There was a feeling Wednesday night of “Oh no, not this again.”

The Liberty opened the second half flat. The Phoenix Mercury were the aggressors and built a six-point lead.

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Coach Chris DeMarco called a timeout.

Players recalled him saying something along the lines of, “Get the f–k together,” “play some f–king defense” and “We’re tired of talking about this, [it’s] time to just go out there and actually do it.”

What was said doesn’t necessarily matter. The message was received.

A switch flipped.

The defensive intensity amplified. The attention to detail magnified. New York played invigorated.

The Liberty bullied the Mercury as if they were stealing their lunch money. With each basket made, Phoenix’s light dimmed. With each Mercury turnover (seven in total in the third quarter), the Liberty surged.

New York closed the quarter on a wildly impressive 23-0 run that left the Mercury absolutely rattled and sent Barclays Center into hysteria.

The Liberty took a 17-point lead into the fourth quarter and never let the Mercury back in, snapping a three-game losing skid with an 84-74 win.

“Obviously, the third quarter was really good for us,” Jonquel Jones said. “Our defense was really the biggest catalyst for us being able to turn them over, be able to get up and press, I think it really shifted the trajectory of the game. It gave us really good momentum, and I think it was good to play a defensive night like that tonight.”

Wednesday was bound to bring an added layer of intensity from the Liberty after the Mercury booted them in the first round of last year’s playoffs.

“One hundred percent,” Leonie Fiebich said. “I mean, all the people that were here last year, we can still feel that, and we’re gonna go out tonight with that kind of feeling.”

The Liberty entered Wednesday on a three-game losing skid, with frustration brewing from the team’s choppy 3-4 start. New York also had a reality check Tuesday during a lengthy film session that shined a spotlight on the team’s live-ball turnovers and correctable miscues.

The start of the season hasn’t been easy for DeMarco and his staff. The rotation has fluctuated with players coming in and out of the lineup.

Even though the Liberty are still without Sabrina Ionescu (back soreness) and Satou Sabally (illness), New York needed to be better.

There were signs of improvement during the team’s first half. It helped, of course, that Marine Johannès got hot from beyond the arc, making five of her seven total 3-pointers in the first half.

The team looked a little more connected on defense.

Then the third quarter happened.

It got off to a slow start before the timeout that changed everything.

“It felt like it was time for this group,” DeMarco said. “And you could just see it, you have these great spurts and it just felt like it was time.”

DeMarco laid into his team, and the players responded with New York’s best run of the season. The defense was as disruptive as ever, forcing the Mercury into mistakes.

The Liberty shot 10-for-18 (55.6 percent) from the field, including 4-for-8 from deep.

Jones logged 10 points, four rebounds and three assists during that quarter. She finished with 17 points, 12 rebounds and four assists.

There’s still plenty of room for improvement. But Wednesday was a clear step forward after a poor start to this homestand.

“It’s the beginning of the season, and we still were missing pieces,” Fiebich said, “but I think we’re in a good [spot]. Also, defensively, I think we got a lot to improve on.”