Liberty’s regular-season sweep of Storm may foreshadow result of potential postseason matchup

NEW YORK — This potential second-round WNBA playoff matchup may not be much of a battle after all.

Thursday’s Liberty win over the No. 5 seed Seattle Storm could be a foreshadowing into this fall’s postseason: Noelle Quinn’s new-look squad isn’t a team equipped to stop the Liberty from getting back to the WNBA Finals.

Thursday’s win marked the top-seeded Liberty’s third over the Storm, which completes a regular-season sweep. In the three wins over Seattle, the Libs won by an average of 10.3 points.

This time, Betnijah Laney-Hamilton led the way with 18 points and six rebounds. Sabrina Ionescu poured in 17 points, six assists and four rebounds.

The Storm failed to gain control in a game in which their former star — Breanna Stewart — didn’t score until getting a free throw to drop midway through the second quarter. Ionescu missed eight of her 11 shots going into halftime while the Liberty entered the intermission up four.

The Liberty stayed in front by knocking down more treys than the Storm, which is an offensive category that needs improvement in Seattle. The Libs shot 12 of 27 from downtown while the Storm drained six of their 20 attempts.

Like the previous two matchups, the Storm stayed close. They were within five points with over five minutes remaining in regulation. Then, Stewart’s jumper forced Quinn to call timeout with 4:26 remaining. The 2023 MVP extended the lead to 10 at the 3:25 mark after converting a three-point play.

Seattle failed to gain much ground afterwards, eventually losing, 77-70.

Sweep secured. And confidence against a future postseason team secured.

The Storm are dealing with the growing pains of meshing a new core. But they’re undoubtedly a tough out in the postseason. If the postseason began Friday, they would face a shaky No. 4 seed Las Vegas Aces team, with the Liberty taking on No. 8 seed Chicago Sky.

First-round series wins for the two teams that faced Thursday would book a Liberty-Storm second-round best-of-five matchup, with Sandy Brondello’s team owning home-court advantage.

Seattle upending the defending champs would be a notable feat, but if the regular season is any indication, the Liberty have a good shot of securing a sweep in round two.

The Storm make their mark on defense, entering Thursday as the WNBA’s fifth-best team in defensive rating (95.9) and fourth-best in opponents points per game (78.8) and opponents field-goal percentage (42.6%). Their offense, however, needs work.

They rank eighth in field-goal percentage (43.2%) and dead last in 3-point percentage (28.3).

It’s part of the puzzle still needed to be solved on a team that shares similarities to the 2023 Liberty squad.

Like the Liberty did last year, the Storm went out and secured All-Star talent (Skylar Diggins-Smith and Nneka Ogwumike) to complement homegrown stars (Jewell Loyd and Ezi Magbegor). And after almost upsetting Team USA in the 2024 Paris Olympics gold-medal game, French star Gabby Williams rejoined the Storm.

In 2023, Brondello benefitted from the midseason addition of French guard Marine Johannes.