Liberty surfing its home-court wave against Mystics

There was a sea of white towels waving in the air and the crowd sounded so loud. 

Barclays Center was rocking last Friday night for Game 1 of Liberty-Mystics.

“We definitely had the home-court advantage, just to look around the stadium and see all the seats filled, see the towels waving,” Jonquel Jones said after that 90-75 Liberty win. “The playoff atmosphere is definitely there and everybody’s showing up. Everybody’s proud of this team. I know they’re going to continue to do that, and we’re just going to ride the wave.”

The Liberty set themselves up for a chance to ride that wave from home-court advantage in at least the first two rounds of the WNBA playoffs thanks to a 32-8 regular-season run that landed them the second seed.

So they were back in their Brooklyn arena for Game 2 Tuesday night, trying to close out the best-of-three opening-round series against No. 7 Washington and clinch a spot in the semifinals.

“We have a great home court,” Liberty coach Sandy Brondello said before the game. “We want to protect that.”

Of course, it always comes down to making shots and stops. But in general, the Liberty do see their home court as a big advantage because of their vocal fans.

“They just bring us a lot of energy,” Betnijah Laney said after the morning shootaround. “When we run out and they’re cheering us on and we’re making big plays, you can just feel it, and it’s contagious.

“So the fact that we’re able to be home, we have this home-court advantage and we have them on our side, it helps us go a long way.” 

The Liberty wanted to avoid a postseason-on-the-line Game 3 Friday night in Washington and instead be able to look ahead to Game 1 Sunday and Game 2 next Tuesday night at Barclays for the semis.

They wanted to do what No. 3 Connecticut didn’t do in its opening-round series, losing the home-court advantage by losing in Game 2 at home against No. 6 Minnesota. So the Sun have to play a deciding Game 3 on the road Wednesday night.

The winners of these two series will meet in the next round.

“We have to take care of business and not let these opportunities pass us by when we do have home-court advantage,” Ionescu said after Game 1.

The Liberty went 15-5 in their 20 regular-season home games and averaged 7,777 fans, according to acrossthetimeline.com. 

They usually haven’t sold tickets for the upper bowl. So the crowd of 8,789 for Game 1 was a sellout.

But they did open some upper sections for the two games against Las Vegas last month and drew their best crowds since coming to Brooklyn — 11,418 and then 11,615. And the Liberty won both those games over the defending champ in front of their fans.

“They’re our sixth man,” Kayla Thornton said after the shootaround. “They bring us that extra energy that we need, especially when the game might not be going well. Just the electricity of the arena kind of just sparks us.

“So it’s very important. We’re just blessed to have these fans that we have in New York.”

They wanted a series-clinching victory in Game 2 not just for the fans but for themselves.

“We’d rather stay home and rest our bodies after [Tuesday night],” Laney said.

The Mystics went 12-8 at home during the regular season. On the road? They were just 7-13.

“They’re a great team,” Thornton said. “They play very well on the road. But at home, they do play a little better. So it’s better just for us to get this one and just move on.”