WNBA Power Rankings: Liberty Fall From Top Spot After Three Straight Home Losses

The New York Liberty "won" the offseason by retaining their Big Three of Breanna Stewart , Sabrina Ionescu and Jonquel Jones , signing Satou Sabally , making a number of crafty moves on the margins and hiring Chris DeMarco as their new coach. With so much talent, they were installed as the preseason favorites to win the title.

And when they won their season opener by 31 and jumped out to a 3-1 start without Ionescu, Sabally or Leonie Fiebich , it only seemed to confirm their status as the league's best team.

But things can change quickly in a 44-game season, and the Liberty have suddenly lost three games in a row to the Golden State Valkyries , Dallas Wings and expansion Portland Fire to fall to 11th in the crowded standings. Their first three-game losing streak at home since 2022 has come despite the returns of Sabally and Ionescu, both of whom have looked rusty in their limited action thus far.

The offense, which had been electric to start the season, has disappeared. During the three-game losing streak, the Liberty haven't scored more than 76 points in a game, have a 95.2 offensive rating, have shot 40.3% overall, including 29.7% from 3-point range, and have a 19.5% turnover rate.

Sabally and Ionescu's stunted returns have altered the team's early-season rotations, which has affected Pauline Astier and Marine Johannès the most. The French backcourt duo was excellent to begin the season, but their production has cratered lately in reduced roles. They averaged a combined 32.8 points and nine assists on 53.5% shooting during the Liberty's 3-1 start, but have combined for just 11.7 points and six assists on 40.6% shooting during the losing streak.

This skid has made it clear the Liberty aren't going to walk to the championship this season, but Stewart is still confident the team can turn it around once everyone is fully healthy and in a rhythm. After all, they've still largely gotten nothing from Sabally, Ionescu and Fiebich, three of their five best players.

"No, definitely not," Stewart said Monday when asked if she expected a slow start with all of the new pieces. "But it's a learning experience for everyone. My message to the players in the locker room is like, 'Nobody expected this.' Not to say we thought it was going to be easy, because we definitely didn't. But it's going to take time. There's going to be highs and lows.

"While it seems we're in the lows right now, eventually we'll get to a place where everybody's really confident and comfortable with what's going on. I'm happy it's happening early [in the season] and not late."

Biggest Movers 6 Fever 7 Liberty Rk Teams   Chg Rcrd 1 Dream The Dream pulled off a dramatic 15-point comeback on Sunday against the Mercury to improve to 4-1 and take sole possession of first place. They are now 2-1 when trailing by at least 15 points this season; the rest of the WNBA is a combined 0-23 in such circumstances. In their two wins this week, the Dream got a combined 26 points from their bench, which actually raised their league-worst bench scoring average to 11.8 points per game.

2 2 Fever There was a brief scare in Indianapolis early in the week when Caitlin Clark was a late scratch from the Fever's win over the Fire due to a back issue, but she immediately responded with 22-point, nine-assist effort in their win over the Valkyries a few days later to calm everyone down. She's now averaging career-highs of 23.8 points and nine assists per game, good for third and first in the league, respectively, and the Fever have won three in a row.

6 3 Valkyries The 4-2 Valkyries are on pace to break the WNBA record for 3-point attempts per game for the second consecutive season, and have lived and died with the long ball thus far. They've made at least 13 3s in each of their four wins - a mark they reached just five times last season - and have made seven 3s in their two defeats. Overall, they're shooting 36.6% on 31 attempts a night, marks that rank second and first in the league, respectively.

2 4 Aces The Aces' four-game winning streak came to an end against the Sparks in their lone outing this week. Jackie Young went scoreless for the second game in a row and is now averaging 9.3 points on 34.3% shooting for the season. Aces coach Becky Hammon said Young is "playing with a heavy heart" and the organization will "give her every support system that we possibly can."

2 5 Lynx Before the season, all the talk was about the Lynx just trying to hang in there until Naphesa Collier returned. They've done far more than that. Thanks to wins over the Tempo and Sky, they're now 4-2 and tied for second place. Free agent signing Natasha Howard has played a major role in filling Collier's shoes. At 17 points, 8.3 rebounds and 3.8 assists per game, she's having her third-best scoring season and putting up career-highs in rebounds and assists.

4 6 Wings The Wings sandwiched a blowout loss to the Dream with double-digit wins over the Sky and the Liberty to continue an up-and-down start to the season. In by far her best outing yet, No. 1 overall pick Azzi Fudd made six 3-pointers en route to a career-high 24 points, and chipped in three assists, three steals and two blocks in their win over New York. The Wings have a 122.1 offensive rating with her on the floor and a 96 offensive rating when she sits.

4 7 Fire The Fire were widely projected to be the worst team in the league this season, but are quickly proving everyone wrong. After a fourth-quarter comeback Monday to beat the Liberty for the second time, they've won three of four to climb above .500 and into seventh place. Their primary starting lineup of Carla Leite, Bridget Carleton, Nyadiew Puoch, Emily Engstler and Luisa Geiselsoder has a plus-19.5 net rating.

6 8 Liberty Satou Sabally and Sabrina Ionescu made their debuts this week, but neither looked great in limited action as the Liberty lost three games in the span of five days to fall below .500. The offense that was so dominant to start the season suddenly looks all out of sorts. Across their three defeats, the Liberty shot 40.3% overall, including 29.7% from 3-point range, and turned the ball over 45 times.

7 9 Sparks The Sparks finally showed some life this week with two victories, including one over the Aces to end the reigning champs' four-game winning streak. Kelsey Plum went off for 38 points against Las Vegas in her highest-scoring game since 2023 and continues to operate at an extremely high level. She's averaging a league-leading 26.8 points per game on absurd 58.9/48.8/82.9 shooting splits.

3 10 Sky Rickea Jackson, who was off to an excellent start in her first season with the Sky, was diagnosed with a torn ACL Tuesday and ruled out for the remainder of the season. Without their leading scorer, the Sky dropped both of their outings this week to fall to 3-3 and shot just 31.5% against the Lynx - the third-lowest field goal percentage by any team in a game this season. Offense will be hard to come by in Jackson's absence.

6 11 Storm Things are looking up for the Storm after a 1-4 start to their season. They've won two games in a row and No. 3 overall pick Awa Fam made her long-awaited debut Sunday in their victory over the Mystics. Fam, fresh off a Spanish league championship, scored 10 points on 4 of 7 shooting and looked completely comfortable in a WNBA environment. It's going to be exciting to watch her development alongside No. 8 pick Flau'jae Johnson.

3 12 Tempo A win over the Mercury briefly put the Tempo above .500 for the first time in franchise history, but they ended the week in disappointing fashion with blowout losses to the Lynx and Fire. The expansion club has lived and died with Marina Mabrey and Brittney Sykes thus far. Their backcourt duo is averaging a combined 62.3 points on 45.2% shooting in their three wins and a combined 28.3 points 31.4% shooting in their four losses.

1 13 Mercury The Mercury blew a 15-point lead to the Dream on Sunday to cap off a brutal 0-3 week, and after a solid start to the season they suddenly find themselves above only the Sun in the standings. Phoenix needs four-time All-Star Kahleah Copper to be better. While she's leading the team in scoring at 18.7 points per game, she's shooting 34.4% from the field, is 6 of 39 (15.4%) from 3-point range and has more turnovers (22) than assists (16).

7 14 Mystics This was a rough week for the Mystics, who suffered double-digit defeats to the Wings and Storm and continue to have issues on defense. Since their season-opening win over the Tempo, they haven't held a single opponent under 90 points, are 13th in defensive rating (115.8), 14th in opponent turnover rate (15.2%), 12th in opponent offensive rebounding rate (34.1%) and 15th in opponent 3-point percentage (41.3%).

7 15 Sun The Sun finally got on the board, and did so in dramatic fashion when Kennedy Burke hit a last-second and-one to lift them over the Storm. However, they remain in last place as the only team with just one win, and their minus-18 net rating is by far the worst mark in the league. (No other team is worse than minus-8.4.) They desperately need Leïla Lacan back, and coach Rachid Meziane is hopeful she'll be able to play Saturday against the Sparks.

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_Originally reported by [CBS Sports](https://www.cbssports.com/wnba/news/wnba-power-rankings-new-york-liberty-losing-streak/)._