What a difference two days made for Breanna Stewart.
The New York Liberty grinded out an uninspiring five-point win over the Washington Mystics in their season opener Tuesday. They then lit up Caitlin Clark and the Indiana Fever with a 102-66 win on Thursday night.
Stewart had eight points on 3-9 shooting against Washington, then 31 points on 12-21 shooting in Indiana. She also had 10 rebounds, four assists, 3 steals, and two blocks.
“That’s Breanna Stewart,” Liberty head coach Sandy Brondello said. “It’s good for her to just see the ball go through the hole. That’s what good shooters need.”
Stewart is the reigning WNBA MVP, and even if you think that award should have gone to A’ja Wilson last year, you had to know the Liberty forward would respond to a sub-par opening night.
When the clock ran out on the Fever Thursday, Prime Video analyst LaChina Robinson grabbed Stewart for a postgame on-air interview. One of the first things Stewart said was that she wasn’t happy with her performance against the Mystics. The key this time, she said, was to get out in transition and let defense flow into offense.
“That was our struggle in our last game, we didn’t really get out and run,” she told Robinson.
Breanna Stewarts steals the show vs. Fever
Stewart turned it around on both ends of the court against the Fever. Aside from her stat line, Stewart won a decisive battle against Aliyah Boston inside. Though Jonquel Jones drew the primary matchup with the 2023 No. 1 overall pick, Stewart hounded her as well, blocking her shots or simply making her looks difficult. She also assisted on Clark, including one possession in the first half where she came over to help Betnijah Laney-Hamilton on a screen and prompted the Fever star into coughing the ball up.
On offense, Stewart put on a scoring masterclass. It wasn’t just her 31 points. It was how she got them. Her only three of the game came on a Clark-esque step-back. She also lit up the midrange, knocking down fade-aways and turnaround jumpers.
Perhaps the Fever were the exact opponent Stewart needed to face. In five games against them last year, she averaged 26.8 points, including two 40-plus performances to bookend the season series. On Thursday, she scored 11 in the first quarter, giving her 14 career double-digit scoring quarters against Indiana.
“On any given night someone else can be scoring for us. She plays pretty well against Indiana though, I will admit that,” Brondello said with a laugh.
The Fever personnel just seem to be a good matchup for Stewart. Their post players are imposing in their own right, but they don’t run the floor quite as well as she does.
“[Indiana’s] posts are really kind of in the paint a lot and once we can rebound and run, we’ll get whatever we want in transition,” Stewart explained after the game. “And doing whatever I can to put them in the most uncomfortable position that they want to be guarding defensively.”
Then there were simply effort plays, including a moment early in the second half where she got out on the fast break for an easy layup. Also in the third quarter, she had two second-chance buckets off of offensive rebounds.
“In general, I just wanted to come out more aggressive coming off of last game,” she said.
The stats tell the story. The Liberty out-rebounded Indiana, 40-26. When Stewart and Jones had to do their work from the line, they succeeded, going a combined 12-12. New York won the battle in the paint, 48-28, and in the fast break, 16-2. The Liberty led wire to wire.
The Liberty will face the Fever again on Saturday, this time in their home opener at 1 p.m. ET at Barclays Center.
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