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ATLANTA — The Liberty woke up Saturday morning fifth in the WNBA standings with the hopes of capturing a win against the Dream to leapfrog to second. 

But the Liberty, with a depleted frontcourt and down to only eight players after Sabrina Ionescu was ruled out with a left foot injury three hours before tip-off, couldn’t contain the Dream, who ran away with a 78-62 win. 

With the loss — the Liberty’s fourth in the last five games — New York will stay in fifth place, sitting two games behind Atlanta, who tied the regular-season series 2-2. 

If the two teams – who are tangled with the Mercury and Aces, too in the standings – were to finish the regular season with the same record, the tiebreaker would be determined by the team with the better record against .500 or better teams. 

Sandy Brondello has been around the game of basketball for a long time.

This is her 13th WNBA season as a head coach. 

But never had she experienced a season quite like this one. 

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The Liberty have been consumed by injuries all season.

They haven’t been at full strength since the second game of the season.

It seems like every time New York gets a star player back, another one goes down. 

Emma Meesseman, who signed with the team earlier this month, has yet to share the court with Breanna Stewart or Nyara Sabally. 

And the hits keep coming. 

Ionescu suffered a foot injury late in Thursday’s 91-85 loss to the Sky after Kamilla Cardosa fell on her while going after a loose ball. 

Ionescu stayed in the game, but the swelling persisted a day later and the Liberty training staff determined it’d be best for Ionescu to take this one-game road trip off. 

With Breanna Stewart (right knee), Nyara Sabally (right knee) and Isabelle Harrison (concussion protocol) also sidelined, New York had no choice but to use its 13th starting lineup of the season. 

Marine Johannès got the starting nod, alongside Natasha Cloud, Leonie Fiebich, Meesseman and Jonquel Jones. 

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Knowing how important this game was, the margin of error was slim.

But the Liberty unraveled quickly and played most of the game down double digits. 

New York was again outrebounded 42-33.

The Liberty surrendered 17 offensive boards to the Dream, who scored 21 second-chance points. 

The Liberty have been frustratingly inconsistent all season.

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But it’s reflective of the team’s rotation because of all the injuries.

Sabally has missed 22 games, Stewart 13, Jones 12 and Harrison nine. 

Saturday was Ionescu’s second missed game this season. 

Ionescu avoided what the team considers a “major” injury and Brondello doesn’t anticipate this to be out for long.

“It’s more about what she can tolerate so we’ll take it one day at a time,” Brondello said.

Other reinforcements appear to be on the horizon, too.

Brondello is hopeful that Stewart and Harrison will be given the green light to play next week. 

As for Sabally, though, her timeline isn’t quite as clear. 

Sabally has been sidelined since the All-Star break and hasn’t started the on-court ramp up process.

The Liberty have only seven games left.

There’s little-to-no room for error. 

“We just can’t take a break on the injury front, and it’s been frustrating in that regard to not build that continuity,” Brondello said. “We’re a really good team with our full group but we haven’t been able to show it because everyone has been injured. But hopefully, we’ll get them back and we’ll have the next challenge of seeing how it all works in such a short period of time before the playoffs.”