New York Liberty bounces back with 81-75 win over Atlanta Dream

A week before Sunday, the New York Liberty came to Atlanta and crushed the Dream, making short work of Tanisha Wright’s team in preparation for the Commissioner’s Cup final two days later. Rookie Marquesha Davis doubled her career points total in that final, and then some.

Over the next week, the New York Liberty lost a gruelling Cup final, which saw Betnijah Laney-Hamilton return from a knee injury that cost her three games, and Courtney Vandersloot return to action after missing nine games due to the death of her mother.

The five days since the Cup final have given the Liberals a real chance to breathe after a 15-3 start and a Cup loss, a month and a half marked by 19 games, injuries, rashes, big minutes for key players and little time to rest.

The Dream, meanwhile, fell to a worse-than-looks 6-9 after that loss to New York, but continued their mini-break with a joyous win over the second-place Connecticut Sun.

So the first half of Sunday’s game followed a predictable pattern. The Liberty started one of their worst first quarters of the season; no one could make a shot, and then the ball movement slowed down. Every starter was not just trying to score, but trying to get the team going again; not selfish offense, but pointless offense.

The Dream took advantage, winning the period 24-13. Reserve guard Maya Caldwell scored eight quick points and Liberty legend Tina Charles started her night with a 16-point, 12-rebound performance. It was the kind of inside-outside attack you’ve come to expect from the Libs, the kind we’ve seen from Sabrina Ionescu and Jonquel Jones all season, especially during several dominant first quarters.

But the W’s most effective pick-and-roll duo wasn’t very productive Sunday. As in the Cup final, Jones was often relegated to the background of New York’s attack, scoring just five points and four rebounds.

Head coach Sandy Brondello said, “JJ was in a bit of a bad situation, so I’ll give him a little bit of grace in that regard… Sometimes players say, ‘Okay, things aren’t going well , for me, I’m not doing well. score,” but there’s more to it than just scoring. And I think JJ helped us be successful by setting screens and rolling…playing the right way. It’s always critical. It’s not about how many shots they take for me.

Ionescu hasn’t played up to his level either, but that’s not for lack of trying. She played 32 minutes, hitting 3 of 17 shots to score ten points and four assists. It was one of those nights for the All-Star guard, who scored a few three-pointers, and got the better of Dream defenders in a few one-on-one faceoffs.

So the first half was all about damage control for the Libs, minimizing the pain of their slow start. And that’s exactly what they did with their defense. Seven turnovers for the Dream led to ten points for Liberty in the first half, as Breanna Stewart, Laney-Hamilton and Vandersloot brought New York within five at halftime…

Those three continued their momentum after the break, going on a 25-4 run that spanned the second and third quarters.

Sloot played 21 of the first 30 minutes before leaving in the fourth quarter — more on that later — and had a pretty standard performance: seven points, seven assists, no turnovers. That earned him at least one admirer, in the form of his backcourt partner, Ionescu: “It’s nice to see her back on the court, especially since she’s getting back on her feet and we’re still finding ways to use her like we’ve been doing before … it’s been so much fun to see her kind of come back and not really lose her rhythm.”

Breanna Stewart finished as the team’s leading scorer at 22/12/3/2/1, playing an additional 37 minutes but needing almost all of those minutes to lead New York to the victory. She also became the fastest player in W history to reach 5,000 points, a feat she and her head coach celebrated after the match.

Atlanta, led by Allisha Gray with 24 points including 15 after the break, did not manage to get out of it. New York’s wingers needed to rise to the occasion in the fourth quarter, and that’s exactly what they did. No, not Kayla Thornton, who only played ten minutes (her fewest minutes since May 25), but Laney-Hamilton and Leonie Fiebich closed out the Dream with pressure on the ball on one side and shots to three points on the other.

Laney-Hamilton shot 4 of 6 from three-point range to finish second in New York scoring with 18 points, helped by the return of Vandersloot. The Point God not only gave Laney-Hamilton the ball directly, but Sloot’s presence lightened Laney-Hamilton’s load on offense, pushing her to shift from a ball-handler to a finisher, where she excels.

The same goes for Fiebich, who shot 5 of 9 and terrorized the Dream with his length and activity on defense, leading to three steals…

As usual, Fiebich credited her teammates for her performance: “It helps to have support behind you, because if you go out there and you don’t get the ball, you’re done. It just helps to have my teammates behind me but also, I felt like there was doubt in their eyes when they were trying to pass, so that’s always something as a defender, you go for it. If you see that in their eyes, you just fly and hope you get the ball.”

The Liberty tried to steal the ball a lot Sunday afternoon, and they got it a lot. Atlanta shot more efficiently from two, from three, from the line, but it didn’t matter, not with an 18-7 turnover disparity. As such, it wasn’t a great win for New York, but they were still the better team. Even Jones and Ionescu stepped up to score game-sealing 3-pointers in the fourth quarter…

“We had to dig deep, we had to get back to playing as hard as we could and playing the right way,” Brondello said of the victory. “We didn’t make a lot of shots in that first half – we made a few – but we just had to keep moving the ball and make the high percentage ones, and they started to go down when we needed it.”

The Dream really helped the Liberty over the past week. New York added two victories to its win column, although Tina Charles provided a bit of a show for the many fans she still has in New York, while the Dream still managed to beat Connecticut. As a result, the Libs are now 16-3 in the regular season and a game and a half ahead of Connecticut for the best record in the league.

Losing in the Commissioners’ Cup final is a wound that doesn’t go away easily, but New York could certainly do a worse job if it tried.

Final score: New York Liberty 81, Atlanta Dream 75

Following

Wendell Cruz-USA TODAY Sports

Already a revenge?

The New York Liberty will be looking to avenge the Minnesota Lynx for their Cup Final loss in their next game, and yes, that home game will actually be at the Barclays Center. Tip-off is set for Tuesday at 7 p.m. ET.