Jones-less Liberty suffer letdown in L.A.

Forward ails as N.Y. falls to league-worst Sparks

August 29, 2024 By John Torenli, Sports Editor Brooklyn Daily Eagle

Reigning WNBA MVP Breanna Stewart and the league-best Liberty suffered an upset loss to the league-worst Sparks in Los Angeles Wednesday. AP Photo by Ashley Landis

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All-Star power forward Jonquel Jones sat out Wednesday night’s game in Los Angeles with a non-Covid-related illness.

The New York Liberty just looked sick without her against the league’s worst team.

All-Star Dearica Hamby scored 21 points and rookie Rickea Jackson added 19 as the Sparks avoided matching their longest losing streak of the season by stunning the WNBA-best Liberty from start to finish en route to a 94-88 victory in front of 10,403 fans at crypto.com Arena.

Jones, averaging 14.9 points and a team-high 9.3 rebounds, was unable to go in the middle contest of this three-game road trip, and New York (26-6) suffered in her absence.

“JJ’s a key piece of what we do and … finding out that she was going to be out, it’s just a little piece of adversity and it gives an opportunity for the next person up,” said reigning WNBA Most Valuable Player Breanna Stewart.

Coming off a rousing 84-70 triumph in Phoenix on Monday night with a roster at full health for the first time this year, the Liberty found themselves collectively ailing from the opening tip in Los Angeles.

They trailed 26-14 after the opening quarter and fell behind by as many 14 before trying to reel the previously slumping Sharks (7-24) back in.

“I think we can … come out a little bit more aggressive, but also kind of smarter,” added Stewart after New York committed eight turnovers in the first 10 minutes.

“We’re just trying to make the home-run play or look to score on the first side and putting ourselves in a bad position.”

Reserve center Nyara Sabally’s bucket with 4:17 remaining in the first quarter gave New York its only lead of the night at 10-9. Odyssey Sims answered with a 7-foot pull-up before Jackson took over.

She made a layup and drained a trio of 3-pointers on successive trips before Sims’ 18-footer gave the Sparks a 24-10 cushion.

The Liberty did forge a 46-46 tie after opening the third quarter with a 7-0 run, fueled by back-to-back layups by Sabally following a 3-pointer by Sabrina Ionescu.

Nyara Sabally’s first career double-double wasn’t enough to offset the absence of All-Star Jonquel Jones as the Liberty got stunned in Los Angeles Wednesday. Photo by Brandon Todd/New York Liberty

The game got deadlocked twice more in the period before Hamby and Sims combined for the next five points, opening a 60-55 lead for the Sparks with 2:01 left.

Rae Burrell splashed back-to-back 25-footers midway through the fourth quarter to put Los Angeles ahead to stay, 74-68.

Stewart’s free throw with 4:14 to play got the Liberty back within three, but Hamby made a pair of layups around two free throws by Burrell to spark a 10-0 run and open an 87-74 bulge with under two minutes to go.

Los Angeles, which had lost seven in a row, including a 103-68 thumping at the hands of the visiting Liberty two weeks ago in the WNBA’s return from the Olympic break, also snapped an eight-game losing streak to New York that dated to June 3, 2022.

Burrell scored a season high-tying 18 points off the bench for the Sparks, who hadn’t won a game since posting an 87-81 victory in Dallas on July 13.

Stewart did her best to keep New York in it, putting up a game-high 32 points on 11-of-19 shooting while going 7-of-11 at the free-throw line.

Ionescu added 18 points and Sabally, seeing more playing time without the 6-foot-6 Jones available, added 14 points and 10 boards off the bench for the Liberty, who lost on a night that they shot 51 percent from the floor and 35 percent from 3-point range.

“Just like kind of stepping into that role when I knew, obviously, JJ was out, big shoes to fill, tried my best,” said Sabally, who recorded her first career double-double.

“But just like kind of being persistent and knowing that I just have to do the little things. I mean, luckily I make my layups today. So that kind of was good.”

Unfortunately, L.A. finished better than New York in both shooting categories, going 35-for-68 (52 percent) from the field and 8-for-21 (38 percent) from beyond the arc.

The only good news coming out of Wednesday’s upset loss for New York was Connecticut’s 84-80 setback to rookie sensation Caitlin Clark and the playoff-hopeful Indiana Fever.

That defeat kept the Sun (22-8) three games back of the Liberty in the Eastern Conference playoff race.

However, Minnesota beat Phoenix, 89-76, on Wednesday, moving the Lynx (23-8) within 2 1/2 lengths of New York for the league’s top mark and home-court advantage throughout next month’s WNBA playoffs.

The Liberty will finish off this trip Friday night in Seattle in the opener of a home-and-home series that will conclude Thursday night at Downtown’s Barclays Center.

New York coach Sandy Brondello believes her squad can bounce back against the Storm by taking better care of the ball after turning it over 19 times in L.A.

Getting back Jones, who missed her first game of the year, should help the Liberty get better in a hurry.

“I think it’s easy to fix there. I think we’re just trying to score too early in the possession where we should just be moving the ball and trying to have quick hitters,” Brondello noted.

“You know, we have to get back. We won all these games. We played in the right way. … Now, hopefully we can get JJ feeling better and she’ll be okay in Seattle.”

Tip-off against the Storm Friday is at 10 p.m. ET

After watching her team lose in L.A. Wednesday, Liberty coach Sandy Brondello hopes to have starting forward Jonquel Jones back in the lineup Friday in Seattle. Photo by Brandon Todd/New York Liberty

GIVE ME LIBERTY: Despite going 3-for-14 from 3-point range in Wednesday’s loss, Ionescu matched one league record and moved up the charts on the all-time franchise list in another category. The All-Star guard hit a shot from beyond the arc for the 55th consecutive game, tying WNBA legend and Olympic teammate Diana Taurasi for the second longest run of its kind. Ionescu also dished out six assists, passing Vickie Johnson for second place in Liberty history. Former New York star Teresa Weatherspoon handed out 1,306 assists and Ivory Latta drained 3s in 66 straight gams for Washington over three seasons from 2013-15. … Courtney Vandersloot only managed two points, but amassed a season-high 13 assists in Los Angeles. … In her second game back since missing over a month due to surgery on her right knee, Betnijah Laney-Hamilton had four points, four rebounds and three assists in 20 minutes off the bench Wednesday.