New York Liberty lose stinker to Los Angeles Sparks, 94-88
Photo by Katelyn Mulcahy/Getty Images
The Liberty lose to the worst team in the league, a loss they certainly earned. It’s a long season. The New York Liberty faced an obvious let-down spot on Wednesday night in Los Angeles, playing a young, bad Sparks team they’d beaten by thirty-five points two weeks ago, in the middle of their second West Coast road trip in less than two weeks. Not the last game of it, where teams make one last strong push before getting home to experience, in the Liberty’s case, nearly a week between games.
The Los Angeles game was also sandwiched between a pair of homecomings for New York’s leaders: Sandy Brondello to Phoenix, where the Liberty won on Monday, and Breanna Stewart to Seattle, where they’ll play Friday.
Furthermore, the Liberty rightfully celebrated Stewie’s 30th birthday after their victory over Phoenix. It was, after all, past midnight on the East Coast, and the Liberty had just won. Also, she’s Breanna Stewart. It seems like they had a good time, judging from a since-deleted video of the team celebrating on the plane.
Sandy Brondello elaborated a tad: “We had some birthday drinks…Stewie did some nice things.”
Breanna Stewart | Instagram
Then, Jonquel Jones was ruled out with a non-COVID illness, the first game she’d miss since joining the sea foam last season.
Kennedy Burke got the spot-start, and even produced the game’s first highlight...
ooh Kennedy Burke skip through that lane pic.twitter.com/EYM8JicAtA— Lucas Kaplan (@LucasKaplan_) August 29, 2024
...but the Liberty let down. They trailed 26-14 after a first quarter full of turnovers and Rickea Jackson buckets, who scored 15 of her 19 points in the first half.
The tone of the game was set. Suddenly, the immense disparity between New York’s 26-5 record and L.A.’s 6-24 mark was meaningless. The game would be a dogfight.
Luckily, Nyara Sabally and Breanna Stewart brought some dawg to the fight. Sabally replaced Burke quickly, and played so well that she started the second half, eventually setting a career-high with 14 points. She grabbed eight boards and blocked two shots as well, readily emerging as the brightest spot for a team not nearly at their best.
“Big shoes to fill,” said Sabally of her reaction to Jones’ absence. “I tried my best, just being persistent and knowing that I just have to do the little things, whether it’s on defense screen and roll. And luckily, I made my layups today, so that was good.”
While Stewie was the other bright spot in the first game of her 30’s, her performance was what we’ve come to expect from her based on her 20’s. Just listing her monstrous 32 points undersells her two-way dominance; not only did she hit shots and take over in isolation for stretches, but she consistently made timely plays on the other end, including a steal that led to New York re-tying the game early in the third quarter...
stop bringing Stewie into the action with a ball-screen she will take your soul pic.twitter.com/NPje3ItcOV— Lucas Kaplan (@LucasKaplan_) August 29, 2024
On another night, with other circumstances, the visitors may have rolled from there. But not on Wednesday. The Sparks scored the final five points in the third, aided by a brutal Liberty turnover — one of a whopping 20 — with the shot-clock turned off.
Said Stewart: “I think we can come out a little bit more aggressive, but also kind of smarter. We’re just trying to make the home-run play or look to score on the first side, putting ourselves in a bad position. I think that it’s on the starters, on myself to make sure that we’re ready to come out and know where the ball is going to go. So we kind of just need to grow up in that aspect.”
Just as Rickea Jackson dominated the early stages, Rae Burrell came off the Sparks’ bench in the second half to score 18 points on a pristine 7-of-8 shooting, in addition to making a bevy of hustle plays on the margins. Dearica Hamby, Los Angeles’ unquestioned leader, was solid throughout, evenly distributing most of her team-high 21 points.
New York would need to play a great fourth quarter, running on a little more than fumes. They did not, allowing key offensive rebounds to L.A., who, with an uncommon swagger, hit some tough shots as well.
Ultimately, Stewie and Sabally didn’t receive the scoring help they needed until it was garbage time, which lasted an eternity (and juiced the final score). It looked as if Sabrina Ionescu was finally going to get off the schneid from deep after she made a couple big ones early in the fourth, but it turned out to be a mirage: 3-of-14 from deep, 7-of-21 in total, five turnovers.
Courtney Vandersloot posted a season-high 13 assists, but took just two shots. So did Leonie Fiebich, whose unselfishness is a double-edged sword when her teammates don’t have it. Kayla Thornton made her only two shots as well, but the Liberty’s turnover-fest and subsequent lack of offensive flow meant the ball rarely found its way to her in the corners and wings she normally fires from. Betnijah Laney-Hamilton played 20 minutes off the bench in her second game back and shot 1-of-5, both a victim of and a contributor to New York’s uncharacteristic sloppiness.
Stewie is great, Nyara is producing whenever healthy and in rhythm, but this was a game to forget. Forgivable? Yeah, they’re 26-6. Annoying? Hell yeah. They came back in the second half, only to still lose.
But that’s how these games go. Give a bad team an inch, and they'll take a mile.
Final Score: Los Angeles Sparks 94, New York Liberty 88
Next Up
Photo by Mollie Handkins/NBAE via Getty Images
To finish off this six-games-in-11-days stretch and this West Coast roadie, Breanna Stewart leads the Libs against her former team, the Seattle Storm. Tip-off is scheduled for 10:00 p.m. ET, Friday night.
Boxscore: Los Angeles Sparks 94, New York Liberty 88 - WNBA
Game Highlights; Los Angeles Sparks 94, New York Liberty 88 (Video) - WNBA
Last-place Sparks snap 7-game losing streak with 94-88 win over WNBA-leading Liberty - AP
New York Liberty’s chemistry on and off the court has helped put them at top of the WNBA standings - Doug Feinberg - AP
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