As the New York Liberty’s roster continues to shrink, the connection between Jonquel Jones and Sabrina Ionescu only seems to run deeper.
Betnijah Laney-Hamilton sat out Thursday with a knee injury, making three New York players unavailable against the Los Angeles Sparks. It ultimately didn’t matter as the Liberty won 93-80, bouncing back from a loss in Phoenix earlier in the week.
“The chemistry that these two here have grown this year certainly helps us go to a different level,” head coach Sandy Brondello said after the game, with Jones and Ionescu seated to either side of her.
Their raw numbers tell enough of a story. On Thursday, Ionescu tied the Liberty franchise record for career 30-point games, scoring 31 to go with nine assists. Jones set a career-high in assists for the second game in a row, dishing out eight. She also had 22 points and seven boards.
Making it even more impressive, Ionescu has now assisted on 46 made field goals from Jones this year. The rest of the team has combined for 39 assists on her makes.
“You better buy me lunch,” Ionescu joked to her teammate.
“I think she understands just how much I believe in her through the good and the bad,” Ionescu continued. “I’ve had to figure out ways to better my passing in trying to get her open, figure out where she thrives. But at the end of the day, I want to see her succeed just as much as she does.”
Jones is succeeding in ways this year that she hasn’t before. She’s shooting 43% from three, which, while not a career-best, comes on more attempts than she has ever taken on a per-game basis. Her overall field goal percentage is also a career-best (58.9%) and going into Thursday’s game, she had a true shooting percentage of 69.7% — a mark no player in the WNBA has hit since Nneka Ogwumike in 2016, according to Her Hoop Stats’ Dano Mataya.
“It’s pretty fun to watch when she can shoot threes, do it in transition, do a little bit of a euro-step, and pass it to her teammates,” Brondello said. “This is something she’s always had and we're trying to find ways to continue to grow it.”
The Liberty played for Courtney Vandersloot
The Jones-Ionescu connection has arguably been the most important for the Liberty this year. But with the core of this team together now for a second season, there’s a unity that not every team has.
Courtney Vandersloot missed her sixth game in a row on Thursday. Fans got some clarity on her absence before the game when Barclays Center held a moment of silence in honor of Vandersloot’s mother, Jan, who passed away last weekend after a battle with multiple myeloma.
The Liberty, who are normally in the locker room at that point in the pregame, stayed out on the court and lined up in solidarity with their teammate.
“We’re a family and as much as we love basketball and we understand that it's a business and it's our job and everything, it kind of makes you put things into perspective,” Jones said. “There’s a lot of other things going on in life, but ultimately, we want to support her and that's through the organization, it’s through the fans, obviously, and it's us going out there and playing hard to make sure…she feels like she can take however much time she needs to get back.”
Vandersloot approved of the Liberty’s idea to hold a moment for her mother, Breanna Stewart confirmed.
“Sloot’s a part of this family here with the Liberty,” Stewart said. “Having a moment of silence for her family, for her mom, it’s really important and it just continues to show that there's life happening too.”
The Liberty will play a second straight home game against the Sparks on Saturday afternoon at 3 p.m. No word yet on whether Vandersloot will be available, but as Jones said, she will have as much time as she needs.
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