Liberty's 5-game winning streak halted by Lynx despite 38-point effort by Breanna Stewart

Breanna Stewart used six small words for her State of the Liberty address.

The weight of those words, though, is immense.

“Right now we’re not good enough,” Stewart said minutes after the Liberty’s 88-79 loss to the Minnesota Lynx on Sunday afternoon at Barclays Center.

The Liberty dropped to 31-7 as their five-game winning streak came to an unsettling end.

Stewart recorded 38 points and 18 rebounds for the Liberty, who finished with more points in the paint (34-26) and more fast-break points (16-7) and essentially matched the Lynx rebound-for-rebound (36-35).

Those were the positives.

The negatives were that Sabrina Ionescu shot 4-for-21 from the field and 2-for-12 from three-point range, and that the Liberty made only 8 of 28 three-point attempts (28.6%).

“I can’t show up and play like this for us to win,” said Ionescu, who scored 13 points.

The matinee could have been viewed as a possible preview of the WNBA Finals. Entering the game, the Liberty (.816) and Lynx (.763) ranked first and second in the league in winning percentage.

Moreover, the fourth and final regular-season matchup between the teams was another opportunity for the Liberty to measure themselves against another league heavyweight whom they haven’t fared all that well against.

The Liberty lost the first two games — 84-67 on May 25 and 94-89 on June 25 — but earned a 76-67 win on July 2.

“They’ve been really tough,” Liberty coach Sandy Brondello said before the game. “They’re playing a little bit of a different style. It reminds me of Serbian basketball. They’re really heavy congestion. They’re really running after the ball and then they scramble. So there’s a lot of mismatches. They’re continually moving. If you don’t play that style of basketball, it takes time to get used to it.

“. . . They do it so well and they commit to it. And that’s a big part of it: Committing to it. Even if some things get a little clunky for them, they just commit to it.”

Then there was the little matter of the Liberty clinching the top overall seed in the WNBA playoffs with a win.

It was a meaningful game with significant stakes. Which is why it was concerning that the Liberty were so badly outplayed during the first three quarters.

Minnesota led 30-17 after the first quarter and 52-39 at halftime. Of the Liberty’s 39 points, 34 were scored by the triumvirate of Stewart (16), Ionescu (10) and Jonquel Jones (eight).

The deficit grew to as much as 26 at 74-48 when Kayla McBride (11 points) hit a three-pointer with 43.1 seconds left in the third quarter.

Shortly thereafter, everything changed for a squad that, up to that point, was headed to its worst loss of the season.

After scoring the final two points of the third quarter, the Liberty opened the fourth quarter with a 22-6 run in the first 5:21 to cut their deficit to 80-72. Stewart was the catalyst, scoring 13 points, including a straightaway three-pointer with 4:39 left that brought the Liberty within eight.

McBride snuffed out any hopes the Liberty may have had for an improbable comeback by draining a three of her own 1:14 later.

“We have to work,” Stewart said. “We have to be better.”