Liberty let playoff home-court advantage slip away with loss to Dream

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The Liberty will be hitting the road to start the playoffs.

The Dream ensured that Monday night by handing the home team a 95-84 loss at Barclays Center.

The Liberty, who play Atlanta here again Wednesday in their regular-season finale, can finish no higher than fifth but as low as eighth.

The playoff field is set, though the matchups are anything but. None of the eight teams have secured their seeding, with only three days left in the regular season.

While it’s not unusual for the order to come down to the wire for a few spots, this level of uncertainty so late in the season is believed to be unprecedented.

The games after the FIBA Women’s World Cup break have been an appetizer for the playoffs.

Monday’s physical game was the latest taste.

The fans in Brooklyn understood the assignment. They cheered for every basket made. They shouted “defense” when encouraged. They yelled “M-V-P” when Breanna Stewart stepped to the free-throw line and hurled “ref, you suck” jeers when they took issue with the officiating.

But the Liberty, who played a game in Toronto the prior night, lost steam during a pivotal third quarter.

Dream forward Angel Reese said she could tell by the Liberty’s body language and shot selection that the fatigue of playing on the second night of a back-to-back started to set in after halftime.

“Coming off a back-to-back for them, I thought they were tired,” Reese said. “And I could see it in their eyes, and I think those are little things. … I kept telling the team, ‘They’re tired as s–t. They’re tired as s–t. Keep wearing them down.’”

Leonie Fiebich appeared to be taken aback by Reese’s blunt observation.

“Obviously, back-to-back is always hard, especially since we have more than half of the team coming off the World Cup, right?” Fiebich said. “It’s hard, but not an excuse. Physicality is going to go up, so we just got to play through it.”

The Liberty could have entered halftime tied, but they failed to corral a late defensive rebound. Instead, DeWanna Bonner got the ball and put it back up, drawing a foul from Leonie Fiebich for a 3-point play.

Things didn’t get better for the Liberty in the second half. The Dream opened with a 9-2 run that built their lead up to 10.

The Liberty caught fire for a stretch. Pauline Astier sank a 3-pointer. Sabrina Ionescu drained another. Stewart scored, too.

An 8-0 run made it 55-53 with 4:21 left in the third.

The Dream ultimately outscored the Liberty 32-24 in the third and built their lead back to 11 entering the fourth.

“They came out at halftime and just were punching it down the gut,” Sabrina Ionescu said. “It’s something that we knew they were doing early in the game, but it seemed that we were a little surprised that they were just going coast to coast and really kind of testing our legs, and they understood we had a back-to-back as well, so they were just running and we weren’t able to get our defense set, so I think that’s something that we know going forward. Everyone has to sprint back and kind of create a shell to get our defense set.”

Despite the disappointing loss, Jonquel Jones seemed optimistic the Liberty would bounce back in Wednesday’s season finale against the Dream.

“We talked about just using this as, you know, a little mini-series for us before we go into the playoffs,” Jones said, “and being able to bounce back, being able to learn from this loss tonight, and coming out and being able to get the win the next time you play.”

As for Fiebich, she seemed personally motivated by Reese’s words.

“We’re going to take on the challenge,” Fiebich said. “They can feel good about the win. It’s good, cool for us. We’re gonna win the next one.”