Finishing in last place for the first time in franchise history last season, the Liberty found reason for optimism in the offseason after acquiring Cappie Pondexter, a two-time champion who won the WNBA Finals MVP in 2007 with Phoenix.
Reunited with head coach Anne Donovan, for whom Pondexter played on the Olympic gold medal-winning team in 2008, the three-time All-Star has been as good as advertised, ranking fourth in the league in points (21.1) and seventh in assists (4.8).
The guard is coming off her best game of the season, in which she set a career-high and franchise-best mark of 40 points, in Sunday’s overtime loss to Indiana.
The defeat, which snapped a two-game win streak, dropped the Liberty to 9-10, which in the tightly packed Eastern Conference leaves it in last place, but just 3½ games out of first.
“It’s not about the points, it’s about getting wins,” Pondexter said after the game. “We’re definitely in the playoff race . . . so it’s disappointing but we have to let it go. It’s past us.”
With more than half the season gone, the Liberty is in danger of missing the playoffs in consecutive years for the first time. It will attempt to climb out of the cellar tonight (8:00, ESPN2) at the Connecticut Sun (12-8).
The teams split their two meetings this season, with each club winning at home.
Though Pondexter has done her best to carry the scoring load, she has struggled against Connecticut, scoring a combined 27 points on 10-of-31 shooting.
“Cappie is an MVP kind of player, but we need other people to step up and play with her the whole game,” Donovan said. “We have other players who are more than capable of stepping up and that needs to happen for us to get to the playoffs.”