Liberty having best regular-season record doesn't guarantee anything in WNBA playoffs

Is this finally the year for the Liberty? Is this finally the year they go all the way and win that ever-so-elusive WNBA title?

One of the WNBA’s original franchises, the Liberty have reached the playoffs 18 times. They have been to the Finals five times — including last year against Las Vegas — but have never managed to go all the way.

This year, there are plenty of reasons to think it finally could happen. And as the Liberty open the playoffs Sunday against the Atlanta Dream at Barclays Center, there’s also more than a few reasons to think they again could fall short.

Let’s start with the positives.

The Liberty finished with the best record in the league and occupied the top spot in the standings for a good chunk of the season. Their 32-8 mark ties their best finish in franchise history, matching the record they set last season. This year is only the second time in team history that they are guaranteed to have home-court advantage throughout the playoffs.

Last year, the Liberty had the No. 2 seed and ended up falling to the top-seeded Aces in four games, a loss so brutal that a number of the Liberty’s top players were fined after refusing to talk to the media after Game 4. In that series, the Liberty were never able to recover after losing the first two games in Las Vegas. This year, they set out to avoid that scenario.

“It was one of our goals that we set out — trying to get that home-court advantage,” Liberty coach Sandy Brondello said. “We still have to take care of our business in the playoffs . . . We have a great arena. We have great fans, so we want to play in front of our fans as much as we can.”

The Liberty have a powerful Big 3 in Breanna Stewart, Sabrina Ionescu and Jonquel Jones. What’s more, this is their second year together, and the chemistry shows. Stewart is the second-best player in the league behind the Aces’ A’ja Wilson. Ionescu has become a team leader and improved enough on defense that she no longer is a liability. Jones has shown flashes of being the MVP player she was two seasons ago.

After last year’s disappointing Finals, the three have been on a mission this season. They’ve also received a lot of support from the Liberty’s retooled bench.

OK, now for the bad news.

The Liberty are going to have to play some of their best basketball just to get to the Finals. While it would be no surprise if they post a 2-0 sweep of the Dream in the first round, they are positioned to play the Aces and the best player in the WNBA in the second.

After a midseason struggle, the Aces won 10 of 11 down the stretch. Their sole defeat was a 75-71 loss to the Liberty earlier this month, which you can pretty much throw out because Las Vegas was missing Wilson.

If the Liberty can get by their rival, the reward likely will be a date with Minnesota in the Finals. Although the Lynx don’t have a roster as talented as the Aces’ or the Liberty’s, they do have a big-time star in Napheesa Collier and a big-time defense. They also have won two of three regular-season matchups against the Liberty and the Commissioner’s Cup.

It’s not just the opponents, however, that the Liberty need to worry about.

Ionescu’s three-point shooting hasn’t been the same since the Olympic break, especially against elite teams. In the last three meetings with Minnesota, Las Vegas and Connecticut — the other three top seeds — Ionescu shot a combined 5-for-33 from three-point range.

Although Jones has had moments in which she absolutely took over a game with her presence in the paint, she also has had games in which she has been a non-factor. That inconsistency is something that worries Liberty fans.

That has left the Liberty heavily dependent on Stewart, especially in the fourth quarter, in which she has had to produce huge numbers to pull out some wins. Stewart, who won her third Olympic medal, has something to prove this postseason after averaging a career-low 18.4 points in last year’s playoffs.

The Liberty know the playoffs are a reset and that this can be their year.

“We want to win a championship,” Brondello said. “That’s our ultimate goal. But we’re still process-driven. We have to learn from the experiences when we didn’t play our best basketball and know that playoff basketball goes to another level. And we have to go to another level, too.”

By Barbara Barker

barbara.barker@newsday.commeanbarb

Barbara Barker is an award-winning columnist and features writer in the sports department at Newsday. She has covered sports in New York for more than 20 years.