Seven consecutive wins later, the New York Liberty has overcome a slow start to play for in-season glory in the Commissioner's Cup final.
George Costanza himself could not have envisioned a metropolitan summer so perfect.
New York City doesn't have to wait long for "championship" basketball to return to the boroughs: the New York Liberty has secured a spot in the Commissioner's Cup final, which will crown a WNBA in-season champion on June 30. New York can make a case for homecourt advantage in the title game with a win over the Chicago Sky on Wednesday night (8 p.m. ET, WNYW/USA).
It's a swift recovery for the Liberty group that began this season with a 3-4 mark, one that has been quickly forgotten with a seven-game winning streak, the longest active tally on the WNBA leaderboard entering Wednesday night.
"Over [these] six games, we'll try to win them all, just so then our growth as a team is continuing to kind of beat upward," New York forward Breanna Stewart said as the Liberty's clinch loomed last week. "Of course, there's knowing that we would have an opportunity to be in the Commissioner's Cup championship. That just shows that we're one of the best teams in the first half of the season. We've kind of been on both sides of it. We've been in it, and we've won, and then we lost in the Finals, and then we lost, and we won the Finals. It's kind of tough, we just want to make sure that we keep growing every day."
To Stewart's point, New York has a bittersweet history with the in-season competition: it defeated Las Vegas for its first brand of officially-recognized WNBA hardware in over two decades back in 2023 but lost to those same Aces in that fall's Finals. The script flipped the following year, as the Liberty fell to Minnesota in the summer before biting the Lynx in the postseason. A rematch awaits in any event, as Las Vegas and Minnesota are the two teams left eligible for the Western spot that will also be decided on Wednesday.
How has New York kept the championship ball rolling?
Depth Stars
New York had to work through the earlier portions of this season without several of its headliners: prized offseason addition Satou Sabally dealt with an early injury, while fellow German Leonie Fiebich finished out her international work. Sabrina Ionescu only recently returned after a combination of preseason injury and further back soreness.
But the Liberty has shown itself to be full of surprises, not least of which is WNBA rookie Pauline Astier. The French phenom has been keeping Ionescu's spot in the starting five warm and has broken out to the tune of standing as one of seven freshmen averaging double figures in scoring. Astier is also third in rookie 3-point percentage (min. 10 games played, one 3-pointer tried per game) and fourth in freshman net rating (min. 20 minutes per game) as the season enters its second quarter.
Pauline Astier with the TOUGH finish over Caitlin Clark.
— CBS Sports (@CBSSports) June 7, 2026
What a comeback by the @nyliberty
📺 CBS | @paramountplus pic.twitter.com/Wh9lRRKwmf
A Strong Bench
As Sabally gets her professional footing back, she has emerged as a reliable sixth woman: Sabally is the league's second-leading bench scorer in June and is shooting 50% from the field (including 45% from three) in five such showings. New York's bench has also benefitted from the return of Betnijah Laney-Hamilton: the Liberty is 10-1 when her sneakers touch the floor this season. Equally vital is the two-way breakout of Rebekah Gardner (56.4 percent from the floor, third-best defensive rating among reserves with 10 appearances, 10 minutes/game) and Han Xu, who is putting up the busiest season of her sporadic WNBA career.
The irony of any supposed "superteam" is that it only advances as far as its depth stars take them. Stewart and Jonquel Jones have engaged in their usual antics at the top, but only with the bench breakouts have they been able to help New York recognize its true potential. The Liberty itself thrust this axiom into the limelight with the respective work of Fiebich and Kayla Thornton during its original 2024 title run. New York's second unit has made an early statement, and it's hard to bet against a group that is well-decorated on both the domestic and international levels.
Adaptation
For the time being, the Liberty has found a form of stability under new head coach Chris DeMarco, showcasing an ability to adapt to what the game gives them.
Like their Villanova compatriots across the Brooklyn Bridge, the Liberty has been a team capable of throwing threes at their problems until they go away. While they haven't fully shaken such an identity (the basketball world yearns for Marine Johannés in All-Star Weekend's 3-Point Contest), they've shown they don't need to rely on it as much this time around: New York is 4-3 when it hits fewer than 10 threes, including one particularly gritty win over Indiana, where they had only two. It posted an 11-13 record in such games last season.
Indiana's visit on June 6 also saw the Liberty temporarily curb its turnover problem, which took away the Fever's strengths in points off turnovers and fast-break opportunities. More recently, they ate away at their prime competition's greatest prowess, outrebounding Angel Reese and the Atlanta Dream by 16 in last week's visit to the Peach State. Forced to engage in pinball machine-style shootouts early on, the Liberty's defensive prowess has improved to the point where they're second in defensive rating behind only their potential CC final opponent, Minnesota.
EXCUSE ME !?!?!?
— WNBA (@WNBA) June 12, 2026
Marine Johannès continues to wow with this insanely deep triple 😱
NYL-ATL | League Pass | 2026 WNBA Commissioner's Cup | @coinbase
Tap to watch: https://t.co/qb9xEIRtdf pic.twitter.com/JQTUvfaxfi
MJ Being MJ
Local supporters made their dislike for Victor Wembanyama quite apparent during the five games of the NBA Finals. The same French dispatch does not extend to Johannés, frequently referred to as France's finest gift to New York since the Statue of Liberty.
Firmly woven into the metropolitan fabric, Cirque du So-J is now a full-time event in Brooklyn, with Johannés able to stand among the league leaders since she's been sticking around for full WNBA tours (she notably missed the entire 2024 championship campaign to work with the French national team when they hosted the Olympics). Entering Thursday, she's third with 39 successful 3-point tallies, and she's the leader in success rate among those with at least 90 tries at 43.3%, nearly four points ahead of runner-up and fellow bleu Janelle Salaün.
But like many "comedians" before her, the French star has expressed a desire to broaden her horizons, to make an impact even if her usual schtick falls flat. She's succeeding on that end to the tune of career-bests in rebounds (2.9 per game) and steals (1.0 per game), which have, in turn, yielded new highs in net rating (8.5) and average plus/minus (5.4). While sticking to what she knows from deep, Johannés is showcasing a newfound diversity in her scoring, hitting over 59% of her tries from two ... yet another personal best.
How Marine Johannés Makes a Difference
When the Liberty got off to their slow start, Johannés expressed a desire to raise her "aggressivity" and insisted she'd be able to help the full-strength group by keeping her highlights in moderation. She's taken no more than seven shots in the last four games (which the Liberty has won by a combined plus-53 margin), and the Liberty has a matching 4-1 record when she has either four rebounds or two steals.
"I feel like even when I don't score, I can add something to the team," Johannés said at the time. "It's not because I don't score 20 points every night that I play really bad. People forget about that sometimes, they are sometimes judging me a little bit because I don't score 20 every night ... I just want to help the team ... I'm happy to help the team even when I don't take many shots."
Geoff Magliocchetti is on X @GeoffJMags
