Connecticut Sun vs New York Liberty Prediction: The Chris DeMarco Era Begins In Brooklyn
Updated July 9, 2026
The WNBA regular season opens Friday night with a familiar Eastern Conference pairing as the Connecticut Sun travel to Brooklyn to face the New York Liberty. New York enters the season as one of the favorites to win the WNBA title after adding Satou Sabally to a roster that already featured Breanna Stewart, Sabrina Ionescu, and Jonquel Jones. Connecticut enters a rebuilding year with several roster changes, though the addition of Brittney Griner gives the Sun a veteran interior presence capable of keeping them competitive. Here, I break down this matchup and make my Sun vs Liberty prediction for opening night in the W.
New York enters the season carrying championship expectations again after an aggressive offseason. The Liberty retained most of their core while adding Sabally, giving them another versatile scorer who can stretch defenses and create mismatches. Even with Ionescu sidelined with an ankle injury, New York still has one of the strongest frontcourts in the league with Stewart and Jones leading the way. However, Sabally is questionable for this game due to illness, which could be a concern.
While the roster for the Liberty is loaded, there will be questions about their coaching situation. Sandy Brondello is no longer in charge in New York, as she will be leading the Toronto Tempo in their inaugural season. Instead, it is Chris DeMarco at the helm, who is known for his time as an assistant with the Golden State Warriors. It remains to be seen how that move will work out for New York.
Connecticut is entering a very different phase as they begin their final season as the Sun before ditching the Northeast for Houston. The Sun lost several veteran contributors from previous playoff runs and are leaning heavily on Griner to stabilize their offense and protect the paint. The Sun have promising younger contributors like Aneesah Morrow and Saniya Rivers, but turnovers and inconsistent perimeter shooting remain concerns entering opening night.
Another interesting storyline will be how much of Hailey Van Lith we see for the Sun. Van Lith was highly touted coming out of college, where she had success at Louisville, LSU, and TCU. But she was waived before the start of this season by the Chicago Sky and has been picked up by the Sun, where she will try to get her pro career moving in the right direction.
Even without Ionescu, New York has a major talent edge entering this opener. But there could be some growing pains for New York under new leadership against a Sun team that is young and hungry to prove itself for the most part. I expect the Liberty to win this game, but for the Sun to cover the spread, as it will take the Liberty some time to hit its stride in full.
Affiliate DisclosureATS.io uses affiliate links. If you sign up through a link on this page, we may earn a commission at no additional cost to you. Rankings are based on hands-on testing and published criteria, and affiliate relationships do not determine placement.
