Liberty vs. Sky
West Indian Night announced itself before we had fully entered Barclays. No one is paying attention to the ticket reader (psa: adjust the brightness on your phone and have the tickets ready) because just beyond the scanners, everyone was dazzled by Carnival mas.
At the entrance, Moko Jumbies towered above us on stilts. The tradition has West African roots and a long history across Caribbean Carnival. Here, they were part of an afternoon that threaded Caribbean diaspora culture throughout the building.
Around us, people wave and smiled up at the Moko Jumbies. Some fans ignored them altogether, which was baffling and funny, although let us not underestimate the difficult of rounding up children and awed adults when there are people dancing several feet above their heads.
DivaDance Brooklyn took over the court for a special pregame performance with what looked like 100 or so dancers. Most DivaDance classes are designed for beginners (it’s a franchise with 50+ studios), which made the sheer number of people filling the entire floor, exuding Liberty-level confidence, particularly joyful.
In the tunnel before warmups, Liberty players formed a loose circle around dancer who got down in the middle. None of the Liberty necessarily got down with her (that we could see), but there was flair to the start of an afternoon that would eventually become a blowout.
Granted, the Liberty had a slow, tense start.
Two nights earlier, Liberty were flattened to 60 points by Natalie Nakase’s Valkyries. We had fallen to eighth, and Minnesota was waiting on the other side of the World Cup break.
But then, the Liberty opened up, and the Sky closed.
By halftime it was 42-28. Natasha Cloud’s speed made us miss her on our side and, alongside Courtney Vandersloot, another former Liberty guard, she gave Sky enough organization and edge to keep the afternoon suspenseful.
The Liberty was all about defense. Leonie Fiebich was back applying pressure at the point of attack. Pauline Astier did the same. Rebekah Gardner came in as the first sub and immediately closed space. Defense was the game, offense was secondary.
Now we come to Han Xu. Firstly, I’m a Han Xu fan. Disclose the bias and proceed accordingly.
But hell yeah, JJ in foul trouble? Ionescu struggling? Give it to Han!
This was the entire offensive system proposed by an enthusiastic, human megaphone one section over, who yelled “Give it to Han!” on every Liberty possession, whenever Han Xu was on the floor. No matter how grating or too much that was, Han Xu was so good that it was impossible not to enjoy.
Because, yeah. Give it to Han.
She led all scorers, scored more points than minutes played, and she posted and toasted the Sky. Coach called her “an X-factor.”
We’ve been saying it all along.
Let’s be real though: Liberty can survive 0-for-10 against 15-25 Sky team. They cannot assume the same margin for error against anyone near the top of the playoff bracket. And certainly not the Lynx.
But that’s for after the break.
For now, given Torch’s hot take last week on Shake Shack free-throw burgers – Chicago hit their free throws – let us now pivot to food.
During the first timeout, Jonquel Jones, who grew up in Freeport, Bahamas, ranked her favorite Caribbean foods on the jumbotron. Curry goat was #1. Oxtail was #2.
Torch and I were initially wounded by the oxtail placement, but curry goat is a completely defensible No. 1 seed and JJ herself seemed torn. We immediately flashed to reminiscences of Fisherman’s Cove restaurants in Brooklyn and mourned their passing.
Ellie, it must be said, looks fabulous in mas.
On the jumbotron, a kid bashfully held up a sign that all he wished for his birthday was to dance with Ellie on his ninth birthday. He got his wish and it was jumbotronned to the delight of everyone with a heart.
It was the fourth quarter, with our comfortable lead and emptied bench, when Barclays generosity kept giving: more Han, deep-bench, birthday magic, West Indian pride. Everybody got a little something.
As we head into the break, Elephant got faith.
