The New York Liberty are down 0-2 in the WNBA Finals 2023 presented by YouTube TV as they return to their home court in Brooklyn, hopeful to even up the series with the reigning champion Las Vegas Aces. As numerous members of the Aces have said publicly, this Liberty team is not one they take lightly.

While the Aces have largely stifled New York’s offense through the early series, all it takes is a quick spark to ignite one of the best offenses the league has ever seen. If the Liberty are going to stake their claim in the championship series, getting back to their offensive roots is paramount: what makes them special when they’re at their best?

“Trusting in your skillset… we know what each other is capable of, we know what a good shot is for somebody versus what’s not, and just trusting in that,” says Liberty forward Betnijah Laney.

New York’s offense is defined by a plethora of things: movement, pace, and shooting. But, what Laney laid out is most pivotal to their success. 

The versatility the Liberty have as a team allows them to accentuate all of their best attributes. They’re a dominant outside shooting team, taking 29.7 per game (most in league history) while hitting 37.4% of their attempts. When factoring in volume and accuracy, they finished the season as arguably the greatest three-point shooting team of all time.

However, shooting 3’s isn’t the sole variable in shooting effectiveness. Much of New York’s offense isn’t derived out of play calls, but instead playing out of the flow; playing free with intuitive spacing principles and play, reading defenses, and attacking from there.

“You can’t really teach flow… you can’t scout it because you never know what the next move is going to be, and that’s probably why it’s our best offense. Being quick, but not too quick…and giving people the opportunity and the space, understanding that we’re going to play, but also letting an action develop on one side and knowing it’s going to come to the second and probably back to the third, and that’s when you’re going to get the defense really distorted,” says MVP Breanna Stewart.

To explain second and third side, it’s all about offensive progression (how the offense cycles through actions): The Liberty often initiate their offense with a play or action, typically to attack the paint off a Courtney Vandersloot drive or a pick-and-roll to get Stewart or Jonquel Jones into the middle of the floor towards the rim. From there, the goal is to “draw the defense,” sucking in help and being able to either score at the rim or create an easier look out of it. The ball kicks into motion as a help defender sinks into the paint, and then New York’s ability to play in flow and react to the defense is in high gear.

The second side is the back side of the play, where it didn’t start/where help wasn’t drawn from. Part of what’s made the second side so lethal for the Liberty is that they’ve built-in actions and motion on the second side, which opens up even more. Defenses that aren’t engaged on the weak side of a play can be so focused on stopping the initial play/drive that the back side is even more dangerous before they realize.

Flare screens have been a common action that New York has layered in, forcing off-ball defenders to pay attention to uninvolved players, or making them pay for not doing so.

***Flare Screen: A screen set towards the direction a cutting player without the ball is moving from, an away action often used to catch a defender with a difficult screening angle to feel/see coming. A great way to attack a defense and force miscommunication or an advantage without touching the ball.

It’s a simple action, but with the personnel New York has and the quickness with which they play, simple is deadly. Many of the players on the team can play multiple positions, capable of dribbling, passing, and shooting.

For instance, Stewart can set screens herself. She can slip them if the defense overplays the shooter/guard. She can have screens set for her to be the shooter. She can run pick and rolls, which are really hard to guard when someone is 6’4 and as fluid as she is.

The actions are simple, but the talent and the effectiveness of the players running those actions make them complex. Even out of a basic screening action, Stewart has reads as the screener, and she’s adept at making them to get herself or a teammate extra space.

“If it’s a side ball screen, knowing when to slip to the basket and when to set it. If my defender is attached to me, then I’ll probably set the screen because then that’ll put two players on me, and my teammate’s gonna be open. If I know they’re gonna switch the screen, that’s when I want to slip it because two players are going to go to the ball and vice versa. It’s all about understanding that, spacing, where my teammates are, and where’s the open spot,” says Stewart.

Reads are different when you’re setting a screen compared to getting a screen. Reads are different from there attacking a closeout if you’re an open shooter. Reads look different when playing out of the post. Blending all of those reads together has been essential in crafting the harmony of New York’s offense.

Laney’s play and ability to make every read on the court quickly and with gumption has been crucial. It was a change for her to take on more this season off the ball and adjust to those reads, but she’s flourished, merging together the plethora of roles she’s played in her W career.

What’s made Laney so effective this season has been her decisiveness within that blended role. If she’s helped off of, she punishes with her drives, a shot, or her 1-2 dribble pull-up. She’s adept at keeping the ball and herself moving, a cog in the offense that isn’t always as noticeable until she’s out of the lineup. 

“It’s just being confident in who I am and what I’m capable of, going off of what the defense gives me… it’s all about being in the right spaces within our offense, taking advantage of the mismatches, or capitalizing on the advantages that we have,” says Laney.

Sabrina Ionescu also shifted her role this year, playing more off of the ball than she had the prior two years in Brooklyn. She finished the season the most assisted she’d ever been in her career, with roughly 40% of her two-pointers assisted and 87.5% of her threes assisted on; that’s a stark contrast from 26.6% of her twos and 63.9% of her threes assisted on in 2022.

She’s been a vital part of those secondary actions, drawing the defense with her movement and shooting threat. Only seven players in league history have taken six or more threes a game while hitting 40% or more, and Ionescu took the most (7.9) while hitting the highest percentage (44.8%) of those seven players. 

“(our spacing) puts defenses at a disadvantage; the more spaced we can be, being a really good shooting team from beyond the arc is tough for defenses as well. We’ve used that to our advantage to create that space, attack downhill, opening up driving lanes. It opens up space for the bigs inside as well,” says Ionescu.

Playing inside out has been huge for the Liberty in creating space as well. Jones and Stewart’s interior presence on post-ups or on the roll draws the defense. Their ability to play make out of those spots keeps the offense flowing. 

“I’ve always known that, but this year, it was definitely a point of emphasis and letting our offense create for itself,” continues Ionescu.

“There’s times where we’re honest with each other, like hey, that wasn’t our best shot, we could get a lot better than that. Looking around at who we are, who our teammates are, and understanding who we’re playing against and the mismatches that we want and where we want to capitalize…It took us a little bit of work to get that ironed out, got closer as a team, and figured out where we wanted to attack, but we’re very open and understanding of trying to get the best shot of our offense, and we’re going to do whatever it takes to get that.”

They want the ball moving side to side, utilizing “point five mentality,” aka making decisions within half a second and playing with consistent and maximum spacing. When there’s a mismatch in the post, they want to exploit it, whether that’s to score or to open up another gap in the defense. Everyone plays without hesitation and works to remain a threat. 

For the Liberty to find their footing in the Finals, they’ll need to get back to the offensive roots and principles that made them such a fantastic for the majority of the season.

WNBA reporter Mark Schindler writes columns on WNBA.com throughout the season and can be reached on Twitter at @MG_Schindler. The views on this page do not necessarily reflect the views of the WNBA or its clubs.