personal fouls; Int = Steals; Bp = Loose balls; Ct: Blocks; +/- = Point differential when the player is on the court; Pts = Points; Eval: Player evaluation calculated from positive actions – negative actions.
