Sandy Brondello’s 10-minute pregame news conference was dominated by questions about the Liberty’s postseason readiness.

If their somewhat shaky close to the regular season — in which the top seed in the WNBA playoffs dropped two of their last three games, including an 11-point setback to their opening-round opponent — was an ominous sign.

The Liberty coach didn’t make any guarantees, but she didn’t seem worried at all.

“We’re lucky we’ve had players who have been here before,” Brondello said. “So we talked about that mentality, how difficult it is. We’ve had the communication, but we rely on those players who have been there.”

They certainly were ready, performing up to their league-best regular season record.

The Liberty scored eight of the first 10 points of Game 1, led by double figures just 6:21 after the opening tip and cruised to an 83-69 victory over the Dream at Barclays Center on Sunday afternoon.

Their first missed field goal attempt didn’t come until there was 2:33 remaining in the first quarter.

The result was never really in doubt, as the Liberty led by as much as 19 in a one-sided opening half. Their offense was crisp, with 22 assists.

Their defense was suffocating, limiting the Dream to 39.1 percent shooting and forcing them into 14 turnovers.

Most of all, they played with the intensity that was missing in the regular season finale loss to the Dream. They looked like a team that fully intends to keep playing for a while, and return to the WNBA Finals.

The Dream never got closer than 14 in the second half.

“Our intensity was incredible. To have the crowd that we had here definitely made that a lot easier,” Breanna Stewart said. “But holding ourselves accountable, knowing that especially last game, we didn’t play the way we wanted to. Obviously, Atlanta is trying to steal a game here, and we don’t want to let that happen. Really, what we said is there’s no more time to talk about it. This is it. The time is now and we have to be ready to go and put an entire game together.”

The Liberty can close out the series Tuesday night back in Brooklyn.

Game 3, if necessary, would be in Atlanta on Thursday.

Sabrina Ionescu, who struggled against the Dream during the regular season, had 17 points and five assists.

Stewart added 20 points, 11 rebounds and three blocks.

Perhaps the biggest surprise was Leonie Fiebich.

A part-time starter due to injuries, she made her first full-strength start in place of Courtney Vandersloot.

The sharpshooting forward rewarded Brondello with a game-high 21 points and four 3-pointers in as many attempts.

It was one of many positives for the Liberty on Sunday afternoon.

One win down, four to go to get back to the finals.

“The first game of the playoffs, it’s home court. If you lose a game here, you lose home court,” Brondello said. “That’s our focus, and we’ve got big goals. We worked hard to get the No. 1 seed, so we didn’t want to let it go down the drain. It’s just coming out with the [right] focus.”