The New York Liberty faced the Atlanta Dream on Thursday night, each team entering the night with a 2-0 record in Commissioner’s Cup play. Big game, in other words, though many are in a 44-game WNBA season.
In the first half, the hit a couple of their signatures. They turned the ball over ten times against Atlanta, who average the most steals per game in the WNBA. That kept it close in spite of everything else New York did well, namely ignoring Atlanta’s weaker shooters…
Angel Reese played into New York’s hands early, starting the game by shooting 3-of-9, taking and missing five jumpers in that stretch. Alas, Reese settled in and started to attack the basket midway through the second quarter. With the Liberty mostly leaving her in single coverage, Reese finished with a team-high 25 points, of course letting her opponents hear it along the way…
New York’s offense was more than their turnovers, though. They got to the rim and shot 7-of-15 from three in the first half; Atlanta never really figured out how they wanted to guard pick-and-roll. Pauline Astier would score 16 points in total, dipping and diving her way to the cup for a few outstanding finishes as is routine by now.
But her best play of the night was this 53-foot heave to end the first half…
…which followed yet another brain-breaking Marine Johannès triple…
The hot shooting mostly offset the negative turnover differential, but what sealed the Liberty’s advantage was rebounding. They keep the best offensive rebounding team in the WNBA off the glass, whether in zone or man. Rhyne Howard hit a couple threes, Allisha Gray got downhill, but without second-chance opportunities, Atlanta’s offense was kept in check.
That continued late into the third quarter, where the Libs made the game-defining run. Raquel Carrera, in her second game of real, non-garbage time minutes manned the front court next to Breanna Stewart. Chris DeMarco played Rebekah Gardner, Betnijah Laney-Hamilton, and Satou Sabally, getting length and shooting but no point guard onto the court.
It paid dividends. Carrera hit her first WNBA triple, Sabally hit two of her four, Gardner characteristically annoyed her opponents, and New York took a game-high 16-point lead into the final frame by playing their best basketball of the night…
“We were playing basketball,” said DeMarco. “Like, we were playing basketball: The ball was moving, we were getting stops when we needed to, we’re executing the game plan.”
New York let it slip a little in the fourth quarter. Reese hit the offensive glass hard and the Libs kept turning it over, finishing with 20 cough-ups on the evening. It seems impossible to turn it over that often and still hit triple-digits, but shooting 16-of-31 from three provides a helluva cushion, and though Atlanta won the final frame, they never cut the lead to single-digits.
It wasn’t a perfect Liberty performance, but that’s part of why it was so encouraging. Turning it over twenty times is inexcusable, and they did have a bit of a magnet-ball going, but DeMarco’s offense produced great looks time and again, shooting 57% from two and taking 28 freebies. Atlanta’s offense was worse from everywhere, including a morbid 15-of-27 from the line.
“I would say the kick outs,” explained Satou Sabally. “We were driving really aggressively into the paint, and then I was just open, because you do have to take every one of us seriously and just pack the paint, so we knew that there would be a lot of shots for us today.”
All five Liberty starters except for Leonie Fiebich hit double-digits, while Sabally added 19 points off the bench. Rebekah Gardner played a strong second half, and Laney-Hamilton also played well in the third quarter run, winning her minutes by 11 points. Even development player Marine Fauthoux (in her third of 12 possible appearances) finished her five minutes as a +6.
Said Sabally: “I do keep reiterating how the strength of our team is just the depth — how everyone can just come in and contribute, so that is truly what happened. But I mean, the starter was the main thing that helped us down in the first half, and then I think we had a lot of great things happening today.”
The New York Liberty are now 3-0 in Commissioner’s Cup play. No other team in the Eastern Conference is undefeated, so the sea foam now control their own destiny. More importantly, they are rolling, on a six-game win-streak and sitting at 9-4 even as Sabrina Ionescu continues to miss time with her back injury. Oh how the panicked days of under .500 ball feel so long ago.
Breanna Stewart didn’t commit to an answer on if this was the best game the Liberty have played in 2026, but everybody who spoke was happy with the result, especially Head Coach Chris DeMarco: “Our effort has been incredible. It’s been incredible, and we can live with some of the mistakes if we’re playing as hard as we are.”
Final Score: New York Liberty 104, Atlanta Dream 90
Stewie pays up
Breanna Stewart finally made good on her lost bet to Atlanta’s Allisha Gray. Think back to the Final Four matchup between their respective schools…
The subsequent win might have been even sweeter for this ex-Husky.
Next Up
The Liberty return home for one game — against the Washington Mystics on Sunday afternoon. Tip-off is scheduled for 3:00 p.m. ET.
