At its best, the Liberty offense can near the century mark — like they did six times last year — and build 20-point leads with ease. That’s the perk of assembling a superteam with a collection of stars and then running it all back again one year later. There’s pace. There’s efficiency.
But then there are nights like Tuesday.
When they scored nine points in the second quarter. When they hit one 3-pointer in the first half. The Liberty’s offense, for the first time this season, struggled and managed its fewest points in a regular-season game since scoring 64 in the 2023 opener.
Against the Seattle Storm, who were missing star forward Nneka Ogwumike, their spotty offense was still enough for a 74-63 win at Barclays Center to secure their first 4-0 start since 2007.
Sabrina Ionescu led the Liberty with 20 points and eight assists, while Breanna Stewart and Jonquel Jones added 16 each.
The Liberty were saved by the Storm shooting 34 percent from the field.
Seattle, at this juncture of the season, is still adjusting.
The Storm assembled their own version of a quasi-superteam this offseason, though Jewell Loyd didn’t want to label the additions of Ogwumike and Skylar Diggins-Smith an attempt to construct one.
The rhetoric used by the Liberty over and over again last year — about the need for time and practice and, most of all, patience — were echoed by the Storm before the game Tuesday.
In the present, though, those early-season adjustments have led to inconsistent performances only magnified by Ogwumike’s absence.
The Storm shot 28 percent in the first half. They turned the ball over nine times. And all of that directly correlated to the Liberty keeping their undefeated record intact.
Two days after hitting 12 3-pointers in the first half against the Fever, the Liberty hit one across the opening 20 minutes.
They only connected on three for the game. Point guard Courtney Vandersloot picked up her fourth foul — after committing her first two just four minutes into the game — less than three minutes into the third quarter and spent most of that frame on the bench.
There were still glimpses of the type of offense the Liberty unveiled in their first three games. Ionescu threaded a no-look pass to Kayla Thornton in transition for a basket. Betnijah Laney-Hamilton tossed an extra pass to Stewart for an easier shot.
But when the second quarter arrived, the Liberty’s offense disappeared.
They didn’t score until Jones’ basket with 6:01 left in the half, when an offensive rebound gave the Liberty another chance following Ionescu’s missed 3 and ended with Jones’ shot.
Then, near the end of the frame, Ionescu’s pass to Thornton was knocked out of bounds, and she threw the next inbounds pass away for a turnover.
It was disastrous. It was the type of performance that would lead to a massive deficit against one of the league’s top teams at full strength instead of, somehow, a 12-point halftime lead after a nine-point second quarter.
And for the most part, those struggles carried over into the second half.
A transition opportunity between Stewart and Laney-Hamilton ended with a turnover, and then a basket from the Storm cut their deficit to 10 in the third. Ionescu threw a pass that wasn’t near anyone by the Liberty bench.
The Liberty eventually found some fluidity and built a 15-point lead by the start of the fourth. But it reflected a different kind of formula for the Liberty to use — though not a sustainable blueprint to repeat game after game after game.
Nights like Monday will likely end up being more of an anomaly.
Still, amid the slog of offensive possessions, they found a way to pass.
