Liberty looking to upset Chicago

The Liberty took their quest for a playoff spot down to the last day of the season, edging Atlanta 87-83 Sunday at Barclays Center.

They earned the No. 7 seed after winning six of their last eight games, including a weekend sweep of the Dream.

WNBA first-team All-Star Sabrina Ionescu said the late surge came as the result of upping internal standards.

“We’ve all accepted holding each other to that standard because it’s for the betterment of the team,” Ionescu said. “We’ve all gotten to that same page of holding each other to that high standard.”

The Liberty will face an uphill battle in their first-round matchup against the No. 2 seed Chicago Sky — a team that proved last year they don’t need the top seed to win a championship.

Their best-of-three series kicks off Wednesday in Chicago.

The Sky were the sixthoverall seed in 2021 when they won two win-or-die games to reach the semifinals, then topped Connecticut and ousted Phoenix 3-1 in the championship series.

For most of the second half of 2022, it looked like Chicago would have home-court advantage for all its series. Going into the season’s final week, it needed two wins in three games to get the top seed.

Instead, the Sky lost 111-100 at home to Seattle and then fell 89-78 in Las Vegas to lose control of the top seed. When the Aces outscored Seattle 109-100 Sunday, it rendered Chicago’s 82-67 win in Phoenix meaningless in terms of the top seed.

But with proven winners like Candace Parker, Courtney Vandersloot, Emma Meesseman, Allie Quigley and leading scorer Kahleah Copper, it would be dangerous to underestimate the Sky.

Vandersloot, in particular, has come up big in clutch instances. She canned three game-winners this season and has enjoyed one of her best offensive seasons at 11.8 points per game.