Chasing top seed, Liberty look to avoid letdown vs. Wings

The New York Liberty have a four-game winning streak and can inch closer to clinching the top seed in the WNBA playoffs when they visit the Dallas Wings on Thursday.

This is the second of a two-games-in-three-nights stint between the teams in Arlington, Texas.

The Liberty (30-6) won the first game 105-91 on Tuesday, with Breanna Stewart leading the way with 27 points. New York owns the league's best record, three games ahead of Minnesota with four games to play in the race for the No. 1 seed.

New York and Minnesota have split their two games this year and will square off for the final time in the regular season on Sunday in Brooklyn. The Liberty are just the second team in WNBA history to reach the 30-win plateau in just 36 games -- Las Vegas, in 2023, was the first team to achieve that mark.

Jonquel Jones added 19 points for New York on Tuesday. Leonie Fiebich tied her career high with 16 points off the bench, Sabrina Ionescu racked up 14 points and 11 assists and Betnijah Laney-Hamilton scored 10 as the Liberty amassed a season-best 33 assists and shot 55.2 percent (16 of 29) from 3-point range.

Liberty coach Sandy Brondello is focused on making sure her team is taking the final stretch one game at a time.

"It's making sure every game is important," she said. "We talked all season about getting that No. 1 seed. We still know we can be better, and that's our goal as we get through these next four games leading into that first playoff game."

The Wings (9-27) never led Tuesday, trailing by 17 in the first half, 25 in the second and never getting the deficit under double digits in the final period. Dallas has lost its past five games and is one of two teams (Los Angeles Sparks) already eliminated from the postseason.

Wings coach Latricia Trammell said that as competitors her squad is focused on winning every game and aims to be "upsetters" over its final four contests.

"We're still locked in, and we're not changing anything that we've been doing," she said.

Arike Ogunbowale led the Wings on Tuesday with 23 points while Natasha Howard tallied 21.

--Field Level Media