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00:03what's up everybody welcome back to another edition of liberty lately if you're watching
00:07you see the round table you see my people here that means we are back for another playoff preview
00:13the liberty have advanced even though some of y'all out there were mad that some of us did not
00:16pick the liberty to advance but they are here and i've got my people with me joining us at the
00:22round table which actually is a round table to my left is my guy lucas kaplan you see his work
00:28on
00:28nets daily fantastic job covering the liberty lucas what's going on my going on we're giving
00:32dap again today then to his left is my guy miles ehrlich does a fantastic job also covering the
00:39liberty and the wmba does a great job on the pull-up podcast with miles and owen everybody
00:43should check that out miles what's going on man how you feeling great to see you great to be back
00:47thanks for having me yes i'm glad we got to do what we got to do is two weeks in
00:50the water this is
00:50really good and last but not least my fantastic everyone's favorite everyone's favorite the best
00:57predictor in the world the best women's sports reporter in the nation the one and only madeline
01:02kenny how you doing maddie i'm good i'm good let's run it back we were ready we were ready with
01:06that
01:06who would have thought we'd be here guys miles i did i did miles miles miles is the answer
01:12miles was mentioned to a nice and calm this week miles definitely did hey it's all good
01:16everybody good everybody good to talk about round two yeah yeah you're welcome i would just say for
01:20picking against the liberty i think that was the key no i i think i said this in our last
01:25video
01:25was every time i pick the liberty they have lost and then if i pick against liberty they won so
01:31maybe that's maybe i'm key this is now a two series sample that you're basing this this it's only two
01:39small small sample size but but yes patterns i'm recognizing it yeah you got to recognize
01:44starts with starts with two right it's not your predictions it's definitely the patterns yeah
01:48yeah all right so since we all made predictions miles is the one who got it right i want to
01:54check
01:54where everybody's confidence is right now so for me how are you feeling after the series and what's
02:00the biggest thing that you might have changed your mind about following the links falling to the
02:06liberty in the last series is anything the biggest thing that you change your mind about coming from
02:10one series to this one i'll start with you first miles what's the biggest thing you change your mind
02:13about so two things one is i do think that as a panel we should apologize to han because han
02:20was
02:20incredible in that first round and in that first game and it was all the things that we were worried
02:26about was how she would defend in space and we were seeing her defend the pick and roll stay home
02:32on
02:32assignments when she needed to and then i think we were also just seeing how big of a mismatch she
02:37could be the other way i don't think we gave enough credit to what she makes other teams react to
02:42as much as like her strengths and that's something that i think can carry through to this next round so
02:47i
02:47wanted to start there but also throughout the season the liberty didn't always respond well when
02:54other teams up their aggressiveness and i think that we see in game one the links came out on a
02:596-0 run
02:59olivia miles had a short pull-up it got to the rim and and then the liberty responded with 15
03:04straight
03:05and then the second half they're down at the break they come out with an 11-2 burst then it's
03:10like okay
03:10how are they going to respond because last year they didn't respond and they start game two on that
03:15jj with seven in a row uh and they just never trail in that second game so the way that
03:21this team
03:21responded to adversity is something that we haven't seen consistently this year so for me that's the
03:27biggest thing moving forward is okay if you can lock in and stay locked in at throughout the game and
03:32put together those four quarters this is a different team than we were seeing for most of the season
03:36yeah we definitely we saw a different team and and i think it was a reason why some of us
03:41had pause for
03:41cause a cause for pause i should say here but you know things can change your opinion can change you
03:47can change your opinion with new information that is okay that can happen what's the biggest thing
03:50that you change your mind on going from the series versus the links to the series versus the dream
03:55i'm just not sure i weighted the factors that led to a lot of our liberty optimism
04:02properly enough i mean the first 45 minutes i think of our last round table were very positive about
04:07the liberty we just conceded at least me that links are one seed and a great team therefore it's a
04:12tough
04:13matchup but i trusted them to play hard specifically jonquil jones who played out of her mind and engaged
04:21is a monster inside i trusted them to have strong defensive principles against olivia miles being able
04:27to switch with stewie jj and drop lay on the perimeter and that's what happened and lastly i would just
04:33say
04:33that one of the big adjustments or just things chris demarco and the staff did well they played their
04:40best players the starting lineup was good all season even if you take leo out because she missed a lot
04:46of
04:46the regular season the foursome of pauline stewie jj sabrina won their minutes by a lot i think they
04:53were a plus 11 net rating in nearly 400 minutes this season and they played a lot in the first
04:58series
04:59so i just don't think maybe i waited that enough i'm not sure if i changed my mind about a
05:05lot of
05:05what could make this team great but i have to give them credit for showing up and and doing it
05:11but
05:11nothing that they actually excelled at was that surprising if that makes sense no that doesn't make
05:16sense i understand what you're coming from what about you man i think the biggest thing for me was
05:19like as i was watching those games was just the thought of where has this team been all season like
05:24we've seen flashes throughout you know stretches of games and maybe even a game here and there but
05:29we just haven't seen that type of consistency in terms of just being locked in and focused
05:33and they they executed their game plan at a really high rate um you know they they stuck to their
05:39defensive principles everyone was kind of all on a strain they were communicating very well and that
05:43that led to holding the links to 75 or below twice and so i you have to give a lot
05:49of credit to that
05:50and i think that's like where a root of maybe a little bit more optimism i have with this team
05:54is
05:54a year ago heading into the phoenix series you know i thought yeah of course liberty are going to
06:00beat the mercury they're going to advance and like this team has it and then that version of the team
06:05that i thought they'd be didn't show up and this year like the idea i had in the team it
06:10was a
06:11totally different thing and even talking to brianna when i was in minnesota for their practice
06:16before game one you know it i texted somebody right away i was like oh no they're gonna they're
06:21gonna sweep this series because it just the vibes the confidence the you know how stewie was talking
06:27i just it totally changed my perception on where this team was at mentally and then they followed
06:32it up with two masterclass performances see that's the thing for me you both kind of touched on it a
06:38little bit i thought they could do a good job on olivia miles we we knew they had the personnel
06:44to do it
06:45it then comes down to execution and then that goes to what you're saying the consistency for me
06:49was we hadn't seen it all season so i came out of this a little bit my mind has changed
06:53like okay
06:54they can defend consistently and they have the want to to do it and now i'm starting to wonder i
06:59may not
06:59be with from what you heard and what you experienced talking to that them before that shoot around before
07:04game one the mentality seems to be at a different place what you know when we're listening to the
07:09post-game comments after game one in this series and then after game two which we all were at
07:12the mentality just sounds different this sounds like a different team it sounds more like 24
07:17with the way they're talking so i wonder now i'm not saying i'm all the way there but are they
07:22really
07:22more locked in here that they are primed for a deep run here in this this playoff run i just
07:27want to ask
07:28maddie you thought they were going to sweep and didn't put that out there publicly no because i had i
07:33had i had to just double down on what i said on what i printed but but i was going
07:37to say to what you
07:38said dex was even today after practice you know there was a lot of talk about like we didn't see
07:43ourselves as a team that was just going to get out of the first round and we don't see ourselves
07:46as
07:46just a semi-finals team like they they really do see themselves as a championship caliber team and i
07:51think like that confidence which starts with rayanna stewart and what she said today um just about
07:57her confidence right now and how she sees herself as the best player on the floor i think that is
08:03what
08:04is boating well for this team as well is that there is just this this aura to them that they
08:08didn't have a year ago in the playoffs yeah and i think that's what fans can be encouraged about look
08:13i didn't see it like before this series because i just didn't feel like we heard and saw the
08:18confidence there but it's there now and speaking of confidence i guess this is where we'll go next
08:22because i want to know off of how we feel coming out of the last series are any of us
08:26buying liberty
08:27stock well i'll tell you who is buying liberty stock that is joe si he's absolutely buying liberty stock
08:32you guys saw the tweeted earlier this week that quote seating does not matter and that the liberty
08:38are quote the best team in the playoffs right now i saw that and i said well kind of expect
08:45him to
08:45say that what's he he's not going to not say this about his team but it is a bold tweet
08:49so i gotta ask
08:50you guys are you buying joe si's confidence or are you in a place where you're like i need to
08:56see a
08:56little bit more here maddie we'll start with you first where are you on this i mean he's supposed to
09:01say that he's the co-owner of this team like this is his team of course he has that type
09:04of confidence
09:05i think that the liberty stock is higher in my eyes than it was heading into the first round
09:11um are they best team in the field perhaps but i'm not i'm not quite there yet maybe i'm a
09:16little bit
09:17more on the cautious optimistic side somebody's gonna boo you for that i don't care i won't lose
09:23sleep miles where are you i mean just to bring back what sandy brondella always used to say is just
09:29talking about controlling the controllables and what the liberty do know is that they start every
09:33series on the road in the playoffs because of what they did in the regular season that's the
09:37carryover so they're going to be kind of starting behind the eight ball but to the credit of these
09:42players they said okay this is a new season everything that happened in the regular season
09:46is gone now it's zero zero and we're just going into it and it's just accepted that they start on
09:51the
09:51road chris demarco said today at practice he said i didn't bring up the eighth seed one time
09:57one eight was not their motivator that didn't matter to them what mattered to them is that
10:01they had a zero zero record and they needed to win two games and i think that that mindset
10:04is going to be really healthy for them moving forward and yeah i don't put much stock into
10:09the person who owns a team saying that that team is the best team because that's also part of his
10:16job
10:16and his confidence level should hopefully always be that high but in terms of just where the liberty
10:21should feel internally that belief has always been there regardless of what any of us have to say
10:27about it no fair i am not sure that the belief has always been there not to disagree with you
10:34but
10:34i think there's a difference when you actually go out there and you put some evidence behind it
10:40in your you know deepest all the way down in your heart there you know that there's a difference
10:46between believing hey we have brianna stewart we can win a title first we just did beat the number
10:52one seed by a combined 32 points in 80 minutes i have to feel like there is a different level
10:58of
10:59confidence whether or not joe side believed that before this series i can tell you that i think he
11:04the staff the players believe it a little more with their chest now and and that's a good thing
11:10that's how it should be yeah no i actually like how you said it there right like i do think
11:14the
11:14belief is always it no professional athletes are going to this thinking we cannot win nobody's doing
11:19that competing at this level do i think they believe it a little bit more now yeah because
11:23you can get confidence out of your performances that that can rise and i do believe in that every
11:27time you can put a little butter in your cap it really helps i've always said that you have
11:32always famously said that butter in your cap can always help what part of the performance from the
11:37last series what part of the performance against minnesota minnesota do you think can carry over
11:41into the semi-finals matchup against the dream what what do you say moss there's a lot in terms
11:47of personnel that i think there are similarities that they could exploit or attack and while these
11:54are different players and somewhat different look at the way that they were deployed against olivia
12:00miles with some of those early pickup points although leo said today she's like i don't think we can pick
12:06jordan canada up quite as high because of how fast she is but you're also less worried about the
12:11shooting potentially um and the pull-up threes as olivia had that step back three but what you saw
12:18with jonquil jones the last matchup that we saw within the last couple weeks with the dream jj was
12:22playing in a deep drop and they're letting angel take the same kind of shots they were willing to let
12:26natasha howard take so i think that those principles can carry over and it's good to have that proof
12:32positive of what works um kind of spamming the pick and roll a little bit more than we've seen
12:37with sab and stewie because that was for the first couple of years that that uh the two of them
12:42were
12:42together here that was always always happening went away from it a bit last year and now it's kind of
12:48come and gone in waves but finding the success they are getting the ball to your best players and in
12:54their hands frequently is something that is going to they're going to find a lot of success with and i
12:59think
12:59in the playoffs this is what you're you're gearing up towards all year as to to these are why you
13:06sit stewie for four minutes in the second quarter of of a game in you know july is so that
13:11she can
13:12play all 40 when you need her to in the playoffs yeah and she can still perform at that high
13:16level
13:17lucas what about you what do you think carries over that you liked against minnesota that can help
13:22against atlanta i agree with miles what can carry over is the fact that minnesota got nothing easy
13:29at the rim they got a couple offensive rebounds here and there a couple roles but really stewie
13:34and jj and the rest of the team helping them just prevented olivia miles from flying to the rim for
13:40easy layups they prevented natasha howard from rolling downhill for the most part and when you
13:46think about how atlanta creates layups jordan canada is a little bit less of a threat to get all
13:52the way to the rim and finish great player but olivia miles is probably going to finish top four
13:56at least mvp voting this year but alicia gray ryan howard flying off screens angel reese and
14:04naz hillman setting them and rolling is a similar concept to what minnesota wanted to get to with
14:10kayla mcbride and courtney williams and then you got tosh and fee rolling downhill the liberty took
14:16those roles away jj was great and drop they were great when they had to switch and so if they
14:21play with
14:22that same effort in communication there's no obvious reason why they shouldn't be able to
14:28protect the rim like they did against minnesota and all due respect to angel reese naz hillman and
14:34dawana bonner who's made some big time threes in her playoff career but that is not a front court that
14:41scares you so much in terms of we're going to help two paces off them at the rim instead of
14:47one
14:47we're going to rotate all the way over off of naz or angel in the corner you would think that
14:52the
14:52liberty can have some pretty strong paint defense again this series and and i know miles was was
14:56getting at that well one thing that i do want to add to that is the the paint finishing we
15:01saw from
15:02angel reese last week when she came here was some of the best that i've seen in her career and
15:06that's
15:07been such a growth point because she was you know getting way too much way too maligned on that early
15:13in her career about her finishing around the rim but the aggressive takes right into jj were something
15:18that is something that like i hadn't seen to that level of consistency and aggressiveness and if she
15:23continues and her second half of this w season yeah she's been incredible um so that is something
15:29that like you might not have worried about in may as much as you worry about now right and jj's
15:34big
15:34thing was drop versus olivia miles being in great position olivia miles is a lot different type of
15:41rim pressure than angel reese but the challenge for jj is the same like you got to show up and
15:47prevent angel from getting at you one-on-one they've heard her rolls off yeah like it's a challenge but
15:53you got to trust jonquil in this matchup i think we're going to see a lot of drop with jj
15:57in this
15:57series as we did in the games leading into the playoffs i don't know how it's so hard to say
16:02but the other thing i think and you've already kind of all both touched on this but just the way
16:06that
16:06like if brianna stewart's the backbone of this team i would say sabrina's kind of like the brain
16:12the head of the snake so to speak and then jj's the heart and like you really saw that in
16:17the first
16:18round where she was you know extending possessions even if she was you know just getting a hand and
16:23batting the ball out to somebody else like i think that type of aggressiveness is going to be
16:28vital to liberty advancing to the finals and i think a lot of this series is going to come down
16:33to
16:33which version of jj shows up i'm so glad you brought up jj because i was we talked about this
16:38after the first couple games in the minnesota series her energy and just especially even in
16:43game two you saw how emotional she got after some blocks of defensive plays even her other teammates
16:48doing good stuff i wonder how much of that carries over does she keep that same energy that we saw
16:53in
16:53the first round series into the semi-final series i think she's definitely a player to watch and it's
16:57good emotion right like it's good when she's like emphatic and like invested and engaged but
17:03it's also controlling the other side of these things when you get frustrated with the non-calls
17:07or get frustrated with the physicality inside like this is going to be when leo talked today at
17:11practice she was asked if she thinks it's going to be speed or size that's going to really matter and
17:15tilt the scale one way or the other in this series and she said it's the physicality and i think
17:20that
17:21you know jj it's going to be a long series probably for her but if she's if she's locked in
17:27and she
17:27stays that level-headed and uses her emotions in a productive and positive way then that always
17:33bodes well for new york and this is an atlanta dream team that has been at the top of the
17:38standings
17:39in terms of drawing fouls and yep that's going to be a big thing if you are putting your bigs
17:44into
17:44these compromising situations they're the ones that need to maintain the integrity of that backline
17:49defense and if you do get in a compromised situation they have to play with foul trouble how do
17:53they then play through that that's another part of managing the emotions right if you pick up three
17:56in the first half you know you can't be as aggressive are you still able to play solid
18:00defense even in those situations so very interesting to see there maddie i had a question for you
18:05because when you look at this just looking at atlanta now we're going to move on to looking at them
18:10fans are going to be on their high horse a little bit um coming off this series they feel good
18:15right
18:15everybody maybe not joe side confident but they're confident what do you think's the biggest
18:19dismissal or something that people might overlook in with atlanta if they're high on their horse
18:25coming off of this liberty sweep of minnesota what do you think people might overlook with the dream
18:31heading into this matchup i think just like their scrappiness on defense and their ability to
18:35uh disrupt passing lanes and force lightball turnovers and get out in transition and get some
18:41fast break fast fast break buckets i mean that kind of is what did them in in the the previous
18:47regular season meetings um with the liberty and so i think that's the biggest thing is that this
18:51they have you know jordan canada um alicia gray like all these or at least ryan howard you know
18:57somebody that is probably going to be all defensive team um whether first or second and they they are
19:03really good at forcing turnovers and everyone today that we talked to had all talked about like
19:08minimizing those types of live ball turnovers even sabrina said it might be better to get a shot clock
19:13violation then try to force something and then you're you're scrambling and trying to get back
19:18on defense so i think that's the biggest thing is like the defensive identity that atlanta's had all
19:24season like they've been one of the best all season and um that could be that could be trouble
19:29could be trouble indeed we're going to get back to the turnovers in one second lucas i wanted to ask
19:33you
19:34if you're a coach to marco who do you make the primary defenders on alicia gray and ryan howard in
19:40this
19:41matchup and how do you think atlanta will then try to use those two ladies to exploit those defenders
19:45that's that's a really good question um i do also want to point out a lot of their turnovers against
19:50minnesota were dead ball yeah whether that's random whether that can continue big thing to watch for
19:56in the first matchup in june which the liberty won sabrina was out marine johannes ended up getting
20:02the ryan howard assignment which is a little surprising i think pauline on jordan canada and leo on
20:09alicia gray fast forward to the penultimate game of the regular season and i believe sabrina started
20:17on alicia gray pauline got jordan canada again and leo on ryan really sabrina did a great job
20:25guarding kayla mcbride um she she you know lived up to the lofty expectations put on her chase kmack
20:32around screens and if she's going to guard ryan howard or alicia gray similar task right you got to
20:39chase them around screens you can't let them fire open catch and shoot threes you got to stay attached
20:43and i get the philosophy and we can't let jordan canada live in the paint we can't let her i
20:51think
20:51as miles pointed out beat everyone up the court with speed and have these 10 assist games that she's
20:56been having that's where it falls apart so i would guess that you put pauline on her pauline is shown
21:03to
21:04be a real scrappy quick point of attack defender and then you probably want leo on one of alicia
21:11gray and ryan and whoever you feel more confident with sabrina whatever you saw on tape from her last
21:16series you're going to switch a lot of these guard to guard actions anyway but the big key is like
21:21can
21:22we keep jordan canada out of the paint and trust everyone else to stay attached to ryan and alicia
21:29yeah that's that's going to be huge and that's something i'm definitely watching for in this series
21:33miles we talked about the liberty needing to keep their turnovers down but atlanta they've led the
21:39league in the regular season points off of turnovers so what do you think the liberty need to do well
21:44in terms of decision making with the ball and also just controlling their possessions what do they
21:49need to do well in this series to make sure they don't play into atlanta's hands who they are a
21:53team
21:53that's going to capitalize off the turnovers so i've got kind of a two-part answer here it's part
21:58my eye test and part what brianna stewart was talking about today at practice for me something
22:03i was seeing a lot is atlanta because they're a team that likes to crash the offensive glass you
22:09might think okay we have an opportunity now to grab and to run but what they do is they bring
22:15a lot of
22:15their aggressiveness near the near the timeline and the liberty a couple of times would one of the
22:21bigs would pull down a rebound take one or two dribbles then try to hit ahead and that's where they
22:26are waiting to pounce and it's turnovers in spots that you wouldn't necessarily anticipate them you
22:31wouldn't think that that would be a congested part of the floor so they're kind of making up for their
22:36aggressiveness with more aggressiveness rather than uh having two people crash and then three people
22:41get back to make sure they can't get beat down court brianna stewart was saying that their wings
22:46that atlanta has the most steals on the wings out of every team in the w and that's not just
22:52the
22:53players but that's also just where those steals are happening and we saw that a lot too where
22:58instead of you need to have this this toughness this conviction if you're going into some of these
23:03dhos or if you're just trying to get your actions moving and normally it almost feels like they enter
23:10these points where it's like checking the ball up and then trying to get rolling they're waiting for
23:15you to to throw that soft pass to the wing and then if you're going east to west and and
23:20you have a
23:20defender coming north south and that's just going to be two points the other way and that's that's
23:25when you're giving up those really big big transition scores and the easy transition scores is like
23:30that's not semi-transition that's just open court right in front of you uh so they just need to
23:35really hone in on where they're starting the ball and make sure that they're being safe there and
23:41just make sure that they they're having patience and that's something they did really well against
23:45minnesota is you don't have to run every time get the ball to a guard let a guard bring up
23:51or or stewie
23:53if you're looking for a big guard and and you can just kind of get into your flow and get
23:56into your
23:57offense because new york executed really well in the half court in that first round you you just saying
24:02that and talking about the kind of turnovers that the land it could generate made me think of
24:05something in the penultimate game which you had mentioned before there were a couple of turnovers
24:08like that where jj got a rebound was bringing it up well lazily passed it and didn't look and they're
24:13waiting to pounce on that at half court like you said it was either one-on-one or sometimes you
24:17know two-on-one the other way and it's a wrap so you can't have those kind of turnovers but
24:21i want
24:21to talk to you guys about the liberties big three versus the tactics that we might see from atlanta
24:27in the situation this is for everybody here of the big three stewie sab jj whose performance do you
24:35think matters the most in this series in terms of the liberty winning who would you say mazak continue with
24:41you i mean i'll do what i did last week and just say every time you give me one of
24:44these multiple
24:45choices it's stewie like stewie has proven to us time and time again and now she's coming off a
24:51series where we said she would be the most important player and she averaged 27 and a half points eight
24:55and a half rebounds five assists and four stocks like crazy she's just everywhere on both ends of
25:00the court and she's just that connector for everything that new york does so until she's not suiting up the
25:06answer is probably always going to be stewie does everybody else just going with stewie here maddie
25:10you're going stewie i mean i would yes stewie is the most obvious answer but i also want to like
25:15give some flowers to jj because i just think that this is going to be a really important series for
25:20her in particular inside and i think that you know she played maybe game one wasn't her most
25:25loud game that she's ever had but game two like she really showed up and she played a pivotal part
25:31in
25:31that win and so i think jj you know she's going to be extremely vital into the against atlanta
25:36all right lucas i want to shout out sabrina just to complete the trio there we go i like that
25:42and i
25:42will say the argument is i don't think there is a ton of worry about stewie showing up and being
25:49stewie
25:49i don't think that after seeing jj have that first round performance there is as much worry as there
25:55may be otherwise would be also jj did a great job in the regular season keeping angel naz off the
26:01glass
26:02sabrina to her credit didn't always shoot great against minnesota but she amassed so much pick
26:09and roll volume while limiting the turnovers she had four turnovers all series but handling the ball
26:15a ton and i believe two or three of those were dead ball turnovers she has to do that against
26:20atlanta when she is driving to the paint and ryan howard you know is on the wing as mild miles
26:26mentioned
26:27stunting at her if she tries to pass that ball too early ryan sticking a paw out that's two points
26:33the other way so if sabrina can continue to get in the paint without turning it over get to two
26:39feet
26:40spray keep the offense moving as she did against minnesota but take it to another level that's going
26:46to be a huge key for them winning this series because as great as stewie and jj played sabrina's
26:51have the ball a lot that is just how this team is built and if she can avoid turning the
26:57ball over
26:57it makes a huge difference in new york's chances of success i just want to add to that yeah just
27:03a
27:03small point 2023 sabrina's regular season career high comes against atlanta 37 points 2024 playoffs
27:10her playoff career high 36 points also came against the dream and this is a lot of the defensive
27:16assignments that she's going to be seeing uh in this series it was still alicia it was still ryan it
27:21was
27:21still jordan on a lot of these teams so like i think that there is a familiarity here which is
27:26something that we talked about being something helpful with the links is that these teams were
27:30so familiar with each other so that's a point in sab's favor i just i just want to also add
27:34in game
27:34two she was so good early about giving it up and getting it back as a spacer she's a great
27:40off ball
27:40mover we know teams are flying at her on catch and shoot you don't want to see her force things
27:46early
27:46in the shot clock make an adventurous pass that's not there take a bad shot give it up you will
27:53get
27:54it back and we saw that against minnesota gets her better looks prevents turnovers and so i thought
28:00game two was a really really great sign i think she's another level to get to but that should be
28:05a
28:05point of encouragement for liberty fans sorry one more back and forth he hasn't picked the points
28:10gone because we're just playing bing bong i feel like miles and lucas i just feel like the success in
28:15game two was a direct correlation to how well they played the pick and roll in game one where sab
28:22and
28:22stewie found it again and sabrina passed up some shot opportunity she could have taken and that's the
28:27three the looks of three that she was getting in that second game was because of the everyone knowing
28:32everyone in minnesota seeing the scout that she's looking for stewie on that role and that found her
28:37a couple of looks from deep so having it's all connected but that's big for her i don't have
28:43anything else it's fine it's fine you did i'm gonna i'm gonna ask maddie something about sab because with
28:48that being said and it being all connected like you said when you look at this series what's more
28:53important for sab is it scoring or is it how she handles pressure and creates for others which would you
28:59say it's most most important for her i think it's the second part because even she was talking today
29:04about um not trying to force the passes and she said as a guard you're often talked about like looking
29:10for the pass right um and not over dribbling but she said this could be a series where there might
29:14be a
29:14little bit of over dribbling and to a degree like you don't want to play scared um because you don't
29:21when you're scared or you're timid that means you might make a mistake but it's also being aware of your
29:27surroundings and and understanding like picking your spots and so i think that the playmaking is
29:32going to be extremely important the trusting that the ball is going to get back to you when there is
29:36an opportunity to pass it off early in the shot clock and i i just think like her the way
29:43that she
29:43controls the ball values the ball like every possession has to be valuable and like they can't
29:49be throwing throwing possessions away just trying to like make something work or trying to force
29:54something um because the alien dream as we've mentioned multiple times throughout this episode
29:59is a team that's going to punish you if you make a mistake yeah you know that's going to happen
30:03um for
30:04sure miles i want to ask you this because when i ask you the multiple choice question we know you're
30:08always going to pick stewie but if one of the big three has an off night and particularly stewie because
30:14we saw her performance and how great she was against the links what's the alternative for this liberty
30:20team offensively to get it done if one of the big three doesn't show up or particularly stewie
30:25doesn't show up offensively one night i mean i do think that that is the beauty of this roster
30:29construction is that that answer is going to be different every night and that i don't mean that
30:34to be a cop-out answer but it's there is real belief there and when we're looking at the teams
30:39that
30:39are still left in the field obviously we don't have the result of of the the valkyries and the wings
30:45yet because the valks are the team that i think pushes the liberty in terms of depth but you look
30:50at the rest of them and it's like one night it could be pauline getting to the paint and having
30:54a dozen points and getting five paint scores another night it could be marine gets hot and she gets you
30:5912 points from the outside in a three minute span we've talked about han and what han can provide for
31:05you rebecca gardner is just always in the right place all the time leo we didn't talk about her enough
31:11offensively i think we talked about her defensively in the first round but you know stewie's great in
31:17game one against minnesota but they separate because of leo hitting those timely threes in the
31:22third quarter and that's what gives them that that seven to ten point cushion that they had
31:26so there are really a lot of people outside of the big three but then you can have a game
31:31like game two
31:31against minnesota where the big three were the only three players that were in double figures and the
31:37we're still able to run away with it so i think like there is that is just kind of the
31:42gift of
31:43what this roster can provide to you and knowing that there's just going to be so much attention
31:49and so much gravity going towards the liberty stars yeah and being able to play like that the roster
31:54knowing different ways to win that's only going to help with the confidence that we've all been
31:58talking about thus far with the series lucas my question for you is going to be one that's a
32:03little bit more i'm going to have you put your coaching hat on for a second and make you coach
32:06demarco if you're coach demarco what are you doing to keep angel reese off the glass and then
32:13miles has brought this up before too jordan canada's speed is something that you know we're going to
32:19be watching in this series and how do we deal with her trying to get into pain how do you
32:22try to
32:22slow her down if you can what would you do tactically if you're coaching marco to keep angel
32:27off the glass and then try to slow down jordan canada right so one coaching factor the best
32:32adjustment ever is play better you need to be on your stuff at the point of attack fighting
32:39through screens whether you're pauline leo sabrina ends up on her rebecca gardner making sure she
32:45doesn't have a lane to just jog down is a big part of it jonquil is going to get the
32:50angel assignment
32:51jonquil is going to be in drop she has to play as well as she did against minnesota and the
32:57rest of
32:57it is if you are on the wing and you're leo or you're stewie you have to chip angel on
33:03these rolls
33:03whether she's at the elbow or whether you're on the low block like you have to be pulled in and
33:09if
33:09jordan canada who's great at five six can fake a pass to angel and float one over your head to
33:16the
33:16corner you shake her hand but you cannot let angel roll down the lane freely so it's going to be
33:23jj like when you're in drop and jordan canada's coming at you and angel's rolling make sure you're
33:30cutting off that pass and if jordan's going to finish over you again you shake her hand these
33:35taggers guarding the shooters you're chipping angel you're pulled in and they did that in that win in
33:41atlanta i know it was a while ago but they did that um angel had a really poor first half
33:46she found
33:47some maybe garbage time buckets in the second half not to slander her too much but that is what
33:53you're going to have to do you know five players guarding her because you don't stop a player
33:58that good one-on-one right and she's going to have to feel everybody's presence defensively
34:03there on the floor so it's very interesting to look at there all right it's time y'all know what
34:07time it is whoo you know you know what time it is we're wrapping it up we're getting out of
34:11here
34:13there's no more segments right no no no the break room we're gonna get we're all gonna get out of
34:18here um it's prediction time liberty versus dream series predictions i think we could all just go
34:25on three we could count three we put our hands on the table and we could pick dream on three
34:30everybody
34:30everybody with you dream on three miles you're in anybody in i think miles wants all right no
34:36nobody's in for dream i was third oh man i tried trying i tried i tried to get dream on
34:40three
34:40here's are you going dream on three y'all have to find out okay it's possible it's got to find
34:46out
34:46i can't give the game away right now that's why you're the host there we go um what i love
34:52for
34:52you guys is can you give me your series winner first you got some other predictions coming to you
34:56give me a series winner and in how many games what are you going maddie since you are the queen
35:02of
35:02predictions i'm gonna start with you i'm gonna give a little lead up to this lead up lead ups are
35:09great
35:09so i went to big east media day yesterday good boy and i had the opportunity to ask gino about
35:15um brianna stewart one of his favorite players obviously and he said that people time and time
35:23again want to doubt brianna stewart in the postseason like they people were questioning like
35:29oh france is coming for the u.s and they don't have asia like it's over for the u.s
35:33right and then
35:34what does brianna stewart do she goes and gets a gold medal at fifa um or in the olympics and
35:41the playoffs like awaken this beast within brianna stewart and i doubted and i will own that for for
35:49everything that's worth in the first round after seeing the way that they played the links and
35:53seeing this like x next level that they were able to unlock on both ends of the floor liberty fans
36:00might
36:00not want to hear this but i am leaning liberty in four and brianna stewart's my mvp wow wow dex
36:10didn't
36:10ask you for an mvp i didn't ask you for that was coming that was just kidding that already so
36:15we can
36:15yeah yeah sorry was uh was a was wearing red a misdirect and it's like atlanta red too my bad
36:23i
36:23actually didn't realize that until i already left the house and was like well i'm not going bare arms so
36:28you threw people off with the whole attire and the pick and you know what's funny is it was either
36:33this or like a light blue so either way it would have been you're gonna throw somebody off all right
36:39you got liberty in four miles are you as optimistic this time as you were for the last round i
36:47think i
36:47could have been more optimistic last round the liberty got it done in two and neither game was
36:51particularly close but i will say the exact same thing that i said last time it was brianna stewart is
36:57the best player in this series and for the playoffs that matters the most the other thing is i think
37:04that atlanta is a very very scrappy team and new york will have to meet that energy and i think
37:10that
37:11in a regular season game it's harder to consistently bring that activity and that effort but we saw two
37:17complete 40 minute games out of new york which i don't know that we saw back-to-back games like
37:22that
37:23in the regular season so if that is the mode that they're in now that we're in these games that
37:27count it's just going to be new york again i'm also going liberty in four i think it gets split
37:33in
37:33atlanta and then they win the two at home liberty and four from miles which brings us to lucas yeah
37:40that's embarrassing i'm going liberty in four as well wow jump on the bandwagon i thought you were
37:46gonna do something different maybe you're gonna get dream in three you should ask me first i i would
37:50have been the tone setter i think that the liberty are uniquely suited to keep atlanta off the glass
37:55of all the problems they had in the last two games and the win that they had in june they
38:01have been
38:01able to survive and in some cases win the rebounding battle and jj and stewie a big part of that
38:08i trust
38:10them to show up i'm not sure if stewie's going all 40 in every game this series it is a
38:15potential
38:15five game series however game one is on sunday two off days before game two on wednesday and no
38:22travel i think they have a really good chance to steal game one and win in four um so that
38:29is that
38:29is my prediction i just have one thing to that uh the numbers behind the rebounding the liberty out
38:35rebounded the dream it was 40 to 31 on average in the three games in the regular season a big
38:41part of
38:42that though the the big asterisk is because new york turned the ball over so much so the the dream
38:47we're still getting more possessions every game but that second to last game of the regular season
38:52that we saw they held the dream to just four offensive rebounds that's the big number because
38:56atlanta led the league with 10.6 or 10.8 offensive rebounds per game and the liberty held them to
39:02somewhere in like the eight range so that's that's a big plus but yeah it's not just the rebounding
39:07but it's it's the the possessions are going to be huge in this series possessions always huge in
39:11the playoffs now here we go everybody's heard you guys pick liberty and four and everybody's going to
39:16expect me to probably do something differently and i'm here to tell everybody look dream they're
39:25going to be physical they are going to give some problems for the liberty angel reese all-time great
39:31rebounder this is the build-up like what maddie was doing this is the build-up here that i'm
39:36breaking for everybody however i'm not going against my colleagues here i'm not going against
39:42them at all i just i think the liberty of too much i believe in the mode that they're in
39:46right now
39:47my mindset has changed on them from what i've seen um i do think this will be a physical series
39:51i do
39:52think this is a series where you cannot play with your food i will say that much but yeah i
39:57think the
39:57liberty are going to win in four however i will say this you brought up the point about the two
40:03days
40:03off between game one and two if the liberty win game one which i think they can very great chance
40:10to do that especially with the rest that they've had if they have the same mindset that we saw in
40:15game two of this series against the links i think there's a good chance they go up 2-0 and
40:20i think if
40:20they go up 2-0 i think come back to barclays and sweep them so i'm going to go a
40:25little bit
40:25different here i'm going with the liberty sweep liberty in three i thought i was going to say dream
40:30in three no i'm going liberty in three i think they're on one right now i think they're focused
40:34i think they're not playing with their food i think the liberty get it done in three this is
40:37this is this is wow this is this is i don't know how i feel about this yeah yeah i
40:43know this is great
40:44the other the only thing i'll also say about atlanta is that they were one of the hottest teams heading
40:48into the playoffs they won 13 of the last 15 games obviously had those two against the liberty
40:53um one of those was without brianna stewart which obviously impacts everything but
40:57i just think that the dream are we can't overlook the dream like as good as the liberty looked in
41:03the first round like the dream are gonna be a very physical team they're gonna be very competitive and
41:08so i lean on the liberty because of their experience in these moments as well um only three players on
41:15the dream have played in a semi-finals before and i think experience matters i'm so glad you brought
41:21that up because and look i'm making i'm standing with my sweet pick i'm gonna say back-to-back
41:27sweeps i'm standing with it i love that for you but thank you but i thought a lot about what
41:33you
41:33just said about experience and i've wondered about that we hadn't i'm so glad you brought that up because
41:38i wonder for atlanta i don't want to say that they're just happy to be here but they their whole
41:44thing was they hadn't got past the first round and now they have and i just this is still a
41:48young
41:48group the liberty experience and i think so much of that matters in knowing how they were going to
41:52beat the links and now i think they also understand what this opportunity is and i really think
41:56we're gonna know we're gonna know how they come out if they're not going to play with their food at
42:00all would it shock me if they got a split down in atlanta no they wouldn't shock me if liberty
42:04went into four i think that the pick is fine but we're all picking the liberty yeah but it's also
42:09coming off a sweep i i don't want us to seem like we're just all in unison as this new
42:14york media
42:14overlooking the dream and so much of what we talk about as being the identity of this team
42:20defensively as one of these best defenses in the league is that they have their their they lean
42:26heavily on their starters which is good for the playoffs because they're already used to playing
42:30this many minutes and these are five really athletic players that know how to get after it and
42:35i i think that like new york is going to have to match the intensity out of atlanta that's that's
42:41going to be a key and it's going to be something that we're going to see very early on and
42:44especially
42:45when you're going into game one in state farm i will also say even if there are just of all
42:50of
42:51us who cover sports you can have a sweep and that doesn't mean it's easy there could be sweeps where
42:55every game is a two possession game and i could totally see this series being like that if i could
43:00see it in the four even if they went in four i could see every game ending up as being
43:04a two
43:04possession game this is going to be a physical series there are not going to be any easy games for
43:07liberty and i look forward to it it's it's a slight contrast in styles but where i agree with you
43:13we're talking about before defensively i think the last series prepared them well for this series and
43:19we all agree we all think the liberty are going to win now will the fans like that will that
43:22bode
43:23well for them i don't know we're going to be blamed if it doesn't go that way we are going
43:27to be
43:27blamed i think you won't be blamed no i think you're safe because you picked up so you're safe yeah
43:32yeah yeah i think you're safe i'll throw you guys right out of the box yeah it's okay
43:37we already did all right so maddie you said stewie as series mvp yep who are you guys going with
43:43three series mvp um hmm i mean pick someone different pick somebody else pick somebody else
43:50you don't always have to pick a you you keep you keep throwing stewie as an option if stewie's not
43:54an
43:55option i'm gonna go jj uh i think that she's going to be super important against this front court
44:01angel reese is going to be a problem because that's just who she is on both ends of the court
44:06and jj can make things a little bit more difficult for her if she's the one that's the aggressor and
44:12if she's on the block and if she's stretching her out to the three point line if she's baiting angel
44:18into taking three or four threes a game that's a win for the liberty because that means that angel's
44:22not crashing um how she how they communicate on that back line is also going to be important
44:28because naz can knock down threes she started doing that last year in the system and i think
44:33something that is going to be big potentially and shout out to nakias duncan for talking about this
44:38on the latest dunker spot but ryan howard got to the line a lot and drove a lot in the
44:43first game
44:44she ended up with seven and a half free throws per game in that two game sweep in the regular
44:49season
44:49she averages three and a half free throws per game so if ryan's going downhill that's just leash can get
44:54downhill jordan could get downhill that's five players that you need to account to account for
44:59and that makes your back line defense even more important than it already is to start so i think
45:05if jj is you know scoring 15 points but ripping down 12 rebounds and staying in the game for 30
45:11plus
45:12minutes then she's going to be the series mvp i like that i i agree i'm going jj i just
45:18think that
45:18this is the tallest task of angel reese's career she's had a great career so far but five game series
45:23best of five against john quill jones is just a different animal and jj has had dominant games
45:31over angel reese and angels three-year career angels had a couple good games particularly as of late
45:36but if the liberty win this series and if jj is just giving angel problems on both ends of the
45:44court
45:44and getting double digit rebounds that to me is just a bridge that might be too much for atlanta to
45:50overcome so as great as stewie is there is a world in which jj is the mvp of this series
45:56outright you know not just because i don't want to pick stewie right jj really could be the mvp and
46:02that would be you know a great thing for new york if you look up after game one and you
46:08think about it
46:08as you did after minnesota game two where your main takeaway is man jj showed up yeah i i was
46:14going
46:14to pick i i had this tough choice i was thinking about it's going to be jj for me that's
46:18that's my pick
46:19because i just think she can be there's a world in which stewie is i think we all know she's
46:24the
46:24best player in the series i think jj can be the most impactful and most valuable player in this
46:29series just because of what she can bring and how much she can wear on angel reese in that front
46:33court so if she plays with as you've talked about that same energy she keeps that same energy we saw
46:37from her in the series yeah i think she will she can be the series mvp i think she's the
46:41real
46:42difference maker here but it wouldn't shock me if you know stewie still leads in points i think one of
46:48the
46:48things i'll be looking at is jj still the series leader in rebounds how good is she on the glass
46:52if she does that then i feel really good about her being a series mvp i think that's what we
46:57look for
46:57how active is she on the glass how active is she defensively that's going to tell me a lot maybe
47:02more than the scoring here there our last thing i might have already gave mine because i picked the
47:06liberty sweep so it's a bold prediction but uh what's your one bold prediction for the series
47:11lucas i'll start with you my bold prediction is that rebecca gardner leads all bench players in
47:18scoring i think they are really going to need beck gardner to be able to switch one through three
47:25one through four with some bench lineups we've talked about leash jordan ryan uh i think she finds
47:31the three-point shot i think christa marco just has to keep her on the court because of how she's
47:36playing i think new york maybe goes with more one guard one point guard lineups as in just sabrina or
47:43just pauline and i could see beck gardner having a classic role player series so to speak and uh if
47:50the shot's there i think she can lead all bench players in points i like that that's a good that's
47:53a good x factor there i like that you could have hedged just said back and doubled your odds true
47:57i
47:57i thought about it don't think i didn't think about it yeah you could have done it miles who you
48:02got
48:03all right i'm gonna go back to the stewie well i i think we've seen is that bold then it
48:08is bold
48:08because we've seen a lot of phenomenal first round performances scoring performances okay and stewie's
48:14career high in the playoffs she has one 40 point game in the playoffs she had 42 points she's gonna
48:19have a 40 piece in this series i'm looking at the matchups and we talked a lot about how the
48:26liberty
48:26would deploy their own defense but what is that matchup looking like the other way who's getting the
48:31bulk of the minutes on stewie is it going to be okay we're going to put nas every now and
48:36then
48:36onto jj to to give angel a spell and then is there a big size advantage there is ryan getting
48:42a bulk of
48:43those minutes on stewie and then you're talking we talked about the foul direction the foul trouble in
48:47one direction what about in the other direction because brianna stewart was averaging she made nine
48:52and a half out of ten and a half free throws per game in that first series so if you're
48:56then putting
48:56those starters into foul trouble we haven't seen that depth quite as much and no one's really
49:01matching up with her so well i think we're going to see a game where that mid-range is falling
49:05early
49:06where a couple of those threes land and then all of a sudden stewie's sitting at 30 points at three
49:11quarters and she goes for it she smells blood and and she finishes one of these games so a stewie
49:1540 plus
49:16uh game in this series i like that studio the 40 piece that okay that's a little more bold you
49:21went to
49:21stewie again but that was a little more bold it's like a hall of fame level performance and she just
49:24came off one from game one of the series um but for my bold performance my bold one um i
49:30don't know
49:30how bold this is but it just feels like it's due like sabrina is gonna have like one of those
49:36like
49:36games that were like i don't want to say vintage sabrina because she's not old by any means but
49:41she's gonna have one of those games that's gonna remind everyone like how good sabrina is as like a
49:46shooter and a scorer and she's gonna be aggressive getting downhill she's gonna be okay with getting
49:51contact it you know nearing at the rim which has been something that people have like you know
49:55we've noticed maybe she's a little hesitant to take some of that contact but this is gonna be a
49:59game where she's gonna really assert herself and i think that she's gonna have you know not just one
50:06big game but i could see like this being a good series for sabrina i just think that she's due
50:11for
50:11that what's what's the points on this like how many points what are we talking about for a vintage
50:15game yeah i mean like what her playoff career high is 37 36 against atlanta against atlanta so yeah
50:22another 36 point performance she's gonna she's gonna average 22.5 in the series but she's gonna have
50:34a 36 piece maybe the math doesn't math when i do that actually i'm not a math petition so i'm
50:39gonna like
50:39i'm not saying average anymore so you kind of you kind of stole my bold prediction because i was
50:46gonna go with sab having a big game and i said some game where she'll probably have like five
50:49threes i'm gonna go something else i see happening there might be a game where she doesn't score as
50:54much but i'm gonna go that she gives us at least a game with 10 assists in this game i
50:58actually like
50:59how some of her floor game has been in the last series we saw the set game two at one
51:03point she had
51:04seven assists and no turnovers she had two turnovers late in the second half but she's been doing a good
51:07job finding her teammates control we talked about how the control would matter for her
51:11in this series against this team i think we'll see a game we'll see her get 10 assists i'm going
51:15with a double digit assist game for sab in this series maybe it happens with the third can you
51:20imagine 36 and 10 does she get a triple double oh you want to you want that to be your
51:25bullet
51:25prediction oh now you got me thinking that'd be fun should i go out there and be spicy
51:30be bold yeah be bold be bold you know what triple double for sab in this series we should get
51:35the
51:3510 assists it'll pipe in the same game she gets 36 30 point triple double everyone else can take off
51:42the whole second yeah she's got this she's got it whatever we'll just put it triple double for sab
51:47i'll go with that it probably won't be 30 points but we'll get we'll take the triple double for sab
51:51all right we did it we made some predictions we survived now will people like them i don't know i
51:56like
51:56do you like your predictions yeah i mean i think that to to just keep on adding on to what
52:02you guys
52:02are saying what if and when sab goes off it's going to be in front of that home crowd that
52:06home crowd
52:07really came through in game two that was the loudest we've heard it since that 2024 agree i said that
52:12that was so i think sabrina is one of the ultimate crowd risers and yes she likes to silence people
52:21on
52:21the road but you can tell when she takes that when she takes a charge and then comes down the
52:26other way and hits a three she's eight feet tall and that's because that entire crowd is behind
52:31her so i think uh i like your predictions and when sad has that game where she goes off it's
52:37going to
52:37be in front of that barclays crowd i think we're gonna we'll all be there together to see that so
52:42that should be good that is going to do it for this second roundtable edition of the playoffs for
52:48liberty lately please let us know about your predictions what do you think let us know in the
52:52comments everybody touch the roundtable i gotta touch it too that is good uh thank you guys for
52:56coming through and doing this again this is really good that we're able to do this for the playoffs
52:59for the second series in a row i am hoping that we're going to get to do this one more
53:04time talk
53:05about the wmba finals that would be really nice and now everyone since we all think since we all think
53:09the team is going there so yeah a little a little nervous about how unanimous we all were but i
53:15do want
53:15to do this again i would like to do it again too that'd be good for the great lucas kaplan
53:19miles
53:20ehrlich and madeline kenny i'm dexter having to catch you next time on another edition of liberty lately
53:25peace
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