Liberty fall to Dream in regular-season finale, but will face them again in first round of WNBA playoffs

The Liberty were locked into the coveted No. 1 seed and didn’t need to sweat, while the Dream were still dreaming of grabbing the eighth and final invite to the WNBA’s postseason bash.

Washington and Chicago were in contention with Atlanta for that last playoff ticket.

Win the regular-season finale against the Liberty Thursday night at Barclays Center and the Dream would be in. They would clinch a matchup with the Liberty in the best-of-three first round, with the first two in Brooklyn. Lose and they could still get in with help.

“We absolutely packed for a week,” coach Tanisha Wright said before the game.

Good thing they did. They didn’t need the help. Wright’s everything-to-play-for Dream team beat the nothing-to-play-for Liberty 78-67 and qualified at 15-25.

They both will be playing for something in Game 1 on Sunday at 1 p.m. Game 2 will be 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday.

“Obviously, I wasn’t happy with the way we played,” Liberty coach Sandy Brondello said. “… [Atlanta] can be a very dangerous team. Anyone can beat anyone. So we have to be better.”

The Liberty finished at 32-8, matching last year’s team as the winningest ones in franchise history. That team was the second seed and fell to Las Vegas in the Finals. This team will have home-court advantage for as long as it lasts in its pursuit of the franchise’s first WNBA title.

“We want to win a championship,” Brondello said. “That’s our ultimate goal. But we can’t get too far ahead.”

Breanna Stewart scored 16 points, then was rested in the second half. The Liberty reserves played a lot after the intermission.

Brondello didn’t sit her starters for the entire game because they didn’t want to sit.

“They want the rhythm,” Brondello had said.

They looked out of rhythm much of the time, though.

Rhyne Howard and Naz Hillmon scored 13 points apiece for Atlanta. Former Liberty star Tina Charles became the WNBA’s all-time leading rebounder in the first quarter and finished with 10 points and 10 boards. She has 4,014 career rebounds.  Charles  recorded her 194th career double-double, also a record. The Dream had a 46-24 advantage on points in the paint.

The Liberty, who won the season series 3-1, fell behind 21-15 after one quarter. And they continued to malfunction at both ends.

The margin moved to 14 before Atlanta settled for a 43-30 halftime cushion.

The Liberty allowed 52.8% shooting and hit only 32.3% across the first 20 minutes.

Hillmon scored inside for the first points of the second half, making it a 15-point game. The Liberty soon cut it to 10 on a three by Sabrina Ionescu.

But the Dream countered with a 10-0 burst. Jordin Canada canned a 5-footer in the lane for a 55-35 advantage.

“We’ve got to play harder,” Brondello said. “Playoff basketball goes to another level.”

The lead shrunk to eight with 2:15 left, but that’s as close as it got despite the support from the loud sellout crowd of 12,721.

“You can tell that they really are all in,” Nyara Sabally said after scoring a career-high-tying 14 off the bench. “And now we need them to do the same.”

On to the playoffs and the rematch.