The New York Liberty and Connecticut Sun likely will spend the rest of the season jostling for the WNBA’s top two records.
Before taking a month off for the All-Star break and Paris Olympics, the Sun would like to inch closer to the top mark. Their next chance is Tuesday’s visit to the league-leading Liberty in Brooklyn, N.Y.
The Sun (18-5) will get one more crack at the Liberty, following the break, on Aug. 24. Connecticut lost its the first two meetings on its home court by a combined 10 points. After a seven-point loss in a Commissioner’s Cup contest on June 8, the Sun nearly overcame a 14-point deficit and took a 71-68 loss on Wednesday when Sabrina Ionescu hit the go-ahead basket with 1:58 left and blocked a potential tying 3-pointer by Tyasha Harris at the buzzer.
Connecticut bounced back nicely from its second disappointing loss to the Liberty by cruising to a 96-69 rout of the Phoenix Mercury on Sunday. The Sun achieved their most lopsided win this season in a game when Alyssa Thomas was held to six points and played 23 minutes.
Rachel Banham came off the bench and scored 24 points on eight 3-pointers. Banham finished five points shy of her career high and posted her sixth career 20-point game.
“We need to go into it and feel light and have fun,” Banham said. “Like I think today we were laughing and having fun, like things were going right. And we got to keep that during times of adversity too. That’s something that we talked about; we got to handle adversity better. And that’s also going to separate us.”
The Liberty (20-4) lead the Sun by a 1 1/2 games and have won three straight since their five-point loss to the Indiana Fever on July 6. After getting past the Sun last week, New York outscored the Chicago Sky by 29 points in a home-and-home sweep.
Breanna Stewart was held out of Saturday’s 81-67 win at Chicago to rest a minor hamstring injury, but Ionescu delivered another big performance by scoring 28 points. Ionescu finished three shy of her season high, and in the two games against Chicago, she hit 8 of 19 3-pointers in totaling 49 points.
“Just taking time where we can,” Liberty coach Sandy Brondello said. “It’s a big game for us, but we still have to think big picture, be smart about our players’ health as much as we can.”
–Field Level Media