The New York Liberty didn’t let the Olympic break slow their momentum. They’ve won and covered the spread in three straight games since returning to action, most recently squashing the Dallas Wings by 20 points at home Tuesday.
The Liberty have only played two games in the last month, two wins following the Olympic break, but it’s still been a whirlwind for nearly half the rotation. Two Americans Olympians, two German representatives, and Sandy Brondello coaching the Australian team mean that the grind never really stopped.
After beating the Las Vegas Aces on Saturday, the Liberty got an off day on Sunday before practicing Monday, the final tune-up before an 11-day stretch where they play every other day, including another flight out west.
That stretch started on Tuesday night with the first of two straight home games against the Dallas Wings; Sabrina Ionescu, back home in New York for the first time in over a month, got the night off, ruled out just prior to tip-off with neck soreness.
Luckily for the Liberty, they would not need an A+ performance to beat Dallas. Despite the recent return of bonafide All-WNBA candidate Satou Sabally, they’re still pretty bad, 3-17 in their last 20 games.
Yet, New York suffered another rotation loss, as Leonie Fiebich exited after playing just 13 minutes with a rib injury...
let's hope Leonie Fiebich just got the wind knocked out of her and didn't crack a rib, was just removed from the game pic.twitter.com/Evu0Wmodud
Fiebich gave it a short go after halftime, but quickly re-exited the game for good and will undergo further testing this week.
But the Liberty still had threats aplenty down Ionescu, Fiebich, and Betnijah Laney-Hamilton, continuing to rehab from right knee injury. It started with Courtney Vandersloot, who turned in perhaps her best performance of the season right from the jump; New York pushed constantly against the Wings’ porous transition D, and Sloot was at the center of that attack, getting the ball ahead with hit-ahead passes or driving the lane.
She also started feeling it in the half-court, driving it right by Satou Sabally to start the night’s highlight sequence...
Sloot drives by Satou for two, Dallas pushes, Jonquel booms a shot into the third row...place got loud pic.twitter.com/njuSpJlwLC
Her 15 points, six boards, and 11 assists were all season-highs, though the WNBA’s all-time points-assists double-doubles leader would have to do a lot more than that to surprise her head coach.
“Her legacy is already set,” said Sandy Brondello. “She’s one of the greatest point-guards ever to play this game. She’s one of the great assist players in this league.”
Despite Dallas rostering twice as many bigs as the average WNBA roster, they were dominated inside. The Wings were out-rebounded 33-19, shot just 10-of-28 in the paint, and couldn’t stop New York’s front-court of Jonquel Jones and Breanna Stewart. Though in fairness, few teams ever do.
It felt like Stewart was a hair or two away from putting up historic scoring numbers, particularly after ten points right out of the gate, but she missed an open layup and rolled out a three at the end of the first quarter, a precursor to the rest of her night. Though she shot just 7-of-22, Stewart still led all scorers with 26 points and a handful of applause-worthy moments...
Stewie up to 23 points after this and-1 pic.twitter.com/F16hN7xsbC
Jones had 23 and 12 boards on a calm 8-of-14 shooting, and though she only the one (emphatic) block, the former All-Defense big contributed to many more Dallas misses inside, and credited it to her defensive synergy with Stewie.
“We understand each other’s tendencies defensively and just really play well off of each other, covering each other and just understanding that we are anchoring the defense and on this team, we take pride in it,” said Jones.
The front-court production didn’t stop there, either. Kennedy Burke aptly stepped in for Fiebich to score a season-high 13 points on 5-of-7, while Nyara Sabally played 18 minutes to put up half a double-double with 5 and 5. At one point, the Liberty played a massive Stewart-Sabally-Jones front-court, which Burke called a “scary sight” for any opponent.
Dallas cut a 14-point deficit in half early in the fourth quarter, with New York letting Satou Sabally walk into too many of her 24 points...
this game would probably be over if the Liberty stopped going under/poorly switching ball-screens against Satou pic.twitter.com/fZN9xuBbmU
...but the outcome never really felt in danger, and it wasn’t. The Liberty quickly locked back in and turned it into a blowout, even allowing Stewart to rest the final seven minutes of the night. Vandersloot and Jones closed the Wings out, and gave Brondello the only thing she asked for on the night of her 56th birthday: a comfortable win.
Said Brondello: “This was a great birthday present.”
Let’s do it all over again. The Liberty will take on the Dallas Wings yet again, at home, at 7:00 p.m. ET on Thursday.
