Liberty keep creeping into pretender territory with brutal loss to Valkyries

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SAN FRANCISCO — The Liberty were “out” of their league.

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They got outclassed, outplayed and outcoached by the undersized Valkyries, who won 76-67.

Jonquel Jones called out the team’s lack of heart following the Storm loss — another example of New York getting outworked by a lesser opponent.

Breanna Stewart said that was a problem again Sunday.

“You can’t play with heart and play with effort just when things are going good,” Stewart said. “It’s really the moments when you’re at the lowest. And this team, we’re obviously not a finished product, but this wasn’t a great showing.”

Gabby Williams knew the Liberty would try to punch first Sunday after what happened in Seattle on Thursday night.

She also knew the Valkyries, coming off back-to-back wins against the Dream, had what it took to beat a talented Liberty team with some serious flaws emerging.

The Valkyries closed the second quarter on an 11-0 run to take a 41-29 lead at halftime.

It was the lowest-scoring half for the Liberty all season.

On one possession, the Liberty allowed the Valkyries to grab two offensive rebounds before Kaila Charles got the layup to put the Valkyries up 16 with 5:37 left in the quarter.

At the end of the quarter, the Valkyries inbounded the ball and Charles found Janelle Salaun for the buzzer-beater that gave Golden State a 64-48 lead heading into the fourth.

In the majority of the Liberty’s losses, they lost along the margins.

On Sunday, they were outrebounded 30-22, turned the ball over 12 times for 15 Valkyries points and conceded 15 second-chance points.

The Liberty, supposed to be a championship contender, have dealt with injuries.

They haven’t been at full strength in either game against the Valkyries.

They were without Leonie Fiebich (overseas commitments) and Sabrina Ionescu (left foot) for the first meeting. Satou Sabally missed Sunday due to concussion protocol.

But general manager Jonathan Kolb built this star-studded roster to withstand the wear and tear of a 44-game season.

For most of the past two weeks — outside of Tuesday’s win against the defending champion Aces — the Liberty haven’t looked consistently like a winner.

They’ve racked up losses to the Mystics, Fire, Sparks and Storm — all teams sitting below them in the standings.

The Liberty have a problem with playing down to opponents, but Sunday’s issue was that they failed to meet the moment against a team that already beat them at Barclays Center.

“We’ve never pointed the finger at anyone else besides ourselves, knowing that we’re the ones out there playing,” Ionescu said. “It’s an opportunity for us to regroup after this road trip … and we have to focus on the things that we can continue to get better on.”

The Liberty have sky-high expectations for this season after firing coach Sandy Brondello a year after she guided the franchise to its first championship.

Stewart said she’s not surprised by the team’s current standing, but knows there’s a lot to improve.

“It’s my 10th season,” she said. “When you think it’s gonna go good, sometimes it goes bad and vice versa. I think that the biggest thing that I can continue to preach to the teammates is not too high or too low. Of course, these games when you take the ‘L,’ these matter later, but we really want to just continue to be our best. I think that, of course, [there might be] some that we’re going to look back on and really be upset at later, but the focus is on now, and that’s all we can do.”