The New York Liberty wins a calm victory against the Atlanta Dream, 78-61

Maybe it’s the ball.

Instead of the classic orange and white leather that the WNBA has played with for 27 years, a black and white ball is used in Commissioner’s Cup games.

Photo by Steph Chambers/Getty Images

Perhaps this is what caused so many problems for the Atlanta Dream.

Their offensive struggles in the Cup opener, in which they shot an abysmal 28.4 percent from the field and 18.8 percent from three, were largely attributable to a Connecticut Sun defense that was dominant throughout the season. Fair enough.

However, the situation almost got worse for the Dream on Thursday night, especially against the New York Liberty’s No. 4 ranked defense. On the one hand, they had little hope of scoring on Jonquel Jones down low. The 6’6″ center blocked three shots and altered many more down low, from the kickoff signal…

Taking that 2-0 lead, the Libs set the plan for the rest of the night: convert Atlanta’s misses into transition points. New York scored 17 fast break points on the night, but left even more on the table, constantly bitten by the turnover bug early on, keeping the first half as tight as 38-32 that she was.

“It was just a struggle,” Breanna Stewart said of the first half. “We were trying to pick up the pace, and we got to a point where it was a breakneck pace.”

Still, there would be plenty of failures in Atlanta to run on. Aside from the Dream’s issues in the paint, they continued to throw brick after brick from the outside, finishing the game shooting 14.3% from deep. Rhyne Howard, the team’s leading scorer from the perimeter, couldn’t get going until late in the fourth quarter, finishing with 11 points on 5-of-11 shooting. Her colleague, Allisha Gray, had a little more midrange success en route to a team-high 16 points, but still shot 0 of 6 from deep.

That was nothing compared to Atlanta’s offensive ineptitude, but the Liberty wasn’t exactly rolling either. But unlike Atlanta, Sandy Brondello’s team was able to get its offense out of the mud when not turning it over in transition, as well as attack the offensive glass.

Once again, Jonquel Jones made his presence felt here, en route to a 10/8/2 line that far underestimated his impact…

Elsewhere, reserve Leonie Fiebich entered the game to grab four offensive rebounds alone in the half, in addition to playing excellent defense. Then she brought her offense to the party in the second half, finishing with eight points, nine rebounds and five assists, a stat line rivaled only by Caitlin Clark among all other WNBA rookies.

Fiebich confirmed what we saw after the game, that she feels more and more comfortable with each passing play with her new team, before adding that as a European rookie, ” The players don’t really know my game, so I can be a little sneaky, can make more shots, more threes, so that helps, for sure.

Kayla Thornton, who started her second game of the year for Courtney Vandersloot (personal reasons), did Kayla Thornton things like record two steals and four fouls, but shot just 2 of 9, while Jones and Sabrina Ionescu each finished with ten points. . So, it was up to Betnijah Laney-Hamilton and Breanna Stewart to lead the Libs to the finish line in the second half, and that was that.

Stewie finished with 25/10/5 on 8 of 17 and 9 of 9 from the stripe, his second straight game with 25 or more. And as in her last match in Chicago, the double MVP operated everywhere, making Atlanta regret these possessions when the help did not arrive quickly enough…

For Laney-Hamilton, it was a prototypical performance for her outside of four turnovers; she took advantage of transition opportunities and off-kicks, but also on a few occasions where she was able to attack 1v1 clashes.

The two forwards were New York’s top two scorers in a second half where the defense didn’t let up either, and that’s the finish Stewart credited in his postgame comments.

“I think it continues to show our growth, obviously. The way we executed down the stretch, really putting (Atlanta) in position to make a tough shot…knowing how important the fourth quarter is. Obviously everyone is important, but we want to finish the game and finish it strong, and those points count for the Commissioners Cup.

Atlanta head coach Tanisha Wright had a slightly different take on the night, saying, “I thought our effort was really poor. We were not a professional team today. We didn’t come to do our job today.

Indeed, the Libs won every quarter Thursday night, for the first time this season, but outscored Atlanta by ten in the final quarter to increase their point differential in the Cup standings and set up a massive showdown in Connecticut next weekend.

During the regular season as a whole and the Cup, the Liberty simply took care of business in 2024. Despite the second-best record and point differential in the league, New York was not always dominant, nor played the sexiest basketball.

But they did what was necessary.

Following

Photo by Adam Hagy/NBAE via Getty Images

And now for the most difficult task yet. The Connecticut Sun have only played two Cup games compared to the Liberty’s three, but considering they are virtually undefeated this season so far, this is as important an early regular season game as possible.

Nyara Sabally (back) Courtney Vandersloot would both be a welcome return to the lineup, but with such a quick turnaround, their status is very uncertain.

The alert is scheduled for 1 p.m. ET Saturday afternoon, from Uncasville, CT.