The New York Liberty’s season came to an end last week with a 90-72 loss to the Chicago Sky in Game 3 of their first-round series.

The No. 2 seed Chicago Sky lost the first game of the series after the Liberty closed on a 13-0 run. But the defending champions won the next two games, including a blowout Game 2 that set a WNBA record for the most lopsided win in playoffs history.

Still, young star Sabrina Ionescu took a leap forward, and veteran Natasha Howard remained a rock. With both returning next season, the Liberty seem primed to build on the progress they made this season.

New York Liberty: Year in Review

What went right?

New York made the playoffs for the second year in a row after failing to qualify from 2018 through 2020. And despite another early exit, the opening win against the Sky proved the Liberty have the tools to compete.

Ionescu’s first year back at full health since her injury-shortened rookie season in 2020 showcased her superstar-level skill.

In a career year that saw her put up 17.4 points, 7.3 rebounds and 6.3 assists per game, the guard also proved to be a triple-double machine. The 24-year-old posted two this season (and had several other near misses) to become just the second player in WNBA history with three career triple-doubles. She joins 36-year-old Candace Parker, who also posted two this season.

.@sabrina_i20 put up numbers tonight. 😤

The NY star knocked down 7 threes to notch her 3rd career triple-double, tying the @WNBA record for most by a single player. pic.twitter.com/Sfpy0dM1gf

— Just Women’s Sports (@justwsports) July 7, 2022

The addition of Marine Johannès also came up big for the Liberty. The French player provided a boost in the playoffs — including with her signature no-look pass to kick off the game-winning run in Game 1.

What went wrong?

The injury bug hit the Liberty hard this season.

Betnijah Laney missed the majority of the season with a right knee injury. The impact of her absence became all the more apparent when she returned to average 11.2 points in the final nine games of the season. Her return in early August marked the first time all season that New York played with a full roster.

“New coach, new system, new players coming in, and with our injury toll, it took longer than we thought with our chemistry,” Liberty coach Sandy Brondello said. “I think we’ve grown. As we move forward, keep adding the right people around our core and continue to build.

“I was proud that we could get back and play with a better sense of urgency.”

The absence of Laney also affected the team defensively. But even with Laney in the lineup, the Liberty’s defensive struggles showed through, especially in the final two games against the Sky.

“We were a good defensive team; we have to be a great defensive team,” Brondello said. “We worked really hard, we just have to be consistent with that.”

What comes next?

Remember in the 2021 offseason when everyone was convinced Breanna Stewart was going to sign with New York in free agency? While the Liberty courted the star, she wound up heading back to the Seattle Storm on a one-year deal.

But, especially with Stewart’s Seattle teammate Sue Bird retiring at the end of the season, the Stewart lottery is back in business.

If the Liberty add Stewart alongside Ionescu and Howard for 2023, they could go from a first-round also-ran to a championship contender.

The biggest victors in the WNBA last weekend were the Seattle Storm, as the fifth-place contenders took down the last two league champions to record six wins in their last seven games.

The Storm first took down 2022 and 2023 champs Las Vegas 90-83 on Friday before toppling reigning title-winners New York 89-79 on Sunday.

Guard Skylar Diggins and forward Nneka Ogwumike powered Seattle's two games, putting up 44 and 51 points, respectively, over the weekend.

Forward Gabby Williams also helped fuel the Storm's weekend with two double-double performances.

Seattle is now just one game behind the similarly surging fourth-place Atlanta Dream, while trailing the red-hot No. 3 Phoenix Mercury by 1.5 games.

"Staying ready is what the group is," Storm head coach Noelle Quinn told reporters on Friday. "They're professionals, they're vets."

Teams at the top of the WNBA standings aren't the only squads that saw weekend success, as the No. 6 Golden State Valkyries snagged their second win in a row with Sunday's 87-63 thrashing of the last-place Connecticut Sun.

Despite registering Friday losses, both No. 7 Las Vegas and the No. 9 Washington Mystics finished the weekend on a high note, earning big Sunday wins over the No. 8 Indiana Fever and No. 12 Dallas Wings, respectively.

How to watch the Seattle Storm this week

The Storm will suit back up for another tricky WNBA test on Tuesday, when Seattle hosts the always-dangerous Indiana Fever at 10 PM ET.

The game will air live on NBA TV.

The reigning champion New York Liberty battled through injury and absences over the weekend, narrowly retaining their second-place spot in the WNBA standings despite seeing their losing streak extend to two games with Sunday's 89-79 stumble against the Seattle Storm.

Already missing starting guard Leonie Fiebich, who is overseas competing at the 2025 FIBA EuroBasket tournament, the Liberty also played without center Jonquel Jones and guard Sabrina Ionescu.

While Ionescu is day-to-day with a neck issue, Jones will miss four to six weeks of action due to an ankle injury, the team announced on Saturday.

Despite dropping three of their last four matchups, the champs appear to be taking their recent downturn in stride.

"This isn't going to be the hardest thing that we face all season," said forward Breanna Stewart after Sunday's loss. "We have to kind of embrace the adversity a little bit, whether it's we're down players or things happen in the middle of the game."

New York wasn't the only team in trouble this weekend, though, as the Indiana Fever followed up last Thursday's stumble against the Golden State Valkyries with an 89-81 Sunday loss to the Las Vegas Aces.

Fever guard Caitlin Clark is now one-for-17 from behind the arc in her last two games, as Indiana struggles to break out of their eighth-place standing.

How to watch the New York Liberty this week

New York will hope for added firepower in order to snap their losing streak on Wednesday, when they'll face a rising Golden State squad at 10 PM ET.

Coverage of the game will air live on WNBA League Pass.

The NWSL is officially taking a breather, with the league kicking off the 2025 extended summer break after a roller-coaster weekend slate.

With half the of the 26-match regular season in the books, the No. 1 Kansas City Current extended their lead on the NWSL table to a towering eight points after defeating No. 11 Angel City 1-0 on Friday.

Helping balloon Kansas City's lead was No. 7 Racing Louisville, who kept No. 2 Orlando from claiming any points by securing a 2-0 upset win over the Pride on Friday.

With wins in five of their last seven matches, Louisville's refreshed roster has Racing entering the 2025 summer break with a 6-5-2 NWSL record, as the 2021 expansion side zeros in on a franchise-first playoff run.

"It's all about us. We're not really focused on the other team like we did a little last year," said midfielder Taylor Flint. "What are we going to do — what's our identity? I think that's a huge part of how we've been winning all these games."

On the other end of the table, the bottom four NWSL teams — Angel City, the No. 12 Houston Dash, No. 13 Chicago Stars, and No. 14 Utah Royals — will be looking for a major midseason reboot, after none managed to register a single win in the last five matchdays.

"We go from here, we break now, recharge, and we will be a very difficult opponent for a lot of teams in the second part of the season. That is our target now," said Angel City head coach Alexander Straus after Friday's loss.

There's still a lot left in 2025 NWSL play, with skidding teams banking on fresh starts while surging squads prepare to hit the ground running as soon as the season picks back up in August.

Australian golfer Minjee Lee came out on top at the 2025 KPMG Women's PGA Championship, lifting the third major tournament trophy of her career on Sunday.

Entering the final round atop the leaderboard, Lee never relinquished the lead, finishing the tournament a solid three strokes ahead of the competition.

"I definitely was nervous starting the day," the 29-year-old acknowledged following her win. "I looked calm, but not as calm as everybody thinks."

The win earned Lee both an 18-spot rankings boost to world No. 6 and a $1.8 million cut of the event's $12 million prize pool.

Finishing the 2025 KPMG Women's PGA Championship just behind Lee in a second-place tie were 21-year-old Thai pro and new world No. 29 Chanettee Wannasaen and 24-year-old US standout and new No. 49 Auston Kim. Each took home $944,867 thanks to their four-day performances.

Kim, in particular, cobbled together a massive comeback run, chipping away at her nine-stroke deficit entering the competition's final round to claim the best finish of her young career.

"I'm very proud of what I did," the LPGA Tour sophomore said afterwards. "Obviously, the result was really good, but I'm really happy how I handled myself, my emotions, all the adversity. The course is playing really, really tough, but I feel like this week my team and I were very locked in."

Notably, the tournament's top three finishers were the only participants to finish below par, as the field struggled with a punishing week of both Texas heat and windier-than-usual conditions.