Sandy Brondello, Sabrina Ionescu, and Betnijah Laney-Hamilton Press Release | Liberty vs. Wings

we're going to see me there tomorrow anyway all right thanks everyone for joining on zoom we're going to get started with Coach Sandy first uh coach Sandy has time just for a few questions before she heads off to Phoenix so please raise your hand on Zoom uh we'll get started with Jackie hey Sandy congrats on the win uh so you mentioned pregame that you sort of doubted that you'd be able to hold arque to just 11 but I I think if I look at the Box sare correctly you all did hold her to 11 uh so I guess I'm just curious what you saw when it came to attention to detail holding her I think what like three of 14 from the field yeah I think exactly what you said we're very intentional with how we wanted to play and she's a key player for them and we made it hard for her um she got the record and what a great accomplishment for her um but overall I thought defensively we had a really solid game and and secondly as Brian said you're heading back to Phoenix for a little celebration that the Mercury are doing just sort of take us through you know your decision to do that especially when on Sunday your team is going for the first seed in in the league against the links yeah I mean nothing changes um I'll be back for training on Saturday so um you know they obviously asked to the Mercury organization reached out to our organization and and I didn't really you know I'd of course I'd like to be there so here I am I'm going there so but my focus is obviously on Minnesota we got a day off tomorrow so I won't miss anything thank you thank you safe travels miles hi coach congratulations on the win 30 fast break points tonight and especially early in the game you were running with every opportunity how did that help to generate a lot of those open three-point looks yeah I think like you know when we get stops and can get out and run that's when we look best but um you anytime we can get 2T into the paint it's creating wide open threes for us and um you know we started off hot we just got to stay a little bit more consistently hot but I still take 12 from 30 is still not bad for 40% um but I think that's the key for being playing unselfish making sure we're moving the ball and getting Great Looks Jeff good evening coach thank you for taking the time um you mentioned the defense before you said it was a pretty solid game defensively you held the team Bel below 80 like you said you wanted to during the pregame but what did you like tonight defensively and what do you want to clean up over this final three look I just thought we executed our our game plan um you know well um uh we had a few issues there early but Macau was getting us deep there but I think it was just it takes five players being on the same page um and that's critical for us and knowing your personnel how what do we want to take away from him um it's just been locked in where you know we've got uh we we want to keep that number one C we got a big game coming up and it's about making sure that we're playing in the right way when it really matters appreciate your time and insight stfe travels Russell Hi Sandy uh just kind of building off of that um you talked the other day about how it could be dangerous to play a team like Dallas that really has nothing to lose and you know you win by double digits the other day come out today build that lead then Dallas cuts it to 14 um early in the third quarter you call that time out just how important was it to you to see a more complete game tonight yeah now really important you know I thought we had a few games there we weren't um our at our best um on both sides of the ball so it was just a little bit of you know just a reset a little reset button okay you know what do we need to do to make sure that we're playing uh great basketball and you know there's going to be runs this is at WNBA so it's going to be momentum changes but I thought uh you know after that timeout we came out and you know the next two minutes we really executed at a high level that forced them to take another time out and um M maintain that for the rest of the rest of the game thank you we'll finish with gab hey coach thanks for taking the time you always talk about wanting to Peak at the right time after a game like this winning nearly by 30 points and really seeming to reset after you said you kind of took this team back to the fundamentals of playing Liberty basketball how close is this team to that Peak that you always brought bring up yeah I think uh the last two games really helped us get back to that um still you know just playing in the right way with the the ball's not sticking we're moving it through different hands uh you know different people are scoring and being aggressive and that's going to be critical for us I mean it's not just have to take one person out I think we've got a lot of depth there that we can play in so many different ways uh um and then in the playoffs is just making sure you're playing your best basketball and and I think um you know I'm happy with the way we've done the last two games now obviously Minnesota's a great test for us so we're excited about that because um you know if we take care of what we need to do and maybe it's opponent we will see in the finals hi Sabrina congrats on the win uh the magic number to clinch that number one seed I believe is one so essentially you all beat the lyns and the number one seed is yours so I guess I'm just curious how much you all are going to be treating Sunday afternoon as a pre playoff type game and and what's the main key here to defeating the links yeah I mean you know to be honest all of um these games have kind of you know felt like a ramp up into playoffs like this kind of felt like a first round series um game in terms of having to come out and and play a team twice um and continue to make adjustments and obviously now um heading back home and playing obviously uh a top team in the league who's really good and it's going to be important for us to continue to just learn and get better from when we faced them last time I feel like it's been a long time uh which it has and so kind of excited to see how much we've been able to grow on both sides of the ball um leading into this match up lovely thank you Jeff thank you good evening Sabrina congrats on the win um when n sa you know went to the bench late in the game you two had a little moment there whatever you're comfortable with sharing a course but um what was your message to her and how did she how was she uh feeling what kind of spirits was she in yeah you know she's going to be okay I think uh you know we go way back and I've kind of been able to be a part of uh her journey for a really long time and have been able to kind of see her uh at her high and at her low moments and so I I feel like I kind of have a good pulse on how she's feeling just by the look on her face and so I always kind of go over there um to just kind of bring Comfort but also see kind of where she's at um think she'll be okay she's tough you know she comes back from a lot uh but she's just been giving us such great minutes um in that backup five position and obviously she's such a key play player for us so I'm glad we kind of have these two days to to get our bodies right particularly her as well and um kind of you know be able to start over here at home pretty soon appreciate your time Insight congrats on moving up on the scoring list miles hey Sabrina these last couple of games especially you've been finding Brianna ahead of the pack and these in transition a whole bunch what makes her such a strong finisher and just such a good uh leakout player to pass ahead to well one you know I would say her ability to catch the ball um from a point guard who likes to you know throw the ball ahead uh you trust players who have great hand eye coordination are able to catch passes whether they're perfect or not um in score and I feel like she's probably the best I've ever played with in terms of being able to catch passes um that aren't right on the mark but come fast and transition with weird rotations um she had one in Vegas like uh left hand right side like her ability to do um things that are really unnatural is um probably the best I've ever seen and so it gives me a lot of comfort knowing that I can throw the ball anywhere as she's running cuz uh she has a really good chance of catching it and finishing it G hey Sabrina congrats on the win Sandy brondel told us uh pregame that a couple games ago she changed a little bit of what the shoot around looked like to bring you guys more towards the fundamentals just can you speak about what that has done to this team now kind of resetting you guys to get to this point yeah um we we have changed it um kind of the last two games and you know it's kind of that time in the season when you don't want to change too much but you want to be smart on um you know kind of what it is you are changing and making sure that it's for the right reason and um I believe these last two shoot arounds have been really concise in terms of what we've been trying to do um really dialing in our halfcourt offense and where we want the ball to go and being able to execute obviously transition and just free flowing is what we do best and uh what we can always rely on but I think understanding when we have to get down and transition is not looking as good and we have to kind of uh get a score and execute in the half court what does that look like at a really high level and um being able to kind of see us do that for two games and kind of see the production that that's allowed you Us in um you know on offense on the court has been really nice to see I think our half court offense has been great in these last two games with a lot of room for improvement we'll go to Russell and then take one more in the room all right hi Sabrina um knowing that you know on Sunday you'll be facing a lynx team the only team that's beaten you guys twice this year um how important and and also knowing that they could be kind of your you know finals opponent if if you get there how important is it just for confidence to really have come out today played the way that you did as a team a more complete game and kind of head into that game on Sunday with a little bit of momentum yeah I mean it's huge um obviously they're a great team they've beaten us um and it's going to be a statement game you know understanding it's the two top teams playing each other um and we have to come out and play our best basketball and do that for 40 minutes um CU like you said that could be a potential match up we see um down the line and we got to we got to make sure that we put our best foot forward and play our best basketball and um I feel like we've been playing our best basketball here um as of late in terms of just finding ways to win whether it's pretty or ugly and so um obviously Minnesota is not going to you know make it easy for us they're a great defensive team offensively they execute so well and I'm really excited to see the growth from the last time we faced them to now um in terms of uh just seeing how much better we've gotten because I think we have and they're going to put us to the test take one more you just mentioned the fact that your team you felt like this game was a ramp up for the playoffs you just spoke about the fact that you want to see what what your team is getting ready to respond against with um against Minnesota what areas do you feel like that the New York Liber Le still need to improve on um I would say just putting together 40 minutes of really good basketball um I think obviously uh we get up a lot we sometimes let people come back in our third quarters haven't been as strong um I think it's staying locked in and dialed in on both sides of the ball for 40 minutes I don't think we've yet put a full game together um like we want to and obviously that's basketball right there's going to be runs teams are going to um kind of give you their best shot every time you play them because there's a Target on your back and I think our ability to understand that Target that we have and kind of uh you know welcome it with open arms in terms of that's going to make us better and being being able to see how we've continued to to just grind away and keep our heads down and uh just be the best that we can be has been really good to see but I think you know hopefully here at the right time we're going to peek and and put together 40 minutes of really good basketball and see what that looks like CU I don't think we've unlocked it yet great hi bidra uh tonight was a night of records for you now at 200 career steals you also moved up the Liberty leader boards for 12 most Series in your Liberty uniform how has this journey been for you of not just only creating legy as one of this franchises alltime greats but also being a key part of the Liberty's growth from when you arrived to now s can you can you um repeat the like the question I heard everything else just a question oh sure I was saying how has this journey been for you of not only creating a legacy as one of the franchises great but also a key part of this revitalization of Liberty from when you started to now um I mean it's it's been really good um you know the team picked me up after the bubble year um um and they've been believing in me since and I've just been trying to you know go out and do everything that I'm capable of thank you Lucas hey Bah uh after your injury scare uh in New York it seems you you seem at least from our perspective pretty unaffected and confident has there been a a a challenge or something you focused on mentally to you know have confidence in your movement and and in that knee I guess guess um yeah you know I take a lot of Tylenol um but I think you know if I'm if I'm going be out there you know I just got to I can't focus on my knee you know um it's like one of those things where it's never going to feel great but um it's good enough for me to be able to go and just try and do everything that I can appreciate it Jackie hey B congrats on the win um I'm just curious if you can take us through how you've been able to find your way back into this offense you know as quickly as you have after being out um I think just continuing to believe in myself um the coaches and my teammates have been doing a good job of of getting me involved and you know it's it's just because I was out I was still continuing to work even though I wasn't able to practice so much with the team you know I was still doing my individual workouts um continuing to just stay ready for sure and another one here the magic number to clinch the number one seed is one so essentially you all beat the links on Sunday and it's number one is is yours how much are you all going to be treating Sunday afternoon as a pre-playoff type game and what would you see is is the key to really beating the links I mean I think that's in our Focus um since starting with with Dallas you know each each game is preparing us for the playoffs um we can't take anything lightly every game that we step into from from here on out is you know like a playoff game cuz anybody that we could play could be somebody that we potentially play in the playoffs so we have to prepare as such um I think just continuing to to do the things that we've been doing over the past couple games just you know moving the ball our Pace has been really well we've been active on defense um I think that if we are showing up as our best selves we'll be able to take business on Sunday thank you B and safe travels back to New York miles hey B uh the team has scored 24 or more points in five straight first quarters now and won all five of those first quarters what has been the key to that recent success because there were some lapses before that um I think we've been doing a good what I mentioned in the previous question just been doing a really good job of moving the ball um trying to look for the best shot possible not settling and then just our our Pace has been really well Jeff thank you good evening bja thank you for taking the time congrats on the win my question concerns uh what you've seen out of your uh fellow long tenear New Yorker Sabrina yonescu what can you say she really set the tone tonight contributing to 21 of the 25 first quarter points so where can you say she's improved the most in her game since you started working with her back in 2021 um I think she's just continued to to remain confident continue to trust in herself um we trust in her and we put the ball in her hands and I think she like you said she did a really great job of of setting to setting the tone tonight and that's something that we're going to need you know as we continue to progress over these next few games and going into playoffs appreciate your time and insight safe travels home Gib hey B congrats on the win as one of the leaders on this on the defensive side of this ball just wondering what you think has been going well on defense and what still needs to improve as as you guys go into the playoffs um I think we've been a lot more aggressive um we've been kind of on a string so to speak that we've been able to to help each other and then helping the helper that's something that we kind of struggled with in the past um so and we know that moving forward it's going to take multiple efforts on defense and so that's kind of been our our goal um over these past few games as well as you know moving into playoffs great