The Liberty’s 82-77 win over the Valkyries on Thursday put a highlight on the significance of Jonquel Jones.
Jones, the Liberty’s iron girl, was sidelined for the victory for simply her second regular-season sport since 2023 after soreness in her proper hamstring flared up Thursday morning.
Coach Sandy Brondello mentioned Jones is “fine,” although the 2024 Finals MVP was dominated out for the sport out of an abundance of warning.
“Never want players to play if they’re not 100 percent right,” Brondello mentioned earlier than the sport. “So hopefully, they’ll be OK tomorrow — got another game.”
The Liberty felt Jones’ absence.
The Liberty averaged the second-most paint factors per sport (40.5) by means of their first 4 video games, whereas the Valkyries rank final in that class with 24 paint factors per sport.
On Thursday, although, the Liberty struggled to get into the paint and had been outscored in that space 30-18.
New York additionally was outrebounded 41-36.
“[Jones makes] a huge difference, especially from the rebounding perspective, protecting our rim, and then obviously, she’s at least 10 to 20 points on the board for us,” Natasha Cloud mentioned after the win. “So when you lose your 5 and someone as versatile as JJ — someone that can bring the ball up, shoot 3, trail 3s, play in pick-and-roll, get to the paint, shoot middie — you’re losing a lot.”
It didn’t assist that New York’s middle depth already was skinny with Nyara Sabally out for her third consecutive sport due to proper knee discomfort.
Brondello mentioned Sabally had a person exercise Thursday and has been capturing.
The third-year middle might be again as quickly as Friday’s sport in Washington, based on Brondello.
The hope is Jones will probably be again, too.
“I’m not a doctor but the doctor says everything’s fine there and just making sure Nyara is feeling good about it, that’s the most important thing and not bringing her back too soon,” Brondello mentioned. “She’s getting there. … And hopefully on the flight, nothing goes crazy, and we’re hopeful she’ll go tomorrow.”
Thursday was the second of 4 video games the Liberty are scheduled to play in six days.
The Liberty are set to finish their first of two back-to-backs Friday once they play in Washington.
Then, they’ll flip round and host the Solar at Barclays Heart on Sunday.
Brondello mentioned she’s been “mindful” to not overload her group, figuring out that there’s nonetheless an extended season forward.
“We’re building up our conditioning the start of the year,” Brondello mentioned. “Look, we need to win. We want to win. We don’t want to lose a game that we know we’re capable of winning. But hopefully, I don’t have to go too long of minutes with all of them.”
Thursday’s tight sport meant every starter logged a minimum of 28 minutes.
