For a moment, it appeared that the New York Liberty might be the next WNBA team that boasted a great roster on paper, but with a roster that didn’t meaningfully translate to on-court success. The Liberty began the season with a 3-4 record, dropping two of their first three games against the Portland Fire, the league’s new expansion team.
The New York Liberty have completely bounced back
The Liberty began the season 3-4 and appeared to be stumbling. They’ve since turned it around.
Noa Dalzell is a senior writer covering the WNBA and all of women’s basketball for Breakaway, SB Nation’s women’s sports vertical, as well as the Celtics for CelticsBlog.
While the roster wasn’t fully available — Sabrina Ionescu, Satou Sabally, and Leonie Fiebich all missed significant time — for a moment, the slew of offseason moves that initially appeared to catapult the Liberty into title favorites resulted in lackluster play.
But things have since dramatically changed. New York hasn’t lost a game since May 25th, rattling off seven straight wins. Some of those victories have come against bottom-feeders — they beat the Phoenix Mercury twice and Connecticut Sun once — but on Thursday, they put together perhaps their most impressive win of the season, a 14-point beatdown of the Atlanta Dream, who were 8-3 entering the game.
In that one, Breanna Stewart, who has been New York’s most consistent and available player, led the way with 19 points and 11 rebounds. Satou Sabally (19 points), Marine Johannes (17 points), Pauline Austier (16 points), and Jonquel Jones (16 points) were all major contributors.
Three days later, the Liberty put together a 22-point beatdown of the Washington Mystics, and Stewart recorded a career-high 7 blocks.
The Liberty are 7-0 with Fiebich in the lineup; the 26-year-old missed the start of the WNBA season as she finished her season with the Spanish club Valencia Basket. Fiebich is averaging 7 points and 2.9 rebounds per game but has a +8 +/- rating, the fifth-best in the WNBA. The Liberty now have the second-best plus-minus in the league (a +7), trailing only the Lynx (who have outscored opponents by an average of 11.7 points per game).
They’ve yet to face the two best teams in the league — the Minnesota Lynx and the Las Vegas Aces — but they’re right on track among the best teams in the league.
Stewart, who is 31, is having another MVP-caliber season. She’s averaging 19.9 points (the 6th-most in the league) and 9 rebounds (the 7th-most in the league), along with 1.4 steals and 1.4 blocks. Alongside her, Jonquel Jones (13.8 points, 9.2 rebounds) has held down the frontcourt, while Marine Johannes (11.6 points, 3.2 assists) and Pauline Astier (11.3 points, 3.9 assists)
Satou Sabally, the Liberty’s biggest offseason acquisition, has averaged 10.1 points in just 16 minutes off the bench. Johannes (43.4%), Austier (45.8%), and Sabally (41.9%) have all been scorching-hot from three.
All of this success has come with Sabrina Ionescu, a franchise cornerstone, appearing in only two games thus far. Ionescu missed time to begin the season with an ankle/foot injury, and was later sidelined for seven games with back soreness.
Ionescu averaged 15.7 points per game last season, and should return to her All-Star caliber play again at some point this season.
For now, the Liberty already look like one of the best teams in the league, their sloppy start a distant memory.
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