UNCASVILLE, Conn. — Jonquel Jones thought that she was in the right spot, that the Liberty just weren’t fighting through screens well enough.
The guards, she said, thought the opposite, and mentioned that the post players needed to help better.
But when the Liberty watched their Game 2 defensive film — the night that prompted them to make an unusual in-game switch to zone — it became clear that “it was both of us,” Jones said.
They didn’t have much time to practice before Game 3, which ended with the Liberty’s 92-81 victory over the Sun to take a 2-1 series lead.
But Sabrina Ionescu said Tuesday that they didn’t want to abandon their one-on-one defense and depend on zone to win them postseason games, either.
In the first sample of the Liberty mixing different schemes together, they limited Connecticut to 16 points in the first quarter — pairing with a 37-point offensive explosion to build a commanding lead.
“I think we took it personally,” Jones said Friday.
In Game 2, Connecticut’s Tiffany Hayes scored 12 points in the first quarter and 17 in the opening half, mostly maneuvering around her defenders and connecting on interior shots.
It marked the best performance for the former All-Star in her first season away from the Dream, mostly because the Sun didn’t need those performances every night with Alyssa Thomas and DeWanna Bonner, among others, established as scoring options.
But that’s what worked Tuesday night. Liberty center Stefanie Dolson said they needed to get into the paint earlier to block Hayes’ route to the basket — or at least prevent her from seeing open space and open lanes.
Hayes still finished with 16 points in Game 3, but head coach Sandy Brondello attributed their first-quarter run to the blend of defenses that disrupted Connecticut offensively.
During that frame, Hayes’ production dipped eight points from Game 2.
So maybe their one-on-one lapses in Game 2 uncovered a new defensive winkle for the remainder of the series, even though Ionescu just wanted the Liberty to keep it in “our back pocket.”
She thought their transition on the fly was impressive, since the Liberty hadn’t even practiced much. They’d only used it on 3 percent of possessions during the season, too, according to The Athletic.
When asked about the zone Friday, Brondello said that, of course, they’d play zone for Game 3 because it worked so well. The same answer will apply to Sunday, to a potential Game 5 on Tuesday, to any other games left in their postseason run.
“But how long? Who knows,” Brondello continued.
The zone has become their ultimate wild card.