Skylar Diggins warns small mistakes sink Sky vs Liberty

After practice, Skylar Diggins pointed to the Liberty’s length and disruption—and warned her Chicago team that even small breakdowns could be costly. With Sabrina Ionescu back, New York’s elite defense and rebounding have been clicking again after coaching cha

For Skylar Diggins, the biggest threat from the Liberty doesn’t come from one player. It’s the way New York occupies space.

New York’s frontcourt is loaded with Breanna Stewart (6’4), Jonquel Jones (6’6) and Satou Sabally (6’4). On the perimeter, Leonie Fiebich (6’4) and Pauline Astier (5’11) help choke off passes and turn ordinary shots into contested attempts.

“That’s the theme of what I see,” Diggins said after practice Sunday. “Deflections, steals, blocked shots.”

The warning matters because the Liberty have built a résumé around doing exactly that. New York owns the league’s third-best record, second-best defense and fourth-best rebounding mark—while adjusting to a brand-new coach and rarely playing at full strength.

Sabally is still coming off the bench as she works her way back from an extended recovery from a concussion. And after missing seven games with back soreness, All-Star guard Sabrina Ionescu returned Sunday.

New York’s coaching shift is also part of the story. Coach Chris DeMarco, a longtime Golden State Warriors assistant, took over after the team fired Sandy Brondello, who led the franchise to the 2024 title.

The injuries and the system change didn’t let the Liberty instantly look like a championship team. They dropped a few surprising games early, including two losses to the expansion Fire. Since then, though, New York has won seven straight.

Tyler Marsh, Diggins’ coach, sees momentum turning into something sharper.

“They’re clicking right now,” Marsh said. “They’re getting their rhythm back. Having Sabrina back in the lineup helps them. They’re a championship-caliber team, and we always knew that coming into it. It was just a matter of time before they got used to a new system and new coaching staff.”

For Chicago, the test is clear: the Liberty can pressure two areas where the Sky have been vulnerable.

Chicago ranks last in the league in rebounding, too often failing to finish otherwise solid defensive possessions. The Sky also have struggled to get their bigs out to contest opposing posts on the perimeter.

New York has the personnel to exploit both problems. Sabally and Jones are each shooting around 40% from three-point range, giving the Liberty multiple ways to stretch a defense before turning disruption into makes and misses.

Marsh believes the path is aggressive pressure, not waiting for openings.

“We can’t afford to sit back and let them run action freely,” he said. “We’ve got to be disruptive and allow them to feel our presence.”

Ball pressure has helped keep Chicago in games when its offense has struggled. But it hasn’t been dependable—especially when Natasha Cloud, the Sky’s best perimeter defender, gets into foul trouble. Cloud fouled out of an overtime loss to the Fever.

Chicago’s rough stretch is hard to ignore. The Sky have lost seven of their last eight. They still haven’t settled on an identity after losing leading scorer Rickea Jackson to an ACL tear. And they remain without two key pieces: Courtney Vandersloot and DiJonai Carrington.

This week’s matchups—starting with a difficult game against the Liberty and followed by another against the Wings—will test whether the effort from Chicago’s recent past can hold.

The Sky have built some momentum over the last two games, taking two playoff teams down to the wire.

“I guess if we talkin’ about moral victories — we played harder,” Diggins said of those two games. “Showed a lot of grit in those games. We know that can be our identity. I know we spoke early about wanting to have that type of identity. We have kind of fallen short.”

Diggins’ message after that wasn’t about pride—it was about the follow-through. Grit alone won’t be enough against a team built on length and disruption. She wants Chicago to prove it can finish possessions and commit to fixing details that keep costing them, especially on the glass.

Toward the end of practice Monday, Diggins stopped the session to make sure the Sky were executing their rebounding scheme on free throws as well. She called it a tedious detail, but insisted it sink in.

The point was blunt: if a team is already struggling with rebounding, the Sky can’t afford to turn small errors into bigger ones.

Otherwise, the Liberty will make sure every crack gets punished.

Skylar Diggins Liberty Chicago Sky Sabrina Ionescu Jonquel Jones Breanna Stewart Satou Sabally Natasha Cloud Rickea Jackson Courtney Vandersloot DiJonai Carrington rebounding WNBA