{"id":43901,"date":"2026-08-14T08:06:09","date_gmt":"2026-08-14T03:06:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=43901"},"modified":"2026-08-14T08:06:09","modified_gmt":"2026-08-14T03:06:09","slug":"liberty-hang-on-for-win-over-sparks-after-nearly-blowing-huge-late-lead","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=43901","title":{"rendered":"Liberty hang on for win over Sparks after nearly blowing huge late lead"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<br \/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content%2Fuploads%2Fsites%2F2%2F2026%2F08%2Fnewspress-collage-t0xiw942e-1786675614264.jpg?quality%3D90%26strip%3Dall%261786661223\" \/><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>Against the lowly Sparks, the Liberty almost suffered what would\u2019ve been a historic collapse Thursday night.<\/p>\n<p>Key word: almost.<\/p>\n<p>The Liberty managed to survive their worst fourth-quarter showing of the season to beat the Sparks 85-81 at Barclays Center.<\/p>\n<p>The home team had built up a 28-point advantage with 9:48 left in the fourth quarter and was sitting pretty.<\/p>\n<p>Until they weren\u2019t.<\/p>\n<p>The Sparks stormed all the way back, scoring 21 unanswered points to make it a nine-point game. Los Angeles got within one with 21.7 seconds left, but the Liberty held on to prevent their opponents from matching the biggest comeback in WNBA history.<\/p>\n<p>Two days after an obliteration at Indiana, the Liberty looked to redeem themselves against a team destined for the draft lottery.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"single__inline-module aligncenter wp-block-nypost-editor-primary-tag\">\n<\/aside>\n<p>But the Liberty played poorly in the final frame. The Sparks, losers of eight of 10 games entering Thursday, didn\u2019t wave the white flag in the fourth quarter, and the Liberty paid the price.<\/p>\n<p>Los Angeles \u2014 no longer featuring Kelsey Plum after the star guard was traded to Phoenix at the deadline \u2014 went on a 21-0 rampage to cut the Liberty\u2019s mighty lead in less than three minutes.<\/p>\n<p>Sabrina Ionescu finally ended the 4:19 drought with a much-needed basket at the rim.<\/p>\n<p>But the Sparks didn\u2019t stop. They kept at it.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"nyp-slideshow-modal-image wp-block-image aligncenter size-large\"><figcaption>Sabrina Ionescu (left) celebrates with teammates after scoring and drawing a foul during the Liberty\u2019s 85-81 win over the Sparks on Aug. 13, 2026 at Barclays Center. <span class=\"credit\">Heather Khalifa for New York Post<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>With 3:50 left in a four-point game, head coach Chris DeMarco questionably challenged a Marine Johannes foul. It was unsuccessful, burning the team\u2019s final timeout.<\/p>\n<p>The Sparks made it a three-point game on three occasions over the final four minutes.<\/p>\n<p>Dearica Hamby\u2019s layup cut the gap to 82-79 with 57.9 seconds to go. A bad inbounds pass from Pauline Astier was recovered by Ariel Atkins and the Sparks called a timeout with 26.6 left.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"nyp-slideshow-modal-image wp-block-image aligncenter size-large\"><figcaption>Sabrina Ionescu, who scored a team-high 20 points, drives on Ariel Atkins during the Liberty\u2019s 85-81 win over the Sparks on Aug. 13, 2026 at Barclays Center. <span class=\"credit\">Heather Khalifa for New York Post<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Rae Burrell made the layup to make it 82-81 with 21.7 seconds left.<\/p>\n<p>Sabrina Ionescu knocked in a pair of free throws to build the Liberty\u2019s lead back to three. It was enough to secure the win.<\/p>\n<p>The Sparks outscored the Liberty 40-18 in the fourth quarter.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"nyp-slideshow-modal-image wp-block-image aligncenter size-large\"><figcaption>Jonquel Jones, who had a game-high 18 rebounds, battles for the ball against Cameron Brink during the Liberty\u2019s win over the Sparks. <span class=\"credit\">Heather Khalifa for New York Post<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<div class=\"single__inline-module inline-module inline-module--newsletter aligncenter inline-module--nypostbusinessunit aligncenter wp-block-nypost-editor-newsletter\" data-source-unit=\"Inline Newsletter Module Membership - Inside the Liberty\">\n<div class=\"inline-module__inner\">\n<div class=\"inline-module__title-wrapper\">\n<div class=\"inline-module__unsubmitted-title-wrapper\">\n<h3 class=\"inline-module__title headline headline--combo-sm-md\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCovering the Liberty like never before\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/h3>\n<p class=\"inline-module__cta\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSign up for Madeline Kenney&#8217;s Inside the Liberty, a weekly Sports+ newsletter.\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><h3 class=\"inline-module__title headline headline--combo-sm-md\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\tThank you\t\t\t\t\t<\/h3>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>Had they lost, it would no doubt have been the Liberty\u2019s worst defeat of the season.<\/p>\n<p>Even with the win, the Liberty shouldn\u2019t be feeling too proud of themselves because the Sparks had no business being in the game that late.   <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Against the lowly Sparks, the Liberty almost suffered what would\u2019ve been a historic collapse Thursday night. Key word: almost. The Liberty managed to survive their worst fourth-quarter showing of the season to beat the Sparks 85-81 at Barclays Center. The home team had built up a 28-point advantage with 9:48 left in the fourth quarter&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":43902,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/08\/newspress-collage-t0xiw942e-1786675614264.jpg?quality=75&strip=all&1786661223&w=1200","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-43901","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-hub"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43901","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=43901"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43901\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/43902"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=43901"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=43901"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=43901"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}