Liberty’s Sugar Rodgers Much Needed Spark to Dash the Dream

Last weekend, the New York Liberty clinched its first playoff berth since the 2012 season. Being among the WNBA’s best teams comes with a price and the education continues for the Bill Laimbeer squad. Due to their current position atop of the Eastern Conference, the Liberty will receive every teams’ best shot and Monday night’s contest was no different.

The New York Liberty: New York’s Only Relevant Professional Basketball Team

New York’s only relevant professional basketball team needed overtime to outlast the Atlanta Dream yesterday evening, 80-75, and in doing so, received a strong performance from reserve guard, Sugar Rodgers. In 27 minutes of play, Rodgers led the Liberty in scoring with 23 points, a career-high and shot 5-12 from behind the arc, which included the most significant trey of the night. After trading baskets for the first three minutes of the OT period, Rodgers, drained a triple with 1:54 remaining, over the outstretched arms of Angel McCoughtry to increase the Liberty’s lead to five, 76-71.

It signaled the Liberty’s third straight win, improving its regular season record to 21-8, the best in the Eastern Conference while the Dream fell to 12-18, on the outside looking into the postseason. On a night where the Liberty didn’t play their best basketball, Rodgers bailed her team out time and time again with timely hoops. Other than her last points which sealed the Liberty’s fate, Rodgers connected on two three’s in the 4th which helped the Liberty comeback from what was a 10 point deficit late in the third quarter.

While starters Epiphanny Prince and Tanisha Wright struggled from the field, combining for 5 of 18 shooting, Rodgers contributed the scoring punch off the bench that proved to be the winning formula and head coach Laimbeer credited Rodgers performance to her improved work ethic.

Rodgers Shows Hard Work Pays Off

“She showed me that hard work pays off,” Laimbeer said following the win. “She has been in the gym night and day for the last 10 days. I sat her down and told her that she wasn’t working hard enough and somebody else was getting her minutes and she goes to the gym three times a day. It paid off; she’s a much different player today than she has been the whole season and everybody in that room was happy for her.”

Kiah Stokes WNBA Rookie of the Month Playing Like a Championship Veteran

In addition to Rodgers, Laimbeer also praised rookie Kiah Stokes who did a little bit of everything, producing a line of 10 points, 7 rebounds, 4 blocks and 4 steals. “That’s who she is, she’s just a glue player,” Laimbeer said. “Once she started playing we realized the defensive intelligence was off the charts. She’s always in position, always in help defense, can guard anybody in the gym and recovers well.”

And Laimbeer isn’t the only person who has recognized Kiah’s game. The WNBA rewarded Stokes with the Rookie of the Month Award for efforts during the month of August. In August, Stokes led the Liberty to an 8-2 record, leading all rookies in rebounds (8.3), field goal percentage (.56) and blocks (1.5). Stokes and Brittany Boyd, along with Rodgers represent the youth of the Liberty which is surrounded by a respected group of veterans and it’s one of the reasons why the Liberty is on the brink of a potential title run.

Cash, Wright and Wiggins Championship Experience Will Matter in Liberty Playoff Push

Swin Cash is a three-time WNBA Champ and Tanisha Wright and Candice Wiggins have both experienced what it’s like to stand alone on the mountain as the league’s best, capturing titles with the Seattle Storm in 2010 and the Minnesota Lynx in 2011, respectively.

Tanisha Wright New York Liberty Game on August 2, 2015. Photo by Danny Karwoski Licensed under CC BY SA 3.0 via Commons

Candice Wiggins New York Liberty game on August 2, 2015. Photo Credit: Danny Karwoski. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Commons

Having vets like Cash, Wright and Wiggins has helped the progression of the Liberty from solid WNBA squad to a consistent winner and Wiggins has enjoyed every bit of the ride thus far, even shedding light of what the Liberty must do in preparation for a deep playoff run.

“We take so much pride in working hard and pushing each other,” Wiggins shared post-game. “I’ve never personally felt this much support on a team before and it goes such a long way when you enjoy the process of getting there and you enjoy the journey and not necessarily just looking at the destination.”

And on the postseason: “We want the No.1 overall seed, we want to do our work and I know from winning a championship, it’s all about doing your work early. The more wins you can collect, then the more it will benefit you in the postseason and we don’t want to depend on anybody else but ourselves,” Wiggins continued.

With five games left on the season, there is no time for the Liberty to relax. Three of their last five games will feature other playoff teams in the Chicago Sky, Minnesota Lynx and the Indiana Fever which will all serve as the perfect tune up for what should be an exciting playoff run for the Girls of Summer.