The Liberty’s dominant 100-52 win Sunday was a complete staff effort, and it allowed New York to indicate off its harmful depth.
The Liberty’s bench obtained prolonged enjoying time within the lopsided sport.
With that, New York’s reserves managed to outscore the Solar’s starters 35-31.
Isabelle Harrison performed her finest sport in a Liberty uniform, recording 9 factors, six rebounds and three steals in near 17 minutes.
Marine Johannès added eight factors and 6 assists.
“Our bench did a great job of coming in today,” Natasha Cloud stated. “When you’re talking about what is going to make us such a scary and deep team going down into playoffs and potentially finals is how deep our bench is and how versatile we are and that’s going to make a huge difference.”
“Staying ready” has turn out to be a sports activities cliché.
But it surely’s one factor to say it and one other to really embody it.
It’s not all the time straightforward to place ego apart, however sacrifice and selfless play are pillars of this staff’s tradition.
“Everyone understands the importance of when you go out there and you get your minute — whether it’s one, whether it’s 20 — you got to go out there and make a positive impact for this team,” Sabrina Ionescu stated. “If you do, you’re going to continue to help us win games. … And I think you’re able to see a team that is playing for one another out there and that’s what I’m most proud of.”
The Liberty’s bench, led by Kennedy Burke, has been a dependable bunch.
They at present lead the WNBA with a web ranking of 6.1 by seven video games.
Cloud and Breanna Stewart every completed plus-44, which is a franchise file.
The spectacular plus-minus mark was additionally the fifth-highest regular-season mark in league historical past.
4 of the 5 starters completed plus-40 or higher.
And Johannès led that class amongst reserves, ending plus-22.
Solar affiliate head coach Roneeka Hodges is the most recent former Liberty staffer to obtain her 2024 championship ring.
“I’m excited,” Hodges stated earlier than the sport. “It was a wonderful three years that I spent here and it was capped off with the icing on top, with a championship.”
Hodges spent the previous three seasons as an assistant on Sandy Brondello’s workers.
The Solar promoted her from assistant to affiliate head coach after Connecticut picked up its first win of the season Friday.
After the Yankees misplaced in final yr’s World Collection and the Knicks fell within the Japanese Convention finals Saturday, the Liberty — and maybe Gotham FC, too — would possibly as soon as once more be New York’s solely pictures at championships this yr.
Requested on the finish of her scrum about being town’s solely hope for a championship, Cloud stated, “[The Liberty] won last year, I’ve been seeing a lot of tweets talking about we haven’t won a championship since 2011, I know it’s not my champions, but I just feel like there needs to be respect here, so Liberty f—ing biberty.”
