Liberty fall to Dream with starters playing limited minutes in first-round playoff preview

The Liberty’s first-round opponent is set, and New York got an alarming preview of the upcoming series Thursday night.

The final game of the regular season didn’t have anything at stake for the Liberty after they secured the No. 1 seed, but the Dream locked in their playoff spot by beating New York, 78-67, at Barclays Center — three days before they face off again for Sunday’s Game 1 at 1 p.m. in Brooklyn.

It was a way for the Liberty to study a possible first-round opponent.

Yet it was also a lesson for Atlanta to see how the league-leading Liberty, who lost their second game in a row at home, aren’t quite in a league of their own.

“We can’t let all the hard work of getting the No. 1 seed and playing well, come out and we don’t play in the right way,” Liberty coach Sandy Brondello said after the loss. “We need to make sure we’re staying together through the good and the bad execution. That’s on us. When you’re not playing for anything — we talk about it — don’t get complacent.”

Before Thursday’s loss, the Liberty held a 3-0 record against the Dream this season, and though Brondello aimed not to “overplay” her starters, including sitting Breanna Stewart after the first half, the Liberty couldn’t find their shots nor limit the turnovers enough to earn a victory.

The Dream controlled the paint, scoring 46 of their points inside against the Liberty’s 24.

They led by as much as 20 to get the job done without having to worry about game results for the Mystics or Sky, their competition in a tight race for the eighth and final playoff spot.

“I wasn’t happy with the way we played,” Brondello said. “I mean, 46 points in the paint, you’re not going to win many games regardless that [this game] didn’t matter. We just got to take a little more pride in our defense and physicality and then go from there.

“Playoff basketball goes to another level. They can be a very dangerous team. Anyone can beat anyone. … And this is a good team. They’ve been playing in playoff mode.”

The matchup also pits New York against familiar face Tina Charles, in what the former Liberty player of six seasons called a “perfect storm.”

The Dream star, who became the WNBA’s all-time rebound leader with her third board of the game, recorded a double-double with 10 points and 10 rebounds before being benched in the third quarter.

The Dream were led by both Naz Hillmon and Rhyne Howard, who each scored 13 points.

The team came out strong, putting up a front that forced the Liberty to shoot a dismal 40 percent — it was as low as 30 percent in the first quarter — while committing 17 turnovers that the Dream capitalized on with 19 points.

Bad passes, aloof thinking, double dribbles, and travels were made in the first half, and it only snowballed in the second half before the Liberty made the decision to play it safe, pulling many of their starters besides Jonquel Jones, who played 30 minutes.

It was the most she has played in the past five games.

Go-to bench player Leonie Fiebich also played just 11 minutes.

“[Jones] hasn’t been playing as many minutes lately, so I mean, we went with her, trying to get her some rhythm,” Brondello said. “Stewie [Stewart] and Leo [Fiebich], we sat out, and Sabrina [Ionescu], we just gave her a little bit to get some flow. It was just what the individual player needed.”

Stewart led the Liberty with 16 points across 16 minutes.

Betnijah Laney-Hamilton added nine points, and Nyara Sabally got a lot of reps in Stewart’s absence, scoring 14 points along with two steals and four rebounds.

Ionescu, Jones, and Courtney Vandersloot scored just 10 points collectively on a brutal shooting night.

Atlanta got up to a 14-point lead in the first half, and the Liberty only remained in contention because of Stewart. In the first half, the starters outside of Stewart and Laney-Hamilton had two points or fewer.

Some new life sprung from the Liberty in the fourth quarter thanks to rookies Marquesha Davis and Jaylyn Sherrod, along with Sabally, inching as close as eight points against Atlanta’s reserves with under two minutes remaining.

The revival sent Barclays Center into hysterics for the young players; however, Atlanta still managed to keep the Liberty at bay from pulling off a comeback victory.

Davis and Sherrod scored 12 points collectively, and Sherrod added a steal.