Breanna Stewart Makes WNBA History Wearing Liberty to Win Against Dream

There were plenty of moments on Sunday that showed the Liberty were still trying to shake off what ailed them in Tuesday’s failure to repeat as Commissioner’s Cup champions.

But after a sluggish start to the season, a stagnant performance from Jonquel Jones and a terrible afternoon of shooting from Sabrina Ionescu, Breanna Stewart carried the Liberty to an 81-75 victory over the Atlanta Dream at Barclays Center.

Stewart scored 22 points and became the fastest player in WNBA history to reach 5,000 points, in 242 games; Diana Taurasi had held the previous record with 243 games.

“It’s a huge honour for sure. Obviously, when you go past someone like D (Taurasi), who really leads the way in scoring and all that. It’s an incredible honour and it’s something I’ll definitely send her a message about,” Stewart said with a laugh. “But overall, I wouldn’t be here and I wouldn’t be able to do all of these things without my teammates and I really thank them for getting me to this point.”

“But we try to do more than just get accolades. »

Jones scored just five points, just two better than his three free throws Tuesday against the Lynx in the Commissioner’s Cup final.

Ionescu scored 10 points, shooting 3 of 17 from the field, including 2 of 11 from three-point range.

Liberty coach Sandy Brondello said many players were out of shape.

Ionescu, whose voice was strained, said she did not “say a word” on the pitch.

Stewart powered the Liberty (a league-best 16-3) into the second half after shooting a brutal 27.8 percent in the first quarter and 30 percent in the second quarter.

They were down 16 at one point in the first half and still down 14 with 1:40 left in the half before Stewart and Vandersloot sparked a run to bring the Liberty within 41-36 to half-time.

Stewart, a two-time MVP, carried the load in the third quarter, hitting three three-pointers as the Dream left it open too often at the top of the paint.

She followed up her shots for second-chance points and grabbed 12 rebounds to help limit the Dream in the paint.

Atlanta (7-10) shot 13 of 18 in the paint in the first half, but made just 5 of 14 inside in the second half.

“Early on, we weren’t as disruptive as we wanted to be and we were able to turn it around. … You just have to know where they’re trying to put the ball,” Stewart said of the improved work inside. “They’re trying to go downhill. They’re trying to hit it in the paint … you just have to be aware of that.”

Betnijah Laney-Hamilton made the game-changing deep shot in the third quarter on a pass from Ionescu, who found her in the corner for a 44-43 lead – the Liberty’s first since four minutes of play.

Leonie Fiebich was also a spark late in the game from the bench, scoring nine of her 12 points in the final quarter.

But the Liberty seemed lost at first.

At one point, Vandersloot threw the ball to Stewart under the basket in transition, but found nothing.

Ionescu was slow to make decisions, choosing not to shoot at times when he had space and instead making errant passes.

Former Liberty star Tina Charles – along with Allisha Gray – was beating Charles’ old team in transition and in the paint, with Charles constantly getting the better of Jones.

Charles, who played with the Liberty from 2014 to 2019, scored 16 points; Gray scored 24.

“We started slow. A little rusty, I guess,” Brondello said. “So we had to dig deep. We had to start playing as hard as we could and play the right way. We didn’t make a lot of shots in that first half. We had a few open ones, but we just had to keep moving the ball and they started falling when we needed them.”