New York Liberty fans may be comforted to know Breanna Stewart was as stressed out as they were during her month-long absence, which ended on Monday night as the team took on the Connecticut Sun.
“It’s been a little bit weird. Like [my wife] Marta is so happy that I’m back, because she says I’ve been grumpy. Which I have. You know, I want to play. But it’s been cool to kind of be with [my family], just recover, be in the hyperbaric chamber all the time.”
Alas, Stewie was back to work with the Liberty
who, including the game she got injured in, went 5-9 in her absence. Sabrina Ionescu was also back after missing Saturday’s game against the Atlanta Dream; with the Liberty entering the day in fifth place, the reinforcements came not a moment too soon. Especially with Natasha Cloud out with a nose injury (though not broken), and Izzy Harrison missing her seventh straight game in concussion protocol. A crowded injury report, but not a terrible one.
New York sprinted off the starting line, affirming their seriousness to Barclays Center after getting outworked by the lowly Chicago Sky in their last home contest. It was 27-15 after the first quarter, and Stewie looked like Stewie…
She shot just 4-of-12, but forced her way to the line repeatedly, finishing with a healthy 19 points in 21 minutes.
Though she couldn’t successfully badger Sandy Brondello into blowing past her predetermined minutes-limit, Stewie said she “felt great,” and added: “I wanted to push it while I was out there and see how I felt, and it was great to be back with the team.”
Everything that followed the first quarter, though, was characteristic of Liberty basketball amid Stewie’s absence. As Brondello noted, the return of their North Star would not fix everything, not overnight at least. The Liberty scored just ten points in the second quarter, and though much of it was simply missing open threes, rebounding issues flared up again. Connecticut grabbed six of their dozen offensive boards in the frame.
The stat-sheet may clarify how this game turned into a nail-biter, but it doesn’t paint the full picture. Connecticut competed like the frisky upstart they’ve been since June ended, defending the Liberty quite well at times…
…but New York, once again, didn’t have it. Only 14 turnovers, but quite a few unforced. Only producing 12 takeaways of their own, Connecticut often running their offense quite comfortably. Perhaps a sign of Leonie Fiebich’s exhaustion was Kennedy Burke, starting in Cloud’s place, starting possessions on Marina Mabrey. Leïla Lacan, initially doubtful with a gnarly black eye, continued her sensational rookie campaign by coming off the bench to lead all scorers with 22 points, while Aneesah Morrow hit three triples en route to an 18/15 double-double.
“After she made one, I didn’t think we had the urgency to get out there, to execute as well as we could,” said Brondello.
A sadly familiar story for a talented — though injured — team suddenly in danger of opening the playoffs on the road…
There is no single, overarching reason as to why the Connecticut Sun were able to hang around until the final buzzer in this one. Their strong defense often disrupted the Liberty’s offense early in possessions, and a team that deployed their 14th different starting lineup in this one was unable to smoothly flow into counters. The Liberty failed to make every effort play, understandable but unacceptable for a team trying to repeat. Connecticut started the game 7-of-14 from deep, while Brondello once again turned to Steph Talbot over Rebekah Gardner.
In any case, it took until deep in the fourth for the Liberty to reclaim a seven-point lead, which they did with Stewie on the bench, thanks to the Ionescu/Emma Meesseman pick-and-roll…
Said Meesseman of her new partner in crime: “It’s not always easy to teach the game to everyone, and I don’t even know that vision is always able to be taught, and she has it you know? So it’s very fun to play with her, and talk like, ‘Okay, this happened now, maybe next time this is gonna happen, and then we’re gonna do this.’”
Sabrina organizing the offense with the help of the WNBA’s most accomplished sixth player was just enough to send Liberty fans home happy, despite an uneven performance. Then they almost blew it.
Their three-possession lead dwindled to two, then one. Inbounding the ball with no timeouts and the shot-clock turned off, the Sun chose not to foul, a surprising decision that the Liberty immediately justified by swerving off the road. Sabrina Ionescu dribbled around for a bit, then found herself surrounding by defenders and teammates half-heartedly coming to the ball near half-court. She threw it into the corner, where Stewie nearly ruined her homecoming by throwing it away completely.
The crowd shrieked in horror, but just before the car hit the tree, Ionescu and Kennedy Burke sprinted after Lacan and combined to block the ball off her knee…
Ionescu got credited with the block, and Burke was just happy to get the win. She’s not even going to ask for a nice steak dinner out of it: “Nah, I’ll let her take it. Yeah, you know, I don’t think dinner. Maybe, like, a bag of hot fries or some ice cream.”
A win is a win, never more so than in these packed standings. But this one was a moral loss. Clichés about the WNBA being the best league in the world and full of professionals aside, Monday night illuminated that this team is no close to championship form with only seven regular-season games left. Breanna Stewart did not fix everything overnight, though we see the triple-big lineup with Stewie, Jones, and Meesseman, albeit for just two minutes in the second quarter.
“I’m just happy that we found a way to win,” said Brondello, “but still lots of areas to work on and to be better at. And we need these games, just to continue to build the chemistry. And now we’ve got different lineups too.”
Did the Liberty take one small step to putting all together on Monday night? Yes. Breanna Stewart is back, Sabrina Ionescu’s foot seems fine. But the real work begins now.
Final Score: New York Liberty 81, Connecticut Sun 79
Marine and Marina get into it
To nobody’s surprise, Marina Mabrey was involved in a confrontation — if it even rises to that level — that led to a technical foul on Monday. To everybody’s surprise, Marine Johannès was too…
Saniya Rivers stepping in at the end earned the tech, but Johannès not taking kindly to Mabrey’s shoves had her teammates pleasantly surprised.
“That’s not the side I see a lot of Marine,” said Meesseman. “I think we are both kind of calm and everything, so I would never expect to see that. I was very surprised. I was like, ‘Yes Marine!’”
Nothing really happened. Breanna Stewart made the free-throw, and play continued. But nothing more surprising may happen to the Liberty all season.
Next Up
The Liberty play one more game at home before hitting the West Coast, taking on the Washington Mystics. Tip-off is scheduled for 7:00 p.m. ET on Thursday afternoon.
