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If it wasn’t already clear that the New York Liberty are having as fun as anyone in the WNBA, Breanna Stewart left no room for doubt in New York’s 98-88 win over the Los Angeles Sparks on Saturday afternoon.
Her teammates, coaches, and another sellout crowd at Barclays Center were treated to a show, punctuated by an emphatic chasedown block in the third quarter.
With the Liberty leading by 20, the Sparks’ Stephanie Talbot came down with a rebound and quickly got out on the break. She found Dearica Hamby in a 2-on-1, who quickly passed it back to Talbot. Then, out of nowhere, Stewart came in to swat the ball out of bounds, sending Barclays Center into an uproar.
HUGEEE REJECTION FROM STEW YORK ❌@breannastewart reaches her new career-high of 6 blocks against the Sparks 🔥 pic.twitter.com/Jzh6EtnJ1w
— New York Liberty (@nyliberty) June 22, 2024
Stewart’s teammates were left in awe.
“I know she can cover a lot of ground really quickly, but it was a really good block,” Jonquel Jones said. “Everybody was just in awe of her being able to get there, and then just her timing. Her timing with all her blocks is amazing.”
As vicious as that block was, it’s something the Liberty players have become used to. As Sabrina Ionescu humorously put it, she sees Stewart do exactly that when the cameras are off.
“That’s why I don’t like scoring on her in practice because she’s able to do that,” Ionescu said. “It’s just what she does and her presence on both sides of the floor and hustle plays, to be honest.”
Overall, Stewart had an other-worldly game in her team-high 37 minutes. She matched her season high with 33 points to go with seven assists, six blocks, and three steals. In the first half, she became the first player in WNBA history to record at least 20 points, five assists, and five blocks in a single half.
After the game, Stewart did her best to break down the block from her perspective.
“[It was] just not giving up on the play,” she said. “Whatever happened on the offensive end, knowing we want to make every basket difficult for them.”
The play also required Stewart to read what was happening. When Hamby caught the ball, Ivana Dojkić was right on here. A quick pass back to Talbot would have left the Liberty guard no time to get over and prevent what would have been an uncontested layup.
“Just the timing,” Stewart said. “I could see Hamby was about to pass it back to Steph.”
Even with the Liberty already comfortably ahead, the block made a difference. If nothing else, it kept the fans engaged and the players fired up.
After the block, Stewart went crashing into the basket stanchion. Dojkić immediately came over and as soon as it was clear that Stewart was unharmed, play continued. Only, the crowd was still going crazy and the Sparks were out of sorts.
“The way that the fans reacted, I mean, it’s great to have those type of blocks at home,” Stewart said. “And then directly following that, we got a five-second violation.”
Kayla Thornton had another career game for the Liberty
Stewart wasn't the only player who gave the Liberty energy on Saturday. For the second time this season, Kayla Thornton scored 20-points, a career best. For the first time ever, she did it on six made threes.
“She plays her role perfectly and some nights, she's going to get a lot more threes than other nights. And this is one of the nights,” Liberty coach Sandy Brondello said of Thornton. “Every time it goes up I know it's going in because I see it every single day in practice and she's always going to give us great efforts, so, well done, KT.”
Playing alongside Thornton for two seasons now, Stewart has also been able to see Thornton’s devotion to her craft, agreeing with Brondello that Thornton puts in the time honing her shot.
“When she shoots it, she’s staying in it,” Stewart added. “She’s not over-cutting and things like that, and understanding like, yeah, she's a shooter…she knows when to knock it down and when to continue to move it.”
Rather than breaking down the mechanics behind her 6-7 three-point outburst, Thornton deferred to her teammates, even in a game where she was really needed. The veteran out of UTEP was thrust into the starting lineup again with Courtney Vandersloot working her way back into game condition and Betnijah Laney-Hamilton nursing a knee injury.
It was the third straight game that she has played 20-or-more minutes, and she is 10-15 from three in those games.
“I’m just embracing it,” Thornton said. “It goes to my teammates and my coaches believing in me.”
Thornton added that she hopes she can bring energy and confidence to the team, calling those qualities her “two main things.” The energy will be especially important on Sunday as the Liberty fly to Atlanta to take on the Dream just 22 hours after their game on Saturday ended. Two days after that, they’ll face the Minnesota Lynx in the Commissioner’s Cup final.
If Saturday is any indication, the team has plenty left in the tank.
