With the eyes of the basketball world focused on Manhattan, the New York Liberty hit the road as they chased another trophy of their own.
Just moments before the game started, Jonquel Jones was ruled out with an illness. With JJ out, the team was without another All-Star caliber player as Sabrina Ionescu continues to recover from a back injury that has kept her out of action. In JJ’s place was the young duo of Han Xu and Raquel Carrera. It was the first start of Han’s WNBA career and she made the absolute
most of her time
“I try my best and the coaches always believe in me,” Han said in postgame. “I told myself, I’m starting for good defense, good rebounding, running in transition, and doing everything I need to do.”
Over 22 minutes, Han did a bit of everything as she had a 14/6/2/0/2 line and was someone Chris DeMarco counted on for much of the night. The same could be said for rookie big Raquel Carrera.
Carrera came over late following the completion of Valencia’s season in Europe and has been slowly getting acclimated to the team and being in the United States. The Liberty have taken their time with her and with Jones out, she got her first real bit of playing time and filled up the stat sheet in her 13 minutes of game action.
But ultimately, the game was decided by Breanna Stewart. Stewart’s three point shot still isn’t dialed in, but she continues to do everything else at an incredibly high level. In just 34 minutes, Stewart led the way with 28/9/3/3. There weren’t many opportunities for the Liberty offense to display its full dynamism, so Stewart took it upon herself to insist her way to the free throw line as she went a perfect 9-9 at the line.
However, even with the Sun shorthanded, they hung around for much of the night. They were able to force New York into 19 turnovers and slowed the pace of the game down. The Sun have had their struggles, but they’re a proud young team that is looking to put good performances together. You never want to underestimate an underdog, and New York had to dig deep to get the job done.
“It took a lot of toughness,” said Breanna Stewart, who led the way with 28 points and nine rebounds. “Next-woman mentality, especially when you’re playing a team like Connecticut. They’re hungry for their wins… I think that we handled the punches pretty well, very long game, very, very choppy, but we just continue to play through it.”
It wasn’t the prettiest game in the world, but great teams always find a way to deliver even under difficult circumstances. The Liberty aren’t at full strength yet, but we’re starting to see things come into shape for this group.
Final score: New York Liberty 89, Connecticut Sun 80
The winning streak is at four and the team moved to 3-0 with a +32 point differential in the Commissioner’s Cup standings. New York has three more games to go in the Cup portion of the schedule and have a great chance to punch their ticket to the Final on June 30. So far, so good.
A special honor
It’s a Sunset season in Uncasville as the Connecticut Sun will be moving to Houston at the end of the season. The entire saga of the Sun’s ownership sale has been a frustrating and depressing one, but even as they prepare to move into a new era, they are making sure to honor the icons who made Connecticut such a good WNBA team. Although she didn’t play tonight, Jonquel Jones was still honored by the Sun in a special ceremony prior to the game.
Jones spent six seasons with the Sun and grew from precocious youngster into an MVP. The Sun retired Jones’ number 35 and ensured her place in CT history even as the team moves on to a new city next year. Jones had a lot of great moments and great memories as a Sun, and this honor holds a lot of significance for her.
“I want to say thank you to this organization for taking a chance on me and bringing me here,” Jones said. “Thank you to the fans. Even though it’s the ‘Sunset season,’ there are a lot of memories here. A lot of winning that happened here. I want to say thank you from the bottom of my heart.”
Even as the Sun move on, they did a tremendous job honoring their history. They mean a lot to Uncasville and the state of Connecticut and their fans have done their best to support the team even under difficult circumstances. Jonquel Jones was a big part of their history and brought a lot of great memories to this community. Although she didn’t get to suit up, getting this moment with Sun fans was still incredibly meaningful and important.
Next up
The Libs head south for a big time matchup with the Atlanta Dream. Tip after 7:30 PM on June 11.
