Friday night, the New York Liberty were down. They had lost their sixth straight game to the defending WNBA champs, the Storm, in Seattle. As they had in a number of losses, New York played hard, but couldn’t quite make it.
Worse, they had fallen out of the WNBA playoff race, a half game behind the eighth and final seed. Moreover, because of a quirk in the WNBA schedule, they had eight days before their next game in Dallas vs. the Wings who’s also fighting for a playoff slot. Most of the time, that would mean trekking back to the East Coast, practice, then fly on to Dallas.