Breanna Stewart and the New York Liberty have found their three-point touch. Their 99-93 loss on Tuesday night at the hands of the Phoenix Mercury wasn’t the result they wanted, as Rebecca Allen and Diana Taurasi shot down their eight-game winning streak, but the takeaways paint a much more promising picture for the Commissioner’s Cup finalists.
Stewart, the reigning WNBA MVP, has endured a horrid three-point shooting start to the season, connecting on only 17.5% of her attempts heading into the game. She made all four of her threes against the Mercury.
“I was just continuing to be confident, be aggressive,” Stewart said. “Little things, like keeping the ball tight and getting my legs underneath me, but I know I'm a great shooter. The shots that didn't fall earlier, they're gonna.”
Overall, it was a shooting clinic unlike any the WNBA had ever seen before. The 33 combined made threes between the Liberty and Mercury set a league record, and the 18 from New York tied their all-time franchise mark.
Allen, who played seven seasons for the Liberty, made five of them for Phoenix. No other player had more than four, while 12 total players made a three.
The Liberty’s 18-42 performance from three (42.1%) brought them up to 34.5% on the season, moving them from eighth in the league all the way to second, literally overnight.
While the Liberty hope Stewart’s shooting can stay consistent from here, Sabrina Ionescu’s continues to be erratic. She shot 4-14 from three on Tuesday and 6-20 overall but flirted with a triple-double (19 points, 8 assists, 7 rebounds).
Ionescu made three of her four threes in the first quarter before the Mercury tightened their defense on her and eventually the team. It came to a head in the fourth quarter when Phoenix out-scored New York 30-17, limiting the Liberty from beyond the arc and in transition.
“I believe that was their kind of adjustment going into the second half, was just fighting over and contesting a lot of those shots, continuing to kind of build a wall behind the ball and make things difficult,” Ionescu said. “And obviously with them scoring, we weren't running out in transition as much as we were in the first half.”
Head coach Sandy Brondello saw how the Mercury were able to disrupt Ionescu, particularly in the fourth when she missed all five of her field goal attempts.
“They put more pressure on us, obviously in [Natasha] Cloud and [Allen] on Sabrina too,” Brondello said. “That’s a lot of length. She’s a great defender. We still missed some open ones, but I thought we just kind of rushed it a little bit.”
It’s a contrast to the first half, when the Liberty sent the Mercury scrambling on defense, not only leading to open threes but allowing their best shooters to take their time.
“Credit to them that I think they shot 66% in the fourth and we had 29 [percent],” Brondello added. “We’re a way better-scoring team than that.”
The Liberty Lost Momentum on Critical Calls
It seems like most WNBA games this season have had their share of questionable calls, and while they went against both teams on Tuesday, there were two that seemed to kill momentum for the Liberty.
The first came when Taurasi was whistled for a foul that would have sent Leonie Fiebich to the line in the third quarter. The Mercury challenged the call and it was ultimately overturned, resulting in a jump ball the Phoenix won.
Replay showed that there was contact, but whether it impeded Fiebich’s movement is subjective. Nevertheless, it took probable points off the board for New York.
“We'll fight and we'll claw on our way back in,” Brondello said. “We did it, and then calls go against us and sometimes that’s basketball. It’s unfortunate.”
Another wiped away a three from Kayla Thornton when the officials declared she kicked her leg out to draw a foul, though replay did not show that to be the case. Brondello had hoped to challenge that call, but she had already used and lost hers.
“That could be a four-point play for us and it could have changed the momentum of the game, you never know. It’s a what if now, isn’t it?” Brondello said, adding that the officials never clarified how they arrived at the call.
“Really no explanation at all,” she said.
From here, the Liberty return home for two games against the Los Angeles Sparks, a 4-11 team whose rough season got even worse on Tuesday when rookie Cameron Brink left their game with an apparent knee injury. No word yet on the severity of the injury.
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