After season of adversity, can Liberty put together another title run?

The New York Liberty walked off the court at Barclays Center with another lopsided victory. Their 19-point win made them the ninth team in WNBA history to start a season 9-0 and extended New York's best start in franchise history.

It was June 10, and it was looking like the defending WNBA champion Liberty might be better than last year, when they broke through to win the franchise's first title.

But three months later, New York has to hit the road for the first round of the WNBA playoffs. Only the top four seeds get home-court advantage in the best-of-three opening series, and the Liberty finished fifth. New York, which went 8-7 to close the regular season, trails the Minnesota Lynx and Las Vegas Aces in the betting odds at ESPN BET to win the 2025 championship.

Repeating is always tough: After the Houston Comets won the first four league titles, only the 2001-2002 Los Angeles Sparks and the 2022-2023 Las Vegas Aces have won back-to-back WNBA crowns.

Still, dropping out of the top-four seeds and finishing 27-17 is far from what the Liberty were expecting. What went wrong during the regular season, and have they fixed it in time for the playoffs?

"It's been up and down, players in and out, roster changes," Liberty forward Breanna Stewart said. "All the things you could imagine have happened to this team. But we don't want our run to be easy, we just want it to be really, really worth it.

"So, I think we're embracing the hard and showing up every day ready for whatever challenge we're going to have, and whoever we're going to have with us."

Injuries have been a storyline for every WNBA team this season. But for the Liberty, three key starters suffered injuries -- post players Stewart (knee) and Jonquel Jones (ankle) and guard Sabrina Ionescu (neck, toe) -- beginning in June and continuing through September.

Jones and Stewart each missed 13 games, and Ionescu sat out six. They are the team's stars, the core of what makes everything work at the highest level. Stewart (18.3 PPG, 6.5 RPG) and Jones (13.6 PPG, 8.1 RPG) are past MVPs; Ionescu (18.2 PPG, 5.7 APG, 4.9 RPG) has been named to the all-WNBA second team three times.

In the games the trio started this season, the Liberty were 12-2, including Thursday's 91-86 victory at Chicago in their regular-season finale. When all three were on the court, the Liberty were at their best. But that happened significantly less this season than last.

In 2024, Stewart, Jones and Ionescu played 805 minutes together and had a plus-12 net rating per 100 possessions. This season, their net rating was higher, at plus-21, but they have played only 234 minutes together.

With any two of them on the court, New York's net rating this year was plus-6. With only one, the Liberty were outscored by 13 points in 464 minutes. Last year, they played 235 minutes with only one of the stars on the court, yet were still plus-18 in those minutes.

The Liberty's depth this year also has been affected by various factors: other injuries, players missing part of the season for EuroBasket competition, and the absence of players who didn't return from last year.

Guard/forward Betnijah Laney-Hamilton and point guard Courtney Vandersloot, for example, were Liberty starters in 2024. Laney-Hamilton missed this season after suffering a knee injury while playing in the new Unrivaled 3-on-3 league in March. Vandersloot returned to Chicago during free agency.

And forward Kayla Thornton, a key reserve for the Liberty in 2023 and 2024, was selected by Golden State in the expansion draft. She was the Valkyries' leading scorer and rebounder before a season-ending knee injury right after the All-Star Game.

But there were additions, too. The Liberty traded for point guard Natasha Cloud, and guard Marine Johannes, who had last played for New York in 2023, returned. She was the only player to appear in all 44 games this season for New York.

And on Aug. 3, the Liberty brought in veteran forward Emma Meesseman, the Belgian standout who last played in the WNBA in 2022. She averaged 13.4 points and 5.1 rebounds in 17 games with New York.

Meesseman's addition gave the Liberty three players who have been named WNBA Finals MVP; she did it with Washington in 2019, Stewart did so with Seattle in 2018 and 2020, and Jones won the honor last year.

So, did the Liberty underachieve in the regular season, or did they struggle because of bad timing with injuries, a lack of consistent cohesiveness, and getting each team's best effort as defending champions?

"Yes, we faced a lot of adversity," coach Sandy Brondello said. "But there's also a lot of games where we feel like we could have played better."

Stewart tried to win back-to-back WNBA titles when she was with Seattle. But in 2019, she suffered an Achilles injury while playing overseas in the offseason. Then, as part of the Storm's title defense in 2021, they were ousted under the previous playoff system in a single-elimination second-round game at home by Phoenix.

If the Liberty were in a one-and-done situation this year at Phoenix, New York fans would be very worried. But in a three-game series where the Liberty are guaranteed a home game -- and have their 12-player roster finally back in action -- the team has more confidence about the postseason.

"Have we gotten better? I think we have," Brondello said, pointing to victories in the last three regular-season games. "We have our full group together, and we know what works and what we need to work on as we move forward."

Steward believes the Liberty's struggles have shown the team's resilience and an ability to solve problems in the tougher times this season.

"You have to have a certain mental toughness and awareness of what's going on and how to fight through that," Stewart said. "We're happy we have all 12 [players] back. The playoffs are a roller-coaster -- emotionally, physically. Experience is the thing you fall back on."

ESPN's Kevin Pelton contributed to this story.