The Liberty have life.
They have their stars to thank.
Bounce-back performances by Breanna Stewart and Sabrina Ionescu and a postseason-best effort by Betjinah Laney-Hamilton led the Liberty to an 80-66 win over the Minnesota Lynx in Game 2 of the WNBA Finals, evening the best-of-five series at 1-1 after losing an all-time stunner in Game 1.
Stewart led the Liberty with 21 points to go with eight rebounds, five assists and seven steals on Sunday afternoon at Barclays Center.
Ionescu set the tone by scoring 12 of her 15 points in the first quarter.
And Laney-Hamilton added 20 points on 8-for-14 shooting, despite a nagging knee injury.
Ionescu scored on the Liberty’s first two possessions, beginning with a transition lay-up off of a Jonquel Jones steal, then sinking a 3-pointer on an assist from Stewart.
The sharp-shooting Ionescu added another 3-pointer about two minutes later – again off of a Stewart assist – and celebrated with a Michael Jordan-esque shoulder shrug as she jogged up the court.
Ionescu started the game 4-for-5 from the field and finished 5-for-9.
It was an efficient effort by Ionescu, who shot just 8-for-26 in Thursday’s Game 1 loss after 31.6% shooting in last year’s Finals loss to the Las Vegas Aces.
Stewart, meanwhile, scored seven points and dished out all five of her assists in Sunday’s first quarter, after which the Liberty led, 31-21.
The fast start was notable for Stewart, who came up short in Game 1 by missing a would-be-game-winning free throw with less than a second remaining in regulation and failed to finish a would-be-game-tying lay-up as time expired in overtime.
Stewart, a two-time champion and Finals MVP with the Seattle Storm, finished Game 1 with 18 points on 6-of-21 shooting.
The Liberty players had expressed confidence in their resiliency after losing Game 1, 95-93, despite leading by 18 points in the first half, 15 points in the fourth quarter and three points with under 10 seconds left in regulation.
A sold-out Game 2 crowd – perhaps a bit nervous following Thursday’s shocker – grew progressively louder with each early basket from the Liberty, who went 13-for-18, including 5-for-9 from deep, in the first quarter.
The Liberty were 16-for-26 from the field midway through the second quarter, demonstrating impressive ball movement to find good looks more consistently than they did in Game 1.
They led by as many as 17 points in the first half, but just like on Thursday, the Lynx closed the gap considerably in the second half.
Back-to-back baskets by Courtney Williams – whose four-point play in the waning seconds of regulation in Game 1 proved pivotal – cut Minnesota’s deficit to 53-47 three minutes into the third quarter.
About three minutes later, back-to-back baskets by Lynx star Napheesa Collier – who delivered the game-winner on Thursday – made it a 55-51 game.
But Collier, the WNBA’s Defensive Player of the Year and the MVP runner-up, got into foul trouble, picking up her fourth foul late in the third quarter, which sent her to the bench.
Stewart, whom Collier defended for much of the afternoon, scored four points in the final 1:24 of the third quarter without Collier on the floor, including with a long jumper that put the Liberty up, 61-53.
The Lynx refused to go away in the fourth quarter, twice cutting the deficit to two points, but Laney-Hamilton drilled a corner 3-pointer off of an assist from Ionescu with 3:21 remaining that proved to be the dagger.
Laney-Hamilton had not scored more than 10 points in a playoff game this year before Sunday’s win, which took place just under three months after the versatile guard underwent surgery to clean up two loose bodies in her right knee.
Before the game, Liberty coach Sandy Brondello acknowledged the knee was still affecting Laney-Hamilton.
Jones, meanwhile, scored 14 points on 6-of-13 shooting and led the Liberty with nine rebounds.
The Lynx have found success against Jones by crowding her with forward Alanna Smith and others. Jones attempted five, three and seven shots in the Liberty’s three head-to-head losses to the Lynx this year coming into the Finals.
Jones led both teams in Game 1 with 24 points on 9-of-14 shooting and with 10 rebounds, though the Liberty went away from the 6-6 center for long stretches in that game, allowing Minnesota to come roaring back.
But the Lynx couldn’t complete Sunday’s comeback bid, and now the series heads to Minnesota, where Game 3 is set to take place on Wednesday night.
