Liberty demolish Wings with eyes on unfinished business

The Liberty keep running away from the pack atop the WNBA standings. 

But it’s still not enough. Not even after Tuesday’s 94-74 rout of the Wings before a sellout crowd of 11,455 at Barclays Center. 

It’s not enough to salve the sting of losing in last year’s Finals.

Not until they get back and finish the deal.

That’s not a goal they’re shying away from.

It’s one they’re owning. 

“What I want to see from our team is just the way that we continue to get better, and obviously stacking these wins. Everybody keeps saying ‘Oh, you guys clinched the playoffs. Why are you still trying hard?’ And I’m like, ‘What do you mean? We haven’t done anything,’” Breanna Stewart said. “We want to obviously keep that [top seed], we want home court advantage. 

“I feel like we haven’t done anything yet. Our record is great of course, but there’s so much we can get better at, and we don’t want to peak too soon.” 

Thanks to a vastly improved defense from last year, the Liberty have reeled off seven straight wins.

They’ve come back from the Olympic break with a 103-68 laugher over the Sparks in L.A., then a 79-67 victory on the road at Las Vegas — but it won’t make up for the heartbreak of losing last year’s WNBA Finals to those same Aces. 

The Liberty are enjoying the wins, and the league-best 24-4 record.

But there’s no danger of complacency setting in.

They’re not letting victory defeat them. 

“Yeah, we’re having a lot of fun,” Jonquel Jones said. “It’s always fun when you’re winning obviously, but it’s even better when you’re surrounded by really great people. And that’s the power we have, being on this team and being able to come in every day and work with the people we work with. So we’re having a lot of fun, and we want to get the job done and bring a championship back to the city.” 

Unlike their Barclays Center co-tenants, the Nets, the Liberty have the look of a championship team.

And that’s the bar they’ve set. 

Stewart and Sabrina Ionescu won Olympic gold in Paris.

The Liberty played Tuesday sans Ionescu — who leads them in scoring and assists — due to a neck injury, but stayed focused.

Former MVPs Stewart and Jones kept them that way. 

Stewart had a game-high 26 points and a dozen rebounds, and Jones added 23 points and another dozen boards.

Courtney Vandersloot shouldered Ionescu’s backcourt burden with 15 points and 11 assists, both career-highs. 

It was just the second time in team history that three teammates had double-doubles.

But it was the defense that was the difference, out-rebounding the Wings 47-28 and holding them to 20 points in the paint on 10-of-28 shooting. 

“We had to grind it out. It wasn’t always pretty. But we still put up 94 points, [and] we kept a really dangerous team to 74,” coach Sandy Brondello said. “The area of growth for us we keep talking about is defense. If we can be consistently good on the defensive end and rebounding, that’s going to put us in good shape as we move forward.” 

The Liberty were in great shape even shorthanded.

They closed the first on a 16-5 run — including the last eight unanswered — to lead 26-16.

They padded that cushion to 15 in the second quarter and 16 in the third.

When they saw the lead shrink to 69-65 seconds into the fourth, they pushed it up to 22 late. 

“We haven’t achieved our goal yet. It’s about can we get better? How do we get better?” Brondello said. “There’s two months left in the season, and that will go away in a flash, and hopefully we’re the last team to win.”