The journey to defend 2024 WNBA championship has officially begun for the New York Liberty. The 2025 WNBA regular season hasn’t exactly gone as planned for the Liberty due to several injuries, specifically to Breanna Stewart. However, none of that matters anymore. The only thing that deserves focus is their current opponent, the Phoenix Mercury.
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The New York Liberty and Phoenix Mercury are the 4-5 matchup in the first round. Mercury will have home court advantage since they are the fourth seed. Although the Liberty have the bigger names on their team, that won’t take them too far, especially against an in-form team like Mercury.
WNBA legend Sue Bird explained why on the Bird’s Eye View podcast. Bird believes that the Mercury have an ace on Alyssa Thomas, who is going to cause some serious issues for Liberty if they can’t come up with a coherent game plan, courtesy of her insanely high skillset.
“[Alyssa Thomas] is someone that I think is really going to expose you if you don’t have a chance to game plan for because she does so much,” Bird said.
Of course, game planning in the regular season is completely different from that in the postseason. Since the Mercury are the only team the Liberty have to worry about right now, Bird believes that they will at least try and limit the impact Thomas ought to have on the game.
“I would imagine the Liberty are going to have something,” Bird said. “It’s not just about [Alyssa Thomas], it’s about their whole team. They thrive when they’re able to run.”
Phoenix is one of the best transition teams in the entire league and are tied fourth in the WNBA in fastbreak points. Who’s the other team they are tied with? You guessed it – Liberty.
Owning the transition game will be a huge key for either team. The best way of creating those opportunities is to be on the defensive side of the ball. New York is one of the worst teams in the league when it comes to protecting the ball, which Bird highlights as something they will need to improve.
“Phoenix has caused like 17 and a half turnovers in their series with New York. So, they’ve turned New York over a lot. I think the Liberty really have to focus on that cause you can’t let Phoenix get out in transition,” Bird proclaimed.
The Liberty might have different opinions on the subject but they should really listen to Bird on this. The former Seattle Storm superstar won four WNBA championships, two of which came alongside Stewart. Safe to say, she knows a little something about title wins.
If the Liberty can clean up in the aforementioned areas, the roll of the dice might just end up being in their favor. That is much easier said than done, but New York does have the championship DNA to make it happen.
