What's wrong with the Liberty? Preseason WNBA title favorites running out of time to salvage 2026 season

The Liberty have a chance to go into the FIBA break on a positive note when they host the Sky on Saturday on CBS and Paramount+

Aug 28, 2026 at 6:36 pm ET • 7 min read

Last weekend, things were looking up for the New York Liberty. Leonie Fiebich returned from a seven-week layoff due to a left foot injury and spurred the Liberty to a 109-102 victory over the Indiana Fever with 20 points, five rebounds and five assists on Aug. 22. The next day, thanks to a Portland Fire loss, the Liberty clinched a spot in the postseason.

Fiebich, the forward from Germany, was a key part of the Liberty's 2024 championship team, and with her back and healthy, it felt like the Liberty might be rounding into form at just the right time. But on Thursday night in Brooklyn, that optimism was dampened by a 79-60 loss to the Golden State Valkyries.

"I feel disappointed with this one and a little bit embarrassed as well. I just don't think we should ever lose like that on our home court. But I do think we're playing hard, we're playing with intent. It's just we didn't find a way tonight," Liberty guard Rebecca Allen said after the game. 

"I feel like today was a bit of a step backwards."

The Liberty (23-16) were preseason favorites to win the title, and even at the halfway mark of the season, some of us here at CBS Sports still considered them top contenders despite their lackluster 13-9 start. But the Liberty have only gone 10-7 since that point, and despite a 7-3 record in August, have officially become a championship longshot. At midseason, they had the third-best odds to win it all at +390 behind the Minnesota Lynx (+150) and Las Vegas Aces (+360). Now they sit at sixth in the FanDuel odds at +1300. If the playoffs began today, the Liberty would be the No. 8 seed in an eight-team field.

New York has one game left before the FIBA break, as they host the Chicago Sky on Saturday afternoon at 1:00 p.m. ET on CBS and Paramount+. 

With just five games left in the regular season, let's look at what's gone wrong for the Liberty this summer and whether there's any chance they can salvage 2026 with a postseason run. 

Injuries have taken a toll

The Liberty appeared to be the biggest winners of the offseason when they signed Satou Sabally in free agency. Adding the three-time All-Star to a championship team that already had a core of Breanna Stewart, Jonquel Jones and Sabrina Ionescu felt like an embarrassment of riches. But injuries have derailed the potential that team had on paper.

Sabally suffered a concussion with the Phoenix Mercury in the WNBA Finals last season, and was still dealing with the lingering effects of that -- as well as an unrelated cyst -- when the season began. She played in 13 games at the end of May and June, but on June 23, she left a game against the Aces with a head injury and has yet to return to the court. Though she has cleared concussion protocol, she is still dealing with lingering symptoms and is currently away from the team. There is no timeline for her return, and she has already announced that she will miss the FIBA World Cup with her German team, which is particularly tough since it is taking place in Berlin. 

Liberty coach Chris DeMarco said earlier this month that she "will return," but it is unclear whether that return will take place this season, and it increasingly looks like it will not.

Notably, the best stretch of the Liberty's season -- a 7-0 run in Commissioner's Cup play -- came with Sabally in the lineup.

In addition to Sabally's injury, the Liberty also played most of the first month of the season without Ionescu, and Fiebich was injured soon after Ionescu returned. This has made it difficult for the Liberty to truly find rhythm.

Liberty hurt by Ionescu's inconsistent play

This has been a frustrating season for Ionescu. She injured her ankle in the preseason and then dealt with back soreness, missing 13 games in total. She struggled to find her form when she returned, and ended up missing out on an All-Star berth for the first time since 2021.

But by July, she finally looked comfortable, averaging 20.8 points, 5.0 assists and 4.1 rebounds on 45.9% shooting in nine games. But that efficiency has been fading in August, and she has looked particularly out of sorts the past few weeks. In her last seven games, the Oregon alum has only made more than one 3-pointer in one game, a 2-of-10 showing from beyond the arc in a loss to Chicago on Aug. 18.

Game	Ionescu from 3	3P%
8/27 (L vs. GS)	1-9	11.1
8/22 (W. vs. IND)	1-5	20.0
8/18 (L @ CHI)	2-10	20.0
8/13 (W vs. LA)	1-9	11.1
8/11 (L @ IND)	1-5	20.0
8/9 (W vs. LV)	1-6	16.7
8/5 (W vs. SEA)	1-6	16.7

That means in her last seven games, Ionescu is 8 of 50 from the 3-point line -- a 16% clip. The Liberty have gone 4-3 in that stretch, but two of those wins came over teams already eliminated from the playoffs and one came against a Las Vegas team resting almost all of its starters on the second night of a back-to-back. 

Especially with Sabally out, the Liberty need all their Big Three of Stewart, Ionescu, and Jones to show up on a night-in, night-out basis. The good news for the team is that Ionescu did not make Team USA's roster for this FIBA World Cup, so she will have a few weeks off in September to try to rediscover her July form.

Why playoff seeding will be so important 

Even without the injuries and shooting slumps, it has been a weird year for the Liberty. In the offseason, the team parted ways with Sandy Brondello, who coached them to the title in 2024, and hired DeMarco, a Golden State Warriors assistant, to take over despite his lack of head-coaching experience or women's basketball experience in general, let alone the WNBA. There have been times this season that DeMarco has looked very much like the rookie that he is.

The team also released fan favorite Betnijah Laney-Hamilton, who was a starter for the Liberty since joining the team in 2021 and a key player in their championship run, four days after the trade deadline, after essentially benching her for most of July.

But despite this unease, the Liberty are still in the playoffs, and it is hard to count out a team with that much talent, particularly with two former MVPs in Stewart and Jones. But the matchups are going to be absolutely crucial if the Liberty are going to have a shot at going deep.

If the playoffs began today, the Liberty would be the No. 8 seed and face No. 1 seed Lynx in the first round. That would be rough, as the Lynx are far and away the title favorites right now. But the Liberty have split the two games they have played against the Lynx this season and will see them again on Sept. 18, their first game back from the FIBA break. As scary as Lynx coach Cheryl Reeve is in the playoffs, this would actually not be a worst-case scenario for the Liberty.

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As Thursday night hammered home, the worst-case scenario would actually be moving up to the No. 7 spot, which would put them against the No. 2 seed Valkyries. Golden State is 3-0 against the Liberty this season, and the Liberty didn't score more than 70 points in any of those games. The Valkyries' defense downright rattles the Liberty, and it's hard to see that changing in a postseason environment when Golden State coach Natalie Nakase has even more time to scheme.

A best-case scenario for the Liberty might be moving up to grab the No. 6 seed -- something that is within reach, as the Liberty are only one game back from the Washington Mystics, who currently sit in that spot. Right now, the No. 3 seed would be the Aces. Since losing to the Aces in the 2023 WNBA Finals, the Liberty have actually had the Aces' number, going 7-2 against them in the regular season and 4-1 in the postseason and Commissioner's Cup final over the past three years. Since the Aces just lost NaLyssa Smith for the season, the defending champions are even more vulnerable.

The other two potential first-round opponents for the Liberty are the Fever and Atlanta Dream. The Liberty split their season series with the Fever 2-2 and won their lone game against the Dream this season. New York and Atlanta will actually face off in the final two games of the regular season, with both games in Brooklyn. So, as bleak as things seemed on Thursday night at the Barclays Center, there's still a feasible path forward for the Liberty -- at least to the second round.