NEW YORK–Sue Bird continues to find ways to make WNBA history and that did not change on Sunday. With a three in the third quarter, the 14-year veteran and New York native became only the 13th player to eclipse the 5,000-point plateau.

Despite the milestone, a strong third quarter from New York put the game out of reach for Seattle as the Storm dropped the matchup 78-62 at Madison Square Garden.

“We wanted to protect the paint and it’s easier said than done against them,” Storm head coach Jenny Boucek said. “First half they were going in the paint and getting to the line. But we were more so playing the game that we wanted to play but in the second half, we just had a lot of breakdowns in the third quarter. They (Liberty) really took it to us.”

Seattle and New York battled back and forth in the first half and saw the lead change hands seven times and the game be tied six times.

But in the third, New York stepped up its defensive intensity and went on a 13-0 run to open the quarter and forced the Storm to miss its first six shots and commit three turnovers during the burst, to take a 49-35 lead.

Bird, who scored 14 points on the afternoon, broke the run with a three with 5:13 left. That shot moved her past the 5,000-point mark and, in doing so, became the first player in WNBA history to collect 5,000 points and 2,000 assists.

She finished Sunday at 5,008 points and is now only five points shy of tying Taj McWilliams-Franklin for 12th on the all-time list.

The Storm had one final burst at the beginning of the third quarter when Angel Goodrich hit a three and Jenna O’Hea scored on back-to-back possessions to cut the New York lead down to eight.

But the Liberty brought back in Tina Charles and she quickly scored four straight points to move to the lead back to double figures. Charles scored 29 points on the afternoon.

“Right now we have experienced losses in every way possible and wins, in every way possible, so we know what to expect,” Bird said. “We know that these games are never over until that horn goes off and no lead is safe and we just wanted to overcome the bad third quarter that we had and try to make it close, which we sort of did.  If we could have made one more push that would have been nice.”

Seattle will continue its road trip but get a bit of rest as it will not play again until Saturday when it will travel to San Antonio to take on the Stars.

The Storm got off to a great start from the field and hit 55.6 percent from the field in the first. This was in large part to the bench.

The trio of Abby Bishop, Markeisha Gatling, and O’Hea combined for 10 points on 4-for-6 shooting and Goodrich dished out three assists to help Seattle go into the second tied at 23.

The Seattle bench scored 14 points in the first half.

Crystal Langhorne was the safety valve for the Storm in the second as New York held Seattle to 5-for-17 from the field but the veteran forward scored six points in the period and finished with a team-high 10 points in the half.

Much like in the first matchup when she scored 30 points, Charles scored 14 points in the first half.