Shorthanded Liberty suffer embarrassing loss to lowly Wings

ARLINGTON, Texas — The Liberty came close to pulling off a grand fourth-quarter rally Monday night.

They cut a 30-point second-half deficit down to six with 1:44 to go.

But New York fell short, suffering a 92-82 defeat to the Wings.

The Liberty’s attempt at a comeback was inspiring, sure. They outscored the Wings 20-7 in the fourth quarter.

But not even the word “embarrassing” could sum up how poorly the defending champions fared for most of the game.

Early in the third quarter, New York looked like it was in jeopardy of suffering one of its most lopsided losses in the past few years at the hands of the Wings — a team that entered the game second to last in the WNBA standings.

The Liberty can try to hang their hat on the fact they managed to trim a season-high deficit of 30 points to six in the fourth quarter.

But the way the Liberty played for most of Monday was quite frankly unacceptable for a team that’s serious about winning another title this season.

Sure, New York was without Breanna Stewart (right leg) and Nyara Sabally (rest.) Kennedy Burke also was a surprising late addition to the team’s injury report after she exited Saturday’s game with a lower body cramp.

But the Liberty still have plenty of talent to handle the Wings, who had lost six of their previous seven games.

The Liberty’s condensed schedule shouldn’t be an excuse either.

Monday may have been New York’s third game in four days, but the Wings had played a game 24 hours prior to taking the court Monday night.

And quite frankly, the Liberty had a day between games to prepare for this matchup.

Did New York underestimate the Wings? Or look too far ahead in the schedule, knowing that a WNBA Finals rematch is on the horizon?

The Wings had the Liberty’s number from the jump, and their lead grew steadily throughout the first half.

New York looked disorganized and often was trailing on defense, leading to uncontested looks for Dallas.

The Wings took advantage of what the Liberty were giving them, shooting 58.7 percent from the field in the first half and 46.2 percent for the full game.

New York surrendered 31 and 32 points in each of the first two quarters and trailed by 27 points at halftime.

But the Liberty did fight back, as they’ve done numerous times this season.

They didn’t surrender, outscoring the Wings 46-29 in the second half.

But it never should have gotten to the point it did. And in the end, the Liberty couldn’t climb out of the deep hole they dug early.

Monday was one game in a season of 44. But it does lend an ominous feeling to what might happen Wednesday when the Liberty face the league-leading Lynx for the first time since New York beat them in a title-clinching Game 5 in the WNBA Finals.