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No matter how many shots Crystal Robinson has missed in a game, Liberty head coach Richie Adubato doesn’t care.
“I tell her to keep shooting,” Adubato said.
It’s a good thing he has that attitude. Despite missing five of her first seven shots, Robinson came back and drilled two three-pointers to turn a tie game with Orlando into a six-point advantage for the Liberty. The Miracle never recovered and lost 72-60.
“I hadn’t done anything right all game,” said Robinson, who finished with 14 points. “It was about time that I did.”
Because she did, the Liberty improved to 9-4 in front of 15,354 at the Garden.
Robinson’s teammates weren’t concerned with her troubles.
“Crystal’s a great shooter,” guard Becky Hammon said. “Statistically, she should have made her next 10 shots.”
Two was plenty. Those shots led to what, on paper, seemed like an easy victory, but the Liberty knew better.
“That was a dogfight,” said Sue Wicks, who scored just four points but was a constant defensive presence. “We just executed better at the end.”
In particular, Robinson and Tari Phillips did. Phillips rebounded from one of her worst games with the Liberty last Monday in a 13-point loss to the Miracle with a strong performance.
Phillips talked about how difficult it was to play in her hometown of Orlando while her mother Doris was in a nearby hospital. Yesterday, she used her mom as motivation. Phillips, who scored two points on Monday, had 16 points and 13 boards yesterday.
“I was inspired to play for her,” said Phillips, who added that Doris was in intensive care with a lung disease. “After that poor showing last week, we all had to come out and play better.”
It took the Liberty awhile, but they finally did. The Miracle, which fell to 4-8, outrebounded the Liberty 20-11 in the first half, though the score was tied at 31.
“In the first half, they pushed us around,” Robinson said. “We looked like a bunch of high schoolers and they looked like professionals. We had to be more physical.”
They were. And although the result was pleasing to watch – too much sloppiness and disorganization – it worked.
“Their matchup zone is tough to face,” Robinson said. “I would much rather play [against] a man-to-man.”
In the deciding two minutes, it didn’t matter. Whatever the Liberty did, it worked.
“When it comes down to crunch time, you have to execute,” Wicks said. “Today, we did that.”
Especially Robinson.
“We get so excited when she puts up a shot,” Wicks said. “She’s amazing. When she is on, nobody’s better. If she even has an inch to shoot, we all know she’s going to make it. We needed those two shots, so we knew she would make them for us. We didn’t care about what she had done before.”