Sports
Liberty validate they are legit WNBA title contender with third win over Aces – New York Post
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Courtney Vandersloot’s layup hadn’t even bounced through the net when Breanna Stewart turned around.
The emotions, the signs that everything was finally clicking for the Liberty, had started to emerge.
Stewart had weaved around a Las Vegas defender with a behind-the-back dribble and then shifted the ball into her left hand, threading a pass to her Liberty teammate and watching the entire third-quarter sequence sync together.
Vandersloot’s layup, which gave the Liberty a 16-point lead, only added to the eventual celebration in front of a sellout crowd of 11,615 at Barclays Center.
Stewart and the Liberty (28-7) struggled to generate any rhythm offensively in the game’s early moments, but by outscoring the Aces (30-6) — the WNBA’s top team — by nine in the second quarter, they gradually built a commanding lead that ended in a 94-85 victory.
It marked the Liberty’s fourth consecutive win, and in their fourth meeting against the WNBA’s defending champs this month, it closed the gap between the teams to 1 ¹/₂ games.
“We just hadn’t built that chemistry yet [when the Aces series started in June], and it’s gonna take time,” Stewart said. “I think in order for us to be great, you don’t want to rush it, and we’re just continuing to build and trust one another and that’s why we have the confidence and the poise to do what we did today.”
Stewart first sensed that chemistry after the All-Star break, she said.
The Liberty lost a game against Minnesota on July 28, but the snapshot — as well as a three-game road trip through Los Angeles and Minnesota — laid the foundation for their final tests against the Aces.
But Monday, the Liberty needed to adjust with Stewart contained early.
She was limited to two points in the opening quarter, eight in the first half.
Stewart still finished with 20 points, but it was the 25 from Sabrina Ionescu, the 17 and 10 assists from Vandersloot, the other sparks scattered across their lineup, that built their lead.
The Liberty struggled from beyond the 3-point arc to start.
Jackie Young scored eight quick points, and by the time the Liberty called a timeout with 4:35 left in the opening quarter, they already trailed, 15-7.
After the timeout, Stewart dished a short pass to Ionescu for a 3-pointer, and the Liberty kept chipping away at the deficit until with 47 seconds left in the opening quarter, Vandersloot sank a 3 to tie the game at 19.
“We could’ve had a lot of open 3s tonight, and early on, they weren’t falling,” Vandersloot said. “So we just wanted to get into the paint and make things happen that way. … They were going to leave me open, and I knew that going into the game, so I just wanted to be aggressive toward the rim and make plays.”
The Liberty took the lead before the first frame ended, and it kept growing in the second quarter and second half.
Stewart hit two shots near the basket, and Ionescu lofted a 3-pointer from well behind the arc to put the Liberty up by 12 before halftime.
The Aces kept threatening to trim their deficit, but with just over three minutes remaining, Stewart drove along the baseline and flung a one-handed pass to Ionescu for a 3-pointer — extending the Liberty’s advantage to 16.
By that point, the latest step in the Liberty’s continued evolution had become all but finalized.
Everything took time during the first 34 games. Head coach Sandy Brondello kept preaching patience.
The Aces were still the league’s standard, and finally, the Liberty had the potential to match them.
“It was like a miniseries for us in the season,” Ionescu said. “And so it was nice to be able to see how we’ve been able to come out every single game and make those adjustments in real time and continue to get better through these games.”
The Liberty weren’t level with the Aces at the start of the season, Brondello said pregame, but “we’ve earned that now.” They’d already beaten the Aces once. Then, twice.
And if the Liberty needed any more evidence to validate their presence as a WNBA contender, the third win provided just that.
