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On Tuesday, the Liberty punched their ticket to the semifinals.
A day later, they found out who they’ll be facing.
The Liberty are set to meet the red-hot Atlanta Dream in a best-of-five semifinal series, starting Sunday, after the Dream finished off the Washington Mystics in a sweep with a 93-75 win Wednesday.
On paper, the matchup might look like a meeting between a No. 4 and No. 8 seed.
In reality, though, neither team is playing like its regular-season seeding suggests.
The Dream won 13 of their final 15 games to close out the regular season and carried that momentum into the postseason.
Entering this season, the Dream had experienced three consecutive first-round exits, including in 2024 at the hands of the Liberty.
That changed this year.
Wednesday was the Dream’s biggest playoff win since 2018.
But the Liberty’s path to the semifinals might be even more remarkable than Atlanta’s.
The Liberty, under first-year coach Chris DeMarco, entered the playoffs as the No. 8 seed after a turbulent regular season tainted by injuries and growing pains.
New York then made history by pulling off the stunning upset of the top-seeded Lynx. The Liberty are the first No. 8 seed to eliminate the No. 1 team in the opening round.
This will be the Liberty’s third semifinal series in four years.
The Dream won the regular-season series against the Liberty 2-1.
Both wins came at the tail end of the regular season, though it’s worth noting Breanna Stewart didn’t play in one of those games.
While those two losses are recent, the Liberty have looked nothing like the team they were in the regular season since the playoffs started.
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The stakes only get higher from here, with a trip to the WNBA Finals on the line.
