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The New York Liberty are officially off to their best start in franchise history at 8-0, and to get there, they’ve had to win in a variety of ways.
From historic blowouts to nail-biting wins, New York has found a way. On Thursday, it had to hang on, withstanding a late Washington Mystics comeback as the offense stalled. The 86-78 win wasn’t pretty, but it’s exactly what the team was built to do.
This time, it started with Breanna Stewart. The former MVP notched her first double-double of the season with 26 points and 11 rebounds. She was also 10-13 from the line and is averaging 7.7 free throw attempts per game — a career high.
“I think that I'm just continuing to be aggressive and really able to change game-by-game based on personnel,” she said. “But knowing that anytime the guards are able to set a smash screen, I'll get downhill. My person is gonna be late and just getting into the paint and being aggressive.”
The emphasis Stewart has placed on getting into the paint has paid dividends beyond her free throw shooting, which is an already excellent 82 percent. That ability to get downhill, as she put it, has resulted in a career-best 54 percent field goal percentage, including a 67 percent mark from two-point range.
Though Stewart isn’t a bad three-point shooter by any stretch, she had an uncharacteristically poor year from beyond the arc in 2024 (30 percent) and is off to an even worse start to 2025 (16 percent). But it hasn’t mattered because she’s taking fewer threes than she has at any point in her career.
It's all resulted in four games of at least 24 points and three in which she's made at least eight free throws. The decision-making is there too, as she's been able to find teammates when her own shot isn't there on the drive. Her 3.9 assists per game are another career high while her 1.6 turnovers are comfortably below her career average.
Liberty stars continue to spread the wealth
It isn’t only about Stewart. Sabrina Ionescu’s 13 points came on a rough 3-17 shooting performance, but she also had a team-high seven assists while Natasha Cloud had five more.
New York assisted on 58 percent of its field goals, far below its season average of 75 percent. The Liberty are at their best when the ball is moving side-to-side and for the most part, Cloud and Ionescu have orchestrated the offense flawlessly.
Stewart, however, took some responsibility for the sub-par offensive performance against the Mystics.
“Between Sab and I, we just need to do a better job of putting everybody in the right position to succeed because when we move the ball well, that's when we're at our best,” she said. “It got a little choppy there.”
That was especially true in the fourth quarter, when Washington outscored the Liberty 21-13, putting game pressure on a New York team that led by 15 at the half. New York made three field goals in the quarter and had no assists.
In a game where the Liberty lost Jonquel Jones early to an ankle injury and Nyara Sabally is still injured, they had to use lineup combinations they rarely practice with.
The bench stepped up, led by Kennedy Burke shooting 4-4 from three and Rebekah Gardner scoring nine more. As Ionescu said, the adversity was a learning experience.
“[We’ve] had some great wins and also had wins where we had to grind it out, and I'd say every single game we've learned a lot as a group,” she said. “That next man up mentality is understanding we have belief in every single player on this team, and when your number is called, you got to be ready to go out and help us win a game.”
Liberty coach Sandy Brondello said before the game that she hopes Sabally can return Tuesday when the Liberty take the court at home against the Chicago Sky. She was not able to say whether Jones’ ankle would keep her off the court beyond Thursday.
