The Liberty tipped off a fateful stretch with a dominant win over one of their competitors for the final WNBA playoff spots.
BROOKLYN-With the New York Liberty fighting for their playoff lives, Sabrina Ionescu was more than happy to lend a helping hand to the cause.
The Liberty’s franchise face dished out a team record 16 assists on Sunday afternoon at Barclays Center, breaking a record that Teresa Weatherspoon first set in 1998. Though she fell two helpers short of the WNBA record, Ionescu’s efforts were more than enough to help pace an 89-69 victory over the Phoenix Mercury. It was the Liberty’s first of eight games against opponents who are likewise fighting for the WNBA’s final playoff spots.
All five Liberty (11-18) starters reached double figures in scoring. Natasha Howard led the way with 23 points (to go with 12 rebounds, creating her fourth consecutive double-double) while Rebecca Allen and Crystal Dangerfield each had 17. Ionescu and Stef Dolson rounded out the opening five’s success with matching 10-point showings.
“We start (this stretch) on a really good note, and I think it’s also to win by that kind of margin is a really good thing for us too rather than having to fight back,” Allen told Baseline. “For us to have that experience like that is a really good thing for us.”
“This game was very important, and we knew that that we needed this win to least get (back) to the point of making the playoffs,” Howard said. “Today was the was the start right here. Now we only have seven games left and we’re just going to keep building and keep building.”
Eight teams reach the WNBA playoffs and the first five spots have been clinched. The current 6th and 11th seeds are separated by a mere two games as five teams will jostle it out for the last three slots.
Sophie Cunningham paced Phoenix with 21 points in defeat while Skylar Diggins-Smith had a 13-point, 11-assist double-double. The two playoff chasers are scheduled to do battle in Phoenix one last time on Saturday night.
New York’s Best Passer?
Much has been made about New York passers’ inability to make scoring throws on Sundays over the years, but Ionescu bucked the trend and then some, shattering the record shared by Weatherspoon (who earned 13 assists in a July 1998 win over Los Angeles and tied her own mark in May 2000) and Cappie Pondexter (who tied it in June 2012). With that tally, Ionescu becomes just the third player in WNBA history to earn at least 16 assists in a regular season game, joining Courtney Vandersloot (the record holder at 18 since August 2020) and Ticha Penicheiro, who each did it twice.
Her facilitating abilities allowed the Liberty to keep a strong offensive pace that fueled several key runs in a game the Liberty never trailed despite several Phoenix ties.
“She’s a fantastic passer. It really is good, just for a such a young player, just to have a court vision (that) reminds me of Diana Taurasi really,” Sandy Brondello said when queried about Ionescu’s ability to make an impact on a tough shooting night. “We want her to be aggressive but we still want her creating for others, too. She gets a lot of attention, so that’s really what’s happening her assists are going to be a little higher now. She won’t be happy the way she shot the ball, but that’s just her competitive nature. I thought, for the most part, they were really good shots. So I thought she played a really balanced game tonight.”
For example, Ionescu’s final three of seven first half helpers turned Phoenix’s erasure of the Liberty’s early lead into a 35-27 halftime advantage, concluding the frame on 12-4 spurt capped off by a Dolson triple with 35 seconds remaining. She later helped expand the newer, lasting lead with four more assists during a 17-7 run in the third that built up an 18-point lead. Phoenix (13-17) shrank the affair to seven points in the late stages of the third, but one final spree, a 10-3 run to open the final stanza, permanently placed momentum in the Liberty’s corner, with an Ionescu triple more or less sealing the deal before things got chippy to the tune of two flagrant fouls (Ionescu and Cunningham charged within 1:50 of game time) and a technical foul to Phoenix head coach Vanessa Nygaard.
Ionescu perhaps rued a 3-of-14 shooting effort as part of her perfectionist nature but her teammates acknowledged that her aerial efforts were the deciding factor in their crucial victory.
“It makes our job a lot easier. Our offense is a lot smoother and we score,” Dangerfield said of Ionescu’s prowess when at the top of her game. “Our entire starting five was in double figures. I don’t know the last time we’ve had that for a team. It’s important that we move the ball because our offense is really good.”
“’I’m proud that she got 16 assists from everyone that she gets the ball up to,” Howard, the recipient of several Ionescu helpers via the pick-and-roll, added. “What she does adds a lot. We know that every game that we play, they’re going to try and trap Sabrina, do whatever they can to get the ball out of her hand. But our movement without the ball, (giving) her an open lane to pass it to, it’s good.”
Highway to The Dangerfield
Dangerfield took the Mercury back to school on Sunday to the tune of a season-best 17-point showing (on 7-of-12 from the field) and a strong defensive performance alongside Allen. When she wasn’t forcing turnovers, Dangerfield continued to take care of the ball: since the start of June, Dangerfield has posted one or no turnovers in all but two games, even with an expanded role in the starting lineup.
The Allen/Dangerfield collaboration stymied Phoenix’s sharpshooters all night: though Cunningham eventually recovered to shoot 7-of-16 from the field, she was a mere 2-of-8 in the first half. Phoenix’s renowned champions, Diggins-Smith and Diana Taurasi, were held to a combined 8-of-30 throughout the game. New York also forced eight first half turnovers to set the early tone, having come in averaging a WNBA-worst 12.5 takeaways.
Dangerfield, the 2020 WNBA Rookie of the Year, came to the Liberty as a bit of a castaway from meandering Minnesota but has been praised by coaches and teammates since her in-season arrival for her abilities to complement Ionescu as another point guard as well as her defensive duties.
“I love having Crystal on the court,” Allen said. “The way that she’s able to control the tempo, push the pace, as well but keeps it even. Tonight, she had a great offensive game, but it’s just the defense as well. You know you’re going to have someone that’s just going to be hassling the person she’s on. She’s a great defender, super quick, she’s a talker as well, so there’s a trust thing. I feel like we’ve got good chemistry between switching.”
Dangerfield’s defensive compatriot Allen, fresh off her own brand of New York history (becoming the fifth to earn 100 blocks and steals in seafoam), got back in a groove in a year derailed by injuries and international commitments, uniting her trademark defense with a strong scoring efforts: Sunday marked her first double-figure showing since June 7.
“It was good to see Bec Allen get back to being Bec Allen,” Brondello said. “She’s had a really tough season and we know she’s a critical piece for us, but I thought defensively she did a good, great, job on Diana. Defense has been there but tonight it was good to see the ball going in.”
It’s a Ring Thing
The Liberty had to be on their Sunday-best behavior, as several special guests occupied the seats of Barclays Center, namely members of the team’s Ring of Honor that appears on game day.
The newest inductee, Crystal Robinson, was on the Phoenix bench as an assistant coach. Irony reigned when it turned out that Weatherspoon, now an assistant coach with the NBA’s New Orleans Pelicans, was on hand to see her record fall in person. She was seated courtside several chairs away from fellow original New Yorker Sue Wicks, a Long Island native that has been a staple in Barclays most prominent viewing areas.
New York’s modern representatives were proud to put on a show in front of their predecessors.
“Their message to us was to keep it going,” Dangerfield, who ironically shares Robinson’s first name and former Liberty numeral of 3, said. “The fight and the passion that they played with and watching it, it gave me chills … Wearing No. 3, you want to pay homage to them. They built what we’re trying to continue here.”
“It feels good to get that win in front of the other players that that played here, that also did a lot of things for this organization,” Howard said. “They played, then handed it over to the next generation like us and feels good to get that win for them and also for us.”
Also capable of putting on a show was Brondello, who previously spent eight seasons (2014-21) at the helm of the Mercury, a stretch that included the franchise’s most recent championship in her debut year and another WNBA Finals appearance last season. The opening leg of that latter postseason run was a narrow, thrilling first round victory over the Liberty in Phoenix.
Though the Liberty avenged their previous loss in Phoenix, Brondello opted to focus on the broader picture rather than taking things personally.
“People have said, ‘oh that must have felt like a great win’. For me, it’s just another opponent,” Brondello said of besting her former employers. “I had special memories. I love those players. But now I’m the coach of the New York Liberty. It’s nice to beat your old team. But I’m not like ‘that’s the only game I want to win all season’. I’m just happy that we played well against a really good team.”
Brondello did offer tongue-in-cheek flattery at the end of her remarks, as several players expressed a desire to win for her.
“It’s nice that they say that,” Brondello said before jokingly adding “That means they like me a little bit, I suppose.”
Up Next
The Liberty’s push through the final stages of the season continues on Tuesday night, when the Liberty host the Los Angeles Sparks (7 p.m. ET, YES App/CBS Sports Network). It’ll be the first of consecutive contests with against the west coast visitors, who enters this week as the eighth and final playoff seed. The Sparks (12-17) triumphed in the lone meeting to date between the two sides this season, an 84-74 decision at Crypto.com Arena on July 3.
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