A day after Minnesota Lynx star Napheesa Collier returned from a seven-game absence due to an ankle problem, it's New York Liberty forward Breanna Stewart's turn for her comeback. Stewart has sat out the past 13 New York games because of a bone bruise in her right knee, but said that she will be back on the court this Monday evening, when the Liberty play host to the Connecticut Sun at Barclays Center in Brooklyn.
“Yeah, I'm going tonight,” Stewart said, per Myles Ehrlich of Winsidr. “I just want to be back with my team, and I'll try and help make things a little bit easier on all fronts, and know that this is important for our playoff push. I took the time I needed, and was on the training staff for the entire four weeks, but happy to be back.”
Stewart's return is timely, as the Liberty could use some of her help to get themselves out of a rut. New York is on a two-game losing skid, having suffered an upset loss at the hands of Angel Reese and the Chicago Sky at home last Thursday and to the Atlanta Dream on the road on Saturday.
Stewart suffered the injury just three minutes into a game against the Los Angeles Sparks at home on July 26. Since then, the Liberty have struggled to stay consistent.
They were 17-7 when Stewart started to miss games due to the aforementioned injury, but eight losses later, New York has dropped to 22-15. They are also 1-4 in their last five outings. While New York isn't in serious danger of missing the 2025 WNBA playoffs, its situation isn't encouraging either. The Liberty are fifth in the WNBA standings entering Monday, which means if the playoffs started today, they wouldn't have homecourt advantage in the first round of the postseason.
So far in the 2025 season, the two-time WNBA Most Valuable Player and seven-time WNBA All-Star is averaging 18.3 points, 6.5 rebounds and 3.9 assists while shooting 46.9 percent from the floor across 24 games.
In the 13 games that Breanna Stewart missed, the Liberty posted just a 103.0 offensive rating and 106.1 defensive rating, which are both just ninth in the league over the same stretch.
