The Liberty narrowly avoided what would’ve been a historic collapse Thursday night, beating the Sparks 85-81 at Barclays Center.
The home team had built a 28-point advantage (69-41) with 9:48 left in the fourth quarter and was sitting pretty.
Until they weren’t.
The Sparks stormed all the way back, scoring 21 unanswered points to make it a seven-point game. Los Angeles got within one with 21.7 seconds left, but the Liberty held on to prevent their opponents from matching the biggest comeback in WNBA history.
The Liberty managed to survive what Chris DeMarco called a “funky” fourth quarter.
“We just kind of were on our heels a little bit,” Sabrina Ionescu said. “Basketball is a game of runs. Theirs came really late and I’m glad the way that we were able to kind of weather the storm and continue to chip away, find a way to win.”
Two days after an obliteration at Indiana, the Liberty looked to redeem themselves against a team destined for the draft lottery.
For the first three quarters, the Liberty did that. They held the Sparks to only 41 points through three quarters and led by 26 entering the fourth.
Rebecca Allen said, “That was the best I felt, we felt collectively, as a team defensively.”
But the Liberty played poorly in that final frame.
The Sparks, losers of eight of 10 games entering Thursday, didn’t wave the white flag in the fourth quarter, and the Liberty paid the price.
Los Angeles — no longer featuring Kelsey Plum after the star guard was traded to Phoenix at the deadline — went on a 21-0 rampage to cut the Liberty’s mighty lead in less than three minutes.
Ionescu finally ended the 4:19 drought with a much-needed basket.
But the Sparks didn’t stop. They kept at it.
With 3:50 left in a four-point game, DeMarco challenged an awkward collision which got Marine Johannes whistled for a foul.
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It was unsuccessful, burning the team’s final timeout.
After the game, DeMarco said he “thought it was worth the challenge,” adding that the team thought Johannes didn’t foul and instead got hit in the face.
The Sparks made it a three-point game on three occasions over the final four minutes.
Dearica Hamby’s layup cut the gap to 82-79 with 57.9 seconds to go. A bad inbounds pass from Pauline Astier was recovered by Ariel Atkins and the Sparks called a timeout with 26.6 left.
Rae Burrell made the layup to make it 82-81 with 21.7 seconds left.
Ionescu knocked in a pair of free throws to build the Liberty’s lead back to three. It was enough to secure the win.
“It was funky,” DeMarco said. “We started playing on our heels a little bit, basically coming into offense — not really running our stuff, sort of just moving the ball around, maybe some quick shots.”
The Sparks outscored New York 40-18 in the fourth.
Had they lost, it arguably would have been the Liberty’s most deflating defeat of the season.
Even with the win, the Liberty shouldn’t be feeling too proud of themselves because the Sparks had no business being in the game that late.
“We let go of the rope a little bit,” DeMarco said. “We have to put together 40-minute games. … It was just funky overall. So I’m just proud of the group for sticking together and … we were connected most of the night. Even in those moments, we didn’t get disconnected. We were just having trouble offensively trying to find rhythms getting to the paint, waiting for each other, so defensively, we got some stops when we needed to and offensively we executed.”
