Breanna Stewart leads Liberty in pivotal Game 3 win over Sun – New York Post

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UNCASVILLE, Conn. — The Liberty knew the run would come at some point. 
Not their run — the 37-point first quarter that helped build a 22-point lead — but rather the Sun’s counter. It had happened before.
A 19-point lead in July crumbled in a loss against the Sky.
A 20-point advantage against the Mercury the next month required 43 points from Breanna Stewart to survive. 
This time, their ability to keep a sizable lead intact, even as Connecticut trimmed it to nine points, moved the Liberty within one win of their first WNBA finals trip in 21 years with a 92-81 victory over the Sun on Friday night at Mohegan Sun Arena in Game 3 of the best-of-five semifinals. 
“I think we’ve learned our lesson, essentially,” Jonquel Jones said of the early-season collapses. “You want to kind of go through those growing pains at the right time, and I feel like our team has kind of done that.” 
If the final three quarters Tuesday provided signs that the Liberty’s stumbling offense might be awakening, then their first quarter Friday night made any lingering doubts seem foolish.
It wasn’t quite like their 44-point first quarter from July, which at time set the WNBA record, but the Liberty’s lead after 10 minutes was enough to take a 2-1 series lead. 
Stewart (25 points) topped 20 in a game for the first time this series, Betnijah Laney scored 20 for the second consecutive game and Jones added a double-double. 
“I think really knowing that that’s it: one game, and we’re putting ourselves into the finals,” Stewart said about gaining the series advantage, “and having that focus and that idea — not looking any further than that. And also just realizing that this one tonight put momentum back on our side.” 
By the time Stewart blocked a shot, sprinted in transition and finished an and-one with 20 seconds remaining in the opening frame, the Liberty led by 21.
They had shot 65.2 percent from the field and hit 4 of 7 3-point attempts. “Felt like us again,” Courtney Vandersloot said. 
The Sun didn’t play Rebecca Allen after she was a late addition to the injury report with a non-COVID illness.
Allen, traded from the Liberty to the Sun to acquire Jones, had scored 18 points in their Game 1 win.
Connecticut’s rotation was deflated, but even by the superteam’s standards, the offensive burst was surprising. 
The Sun finished the regular season with the league’s second-best defensive rating. It was their identity, and they didn’t try to mask it.
But when the Liberty mixed different defensive looks, forced misses and turnovers and pushed in transition, they created open looks that allowed three players to finish the first half with double-digit points. 
Still, they needed to withstand Connecticut’s comeback.
A second-quarter run pulled them with 14 at halftime.
Then, they trimmed the deficit to single-digits.
For those minutes, Alyssa Thomas scored her baskets, Natisha Hiedeman hit her shots, and a pass from Thomas to DeWanna Bonner in transition helped add some fluidity to — and remove some stagnant possessions from — Connecticut’s offense. 
The Liberty tried to adjust by not taking the quickest shot, balancing the open looks in transition with establishing their half-court offense, Jones said.
They managed just 35 points across the middle quarters, but a 22-point deficit became difficult for the Sun to erase entirely.
Bonner and Thomas, their two stars, subbed out for good with over two minutes remaining. 
Game 1 had been all about Connecticut’s defense and how it limited the Liberty to a season-low 63 points.
Game 2 was all about the zone, the in-game pivot that head coach Sandy Brondello admitted pregame she probably should’ve made Sunday.
The series, as any good one does, turned into a chess match, and now the Liberty have the 2022 runner-ups on the brink of elimination and a matchup against the Las Vegas Aces — who advanced to the finals on Friday night — within their reach. 
Stewart joked postgame that she’s not the stat person. She didn’t know, at least off the top of her head, the last time that the Liberty made the finals — 2002 when they were swept by the Sparks.
They’ve never won the WNBA Finals, with the Commissioner’s Cup trophy their lone title. 
But, Stewart said earlier, she’s convinced the Liberty still haven’t pieced everything together yet in the postseason.
Not after winning a series.
Not even after seeing the franchise record for points in a postseason quarter. Not after taking a 2-1 lead inched them closer to something the franchise has never done before. 
“I don’t think we’ve played our best yet,” Stewart said, and that, they hope, could help change their history.

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