On Friday, the New York Liberty defeated the Washington Mystics 90 - 79 at Barclays Center. This was the second matchup of this season, where the Liberty are now 2-0 against the Mystics. Starting guard, Courtney Vandersloot was a scratch for the game with back soreness, so, Kayla Thornton was inserted into the starting lineup.
Thornton answered the call by finishing the game just one point shy of her career high. She finished with 20 points, and knocked down four 3 pointers. Kayla was also a pest on defense grabbing 5 steals against the Mystics.
The Liberty trailed by one point with 5 minutes remaining in the 4th quarter. They went on a 16-4 run, and outscored the Mystics by 12 points to close the game. New York’s defense forced four shot clock violations in the win, but there is still a question of the defense’s ability to maintain leads.
New York led by as much as 17 points but allowed the last place Mystics to stick around, and essentially take the lead momentarily. This appears to be a repeating factor in games where the team establishes a big lead but can’t sustain due to turning over the ball or limited movement. I asked Jonquel Jones if she feels like the team is getting her the ball enough inside and her response was “we can be more intentional about it”.
The Liberty play much better when they play to their strengths and feature their bigs but they seem to settle for shots beyond the perimeter which allow teams the opportunity to close the gap in a game of runs. This will be a test through the season to see if they can adjust and establish a real flow on both sides of the ball.
The bench only accounted for 4 points in the win. Marquesha Davis saw early minutes and scored her first wnba basket with a free throw in the second quarter.
The Liberty look to defend their Commissioner’s Cup title Sunday when they welcome the Indiana Fever for the third time this season.
PLAYER NOTABLES (Courtesy: NY Liberty)
Sabrina Ionescu led the Liberty offense with 24 points and added four three-pointers to extend her streak of regular season games with at least one made three-pointer to 33, which is the longest active streak in the WNBA.
With 15 points in the first quarter, Sabrina Ionescu reached double-digit first-quarter points in consecutive games for the first time in her career.
Kayla Thornton started her first game as a member of the Liberty tonight and finished with the highest-scoring outing of her Liberty career. Thornton posted 20 points on 50% (7-14) shooting from the field and 36% (4-11) shooting from beyond the arc. Thornton has scored in double figures in each of her last three games as a starter, going back to her time in Dallas.
With her steal at 8:48 in the second quarter, Kayla Thornton reached 100 career steals. Thornton set her new career high with five steals and became the first Liberty player this season to reach five steals in a single game.
Jonquel Jones finished with a double-double of 16 points and 10 rebounds while shooting 50% (3-6) from three-point range.
Breanna Stewart posted 18 points on 83% (10-12) shooting from the free throw line along with her new Liberty-high 15 rebounds, including 10 boards in the first half.
With her free throw at 6:46 in the second quarter, Marquesha Davis scored the first points of her WNBA career.