# 2001 New York Liberty season

The 2001 WNBA season was the fifth season for the New York Liberty. The team attempted to reach the WNBA Finals, but they failed in the conference finals, losing in three games to the Charlotte Sting.

## Transactions
### WNBA draft

| Round | Pick | Player | Nationality | School/Team/Country |
| 4 | 57 | Taru Tuukkanen | Finland | Xavier |
| 4 | 60 | Tara Mitchem | United States | Southwest Missouri State |

### Transactions

| Date | Transaction |
| April 17, 2001 | Traded a 2001 2nd Round Pick and a 2001 3rd Round Pick to the Washington Mystics in exchange for Andrea Nagy and a 2001 4th Round Pick |
| April 20, 2001 | Drafted Taru Tuukkanen and Tara Mitchem in the 2001 WNBA Draft |
| April 30, 2001 | Signed Hadjana Radunović and Stacey Ford |
| May 3, 2001 | Signed Katie Cronin |
| May 7, 2001 | Waived Shea Mahoney and Taru Tuukkanen |
| May 10, 2001 | Waived Jessica Bibby |
| May 14, 2001 | Waived Desiree Francis and Olga Firsova |
| May 16, 2001 | Waived Tara Mitchem |
| May 25, 2001 | Waived Katie Cronin |
| May 26, 2001 | Waived Marina Ferragut |
| June 5, 2001 | Traded a 2002 2nd Round Pick to the Los Angeles Sparks in exchange for Camille Cooper |
| June 5, 2001 | Waived Stacey Ford |
| July 9, 2001 | Signed Mactabene Amachree |

## Schedule
### Regular season

2001 game log Total: 21–11 (Home: 13–3; Road: 8–8) :
May: 0–1 (Home: 0–0; Road: 0–1)
GameDateTeamScoreHigh pointsHigh reboundsHigh assistsLocation AttendanceRecord
1
May 31
@ Miami
L 59–68
Vickie Johnson (20)
Sue Wicks (9)
Teresa Weatherspoon (7)
American Airlines Arena
0–1 :
June
: 9–3 (Home: 5–1; Road: 4–2)
GameDateTeamScoreHigh pointsHigh reboundsHigh assistsLocation AttendanceRecord
2
June 2
Indiana
W 75–58
Tari Phillips (21)
Tari Phillips (12)
Teresa Weatherspoon (6)
Madison Square Garden
1–1
3
June 4
Sacramento
L 63–80
Tari Phillips (19)
Tari Phillips (7)
Teresa Weatherspoon (5)
Madison Square Garden
1–2
4
June 7
@ Cleveland
L 49–67
Tari Phillips (16)
Tari Phillips (8)
Teresa Weatherspoon (8)
Gund Arena
1–3
5
June 10
@ Washington
W 81–80
Teresa Weatherspoon (16)
Tari Phillips (13)
Crystal Robinson (5)
MCI Center
2–3
6
June 12
Charlotte
W 79–70
Tari Phillips (27)
Tari Phillips (5)
Teresa Weatherspoon (7)
Madison Square Garden
3–3
7
June 16
Washington
W 86–63
Crystal Robinson (16)
Tari Phillips (10)
Teresa Weatherspoon (7)
Madison Square Garden
4–3
8
June 17
@ Miami
W 55–48
Crystal Robinson (13)
Tari Phillips (12)
Nagy Robinson Weatherspoon (2)
American Airlines Arena
5–3
9
June 19
@ Sacramento
W 55–51
Tamika Whitmore (23)
Vickie Johnson (11)
Teresa Weatherspoon (5)
ARCO Arena
6–3
10
June 21
@ Phoenix
W 95–70
Tari Phillips (23)
Lobo Phillips Robinson (5)
Teresa Weatherspoon (9)
America West Arena
7–3
11
June 24
Los Angeles
W 82–69
Becky Hammon (21)
Teresa Weatherspoon (7)
Teresa Weatherspoon (8)
Madison Square Garden
8–3
12
June 25
@ Orlando
L 54–67
Vickie Johnson (23)
Phillips Wicks (6)
Teresa Weatherspoon (6)
TD Waterhouse Centre
8–4
13
June 30
Orlando
W 72–60
Tari Phillips (16)
Tari Phillips (13)
Teresa Weatherspoon (9)
Madison Square Garden
9–4 :
July
: 8–5 (Home: 4–1; Road: 4–4)
GameDateTeamScoreHigh pointsHigh reboundsHigh assistsLocation AttendanceRecord
14
July 2
Detroit
W 66–60
Tari Phillips (16)
Johnson Phillips (9)
Johnson Weatherspoon (3)
Madison Square Garden
10–4
15
July 3
@ Charlotte
L 61–66
Vickie Johnson (16)
Tari Phillips (12)
Teresa Weatherspoon (5)
Charlotte Coliseum
10–5
16
July 6
@ Minnesota
W 70–57
Tari Phillips (20)
Tari Phillips (6)
Teresa Weatherspoon (7)
Target Center
11–5
17
July 8
@ Indiana
W 58–56
Tari Phillips (24)
Tari Phillips (13)
Teresa Weatherspoon (9)
Conseco Fieldhouse
12–5
18
July 9
Indiana
W 72–65
Tari Phillips (20)
Tari Phillips (14)
Hammon Weatherspoon (6)
Madison Square Garden
13–5
19
July 11
Seattle
W 67–53
Becky Hammon (16)
Teresa Weatherspoon (10)
Hammon Johnson Weatherspoon (4)
Madison Square Garden
14–5
20
July 13
Minnesota
W 67–64
Teresa Weatherspoon (14)
Phillips Weatherspoon (5)
Teresa Weatherspoon (6)
Madison Square Garden
15–5
21
July 18
@ Detroit
W 80–67
Tari Phillips (20)
Tari Phillips (7)
Teresa Weatherspoon (7)
The Palace of Auburn Hills
16–5
22
July 19
@ Cleveland
L 60–65
Crystal Robinson (16)
Sue Wicks (9)
Teresa Weatherspoon (7)
Gund Arena
16–6
23
July 22
Miami
L 52–68
Crystal Robinson (15)
Weatherspoon Whitmore (5)
Vickie Johnson (6)
Madison Square Garden
16–7
24
July 24
@ Portland
L 68–86
Phillips Robinson (18)
Tari Phillips (14)
Teresa Weatherspoon (5)
Rose Garden
16–8
25
July 26
@ Utah
L 63–71
Vickie Johnson (19)
Vickie Johnson (7)
Teresa Weatherspoon (8)
Delta Center
16–9
26
July 28
@ Houston
W 64–61
Crystal Robinson (15)
Sue Wicks (8)
Teresa Weatherspoon (7)
Compaq Center
17–9 :
August
: 4–2 (Home: 4–1; Road: 0–1)
GameDateTeamScoreHigh pointsHigh reboundsHigh assistsLocation AttendanceRecord
27
August 1
Detroit
W 66–63
Johnson Phillips (17)
Tari Phillips (10)
Teresa Weatherspoon (10)
Madison Square Garden
18–9
28
August 4
Cleveland
L 43–58
Tari Phillips (14)
Phillips Whitmore (6)
Robinson Weatherspoon (4)
Madison Square Garden
18–10
29
August 8
Utah
W 82–63
Vickie Johnson (18)
Phillips Whitmore (7)
Teresa Weatherspoon (9)
Madison Square Garden
19–10
30
August 10
Orlando
W 77–67
Vickie Johnson (17)
Tari Phillips (10)
Teresa Weatherspoon (7)
Madison Square Garden
20–10
31
August 11
@ Charlotte
L 60–80
Tari Phillips (15)
Tari Phillips (6)
Johnson Robinson Weatherspoon (4)
Charlotte Coliseum
20–11
32
August 14
Washington
W 71–56
Crystal Robinson (15)
Tari Phillips (7)
Teresa Weatherspoon (8)
Madison Square Garden
21–11 :
2001 season schedule :

### Playoffs

2001 playoff game log :
First round vs. Miami Sol Won Series: 2–0
GameDateTeamScoreHigh pointsHigh reboundsHigh assistsLocation AttendanceRecord
1
August 17
@ Miami
W 62–46
Vickie Johnson (18)
Tari Phillips (13)
Teresa Weatherspoon (7)
American Airlines Arena
1–0
2
August 19
Miami
L 50–53
Crystal Robinson (13)
Tari Phillips (15)
Vickie Johnson (5)
Madison Square Garden
1–1
3
August 21
Miami
W 72–61
Vickie Johnson (22)
Vickie Johnson (7)
Vickie Johnson (6)
Madison Square Garden
2–1 :
Conference Finals vs. Charlotte Sting Lost Series: 1–2
GameDateTeamScoreHigh pointsHigh reboundsHigh assistsLocation AttendanceRecord
1
August 24
@ Charlotte
W 61–57
Tari Phillips (14)
Tari Phillips (6)
Vickie Johnson (7)
Charlotte Coliseum
1–0
2
August 26
Charlotte
L 53–62
Vickie Johnson (16)
Tari Phillips (7)
Teresa Weatherspoon (6)
Madison Square Garden
1–1
3
August 27
Charlotte
L 44–48
Vickie Johnson (13)
Crystal Robinson (6)
Teresa Weatherspoon (4)
Madison Square Garden
1–2 :
2001 playoff schedule :

### Season standings

| Eastern Conference | W | L | PCT | Conf. | GB |
| Cleveland Rockers $^x$ | 22 | 10 | .688 | 15–6 | – |
| New York Liberty $^x$ | 21 | 11 | .656 | 13–8 | 1.0 |
| Miami Sol $^x$ | 20 | 12 | .625 | 14–7 | 2.0 |
| Charlotte Sting $^x$ | 18 | 14 | .563 | 15–6 | 4.0 |
| Orlando Miracle $^o$ | 13 | 19 | .406 | 9–12 | 9.0 |
| Indiana Fever $^o$ | 10 | 22 | .313 | 7–14 | 12.0 |
| Detroit Shock $^o$ | 10 | 22 | .313 | 7–14 | 12.0 |
| Washington Mystics $^o$ | 10 | 22 | .313 | 4–17 | 12.0 |

## Statistics
### Regular Season

| Player | GP | GS | MPG | FG% | 3P% | FT% | RPG | APG | SPG | BPG | PPG |
| Tari Phillips | 32 | 32 | 32.8 | .507 | .000 | .584 | 8.0 | 1.1 | 1.5 | 0.5 | 15.3 |
| Crystal Robinson | 32 | 32 | 30.6 | .461 | .417 | .897 | 2.9 | 2.6 | 1.0 | 0.3 | 10.7 |
| Teresa Weatherspoon | 32 | 32 | 30.4 | .431 | .385 | .671 | 3.7 | 6.3 | 1.7 | 0.1 | 6.5 |
| Vickie Johnson | 32 | 32 | 29.3 | .414 | .366 | .757 | 3.3 | 2.7 | 1.1 | 0.1 | 11.0 |
| Tamika Whitmore | 32 | 29 | 23.5 | .432 | .500 | .569 | 3.0 | 0.6 | 0.5 | 0.3 | 7.1 |
| Sue Wicks | 30 | 3 | 20.1 | .469 | .000 | .673 | 4.6 | 1.2 | 1.2 | 1.0 | 5.2 |
| Becky Hammon | 32 | 0 | 19.3 | .457 | .378 | .784 | 1.6 | 1.6 | 0.8 | 0.0 | 8.2 |
| Camille Cooper | 4 | 0 | 12.8 | .667 | N/A | .769 | 2.8 | 0.3 | 0.0 | 0.5 | 6.5 |
| Andrea Nagy | 23 | 0 | 9.3 | .419 | .500 | .500 | 0.4 | 1.0 | 0.1 | 0.1 | 1.5 |
| Katarina Lazić | 8 | 0 | 6.9 | .400 | .000 | .500 | 0.8 | 0.4 | 0.4 | 0.0 | 2.1 |
| Rebecca Lobo | 16 | 0 | 5.3 | .318 | .500 | .500 | 0.9 | 0.1 | 0.1 | 0.0 | 1.1 |
| Grace Daley | 15 | 0 | 4.4 | .476 | .000 | .556 | 0.5 | 0.7 | 0.5 | 0.1 | 1.7 |
| Stacey Ford | 1 | 0 | 3.0 | 1.000 | N/A | N/A | 1.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 2.0 |
| Hajdana Radunović | 4 | 0 | 2.3 | .500 | N/A | 1.000 | 1.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.3 | 1.0 |
| Mactabene Amachree | 2 | 0 | 1.5 | N/A | N/A | .500 | 0.5 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.5 | 0.5 |
$^‡$Waived/Released during the season $^†$Traded during the season $^≠$Acquired during the season