It might be just eight games into the season, but Teresa Weatherspoon has seen enough.
“We have to have a sense of urgency,” Weatherspoon said before the Liberty took on the expansion Miami Sol last night at the Garden. “We might have actually lost the game on the last shot, but we really lost it before that.”
Weatherspoon had harsh words about her team in the aftermath of Tuesday’s 57-56 heartbreaking defeat by the Washington Mystics. Chamique Holdsclaw nailed a 15-footer with two defenders in her face and dropped the Liberty to 3-5.
Still, it was what happened that preceded Holdsclaw’s game-winner that bothered Weatherspoon.
“We didn’t execute at crucial moments,” the point guard said. “We didn’t run back on defense. We didn’t do the things teams do to succeed. At times the other night, we didn’t work hard enough. That’s something we have to do and by now we should be doing it.”
Weatherspoon expressed her feelings to her teammates after the defeat. Things will be different if she has any say.
“The effort wasn’t there,” Weatherspoon said. “I don’t know what else to say. It’s very discouraging.
“Collectively, we have to think about what we’re doing and what we need to do to get better. Something needs to change and we have to do it now.”
That meant last night, five days after Holdsclaw’s shot.
“This waiting has been agonizing,” Weatherspoon said. “This game couldn’t have come soon enough. Sometimes five days isn’t a very long time. But in this instance, it seemed like an eternity.”
While it may be too soon to press the panic button, head coach Richie Adubato isn’t keeping his finger far from it.
“We have to win,” Adubato said. “That’s all there is to it. We can’t afford to fall any further. Then we’d have real problems.”
But the optinistic coach was not nearly as downtrodden as Weatherspoon.
“We got that loss out of our heads and I’ve seen growth since then in practice,” Adubato said. “We did some things wrong, but we’ve got some new people here and we’re still getting used to each other. The effort level, to me, was good. But if Teresa’s frustrated, that’s good. She’ll get everyone going even more than they already are. That never hurts.”
Especially with the team’s recent woes. Days after the loss to Washington, players still had a hard time talking about it.
“I’ve played in a lot of games,” Weatherspoon said. “And that’s as hard a loss as I’ve had to accept.”