Liberty's Jonquel Jones in Good Spot Despite Injury
It's only July but it's literally the dog days of summer for New York Liberty star Jonquel Jones.
The active WNBA Finals MVP set seafoam socials ablaze in an attempt to search for a local dog groomer that took care of her "bougie" dogs Kiba and Rylo. To the relief of the Liberty faithful, Jones eventually found the groomer and happily shared the results on X.
"They actually hate the groomers. They get nervous," Jones said with a smirk on Wednesday. "They feel like they're going to the vet or something, but they always look good coming out. So that's all that matters."
Pet pampering is one of the blessing offered to Jones and the Liberty amidst and eight-game homestand that begins on Thursday night against the Los Angeles Sparks (7 p.m. ET, Fox 5). Jones won't be partaking, at least in the early stages of the run, as she continues to work off an ankle injury tweaked in June 19's loss to the Phoenix Mercury, an ailment originally said to sideline her for four-to-six weeks.
Though unwilling to post a target date for her return, Jones was in mostly good spirits when she spoke to the media for the first time since the injury.
"I'm in a good spot," Jones said. "Not playing it safe, but just making sure that I'm as close to 100 percent as possible before I get back on the court. Just take it from there."
Jones originally injured her right ankle in a June 5 win in Washington and missed the following two games on a spaced out schedule. The pain returned against the Mercury, when Jones was injured on a drive against ex-New Yorker Sami Whitcomb, landing awkwardly on the latter's foot during first half action.
"I just retweaked it. I just did the same thing that I did with the initial injury, where I'm going up for a shot, and someone comes to contest it, and I land on their foot," Jones said. "Anytime I've injured my foot in my career, it's always been like that issue of just landing space and not being able to come down and landing on someone else's foot. It just happened again, and instantaneous pain. I just knew that it was just the same thing again."
The forward was on the bench as the Liberty embarked on a four-game road trip that saw them drop three of four, a quartet that featured no Jones or Leonie Fiebich, who was repping the German national team in the EuroBasket women's competition. New York (11-5) will now play its next eight games at home, more or less stationed under Barclays Center's grassy roof for the next three weeks-plus.
As an educated observer on the bench, Jones acknowledged the difficulty of competing without major women available. The Liberty certainly miss Jones in the interior, as they've been out rebounded by 15 over the last three games.
"We have to understand that the only way we're going to get teams to stop the way [opponents have been playing] is that we have to be a little more aggressive on the boards, finding our match ups and then going after the rebound," Jones said. "It's not easy, it's been hard. It's been hard to see it. It's been difficult. I think it's been difficult for our fans, our coaches, staff, and the players to step into those big roles and play against really tough teams that are at full strength."
"But I think there are some things that we can control as a team to help us just look better out there and kind of help us be closer to winning."
A streak of eight consecutive home games that will sandwich the All-Star break should provides the Liberty a more comfortable opportunity to make things right. New York got to practice on Atlantic Avenue on Wednesday and Jones spent a good bit of riding the stationary bike and working with player development director Andrew Wade under a basket while the other 11 New Yorkers scrimmaged on the other end.
Even without a full practice, that even applies to Jones, who plans to take full advantage of her familiar surroundings — and a post-makeover Kiba and Rylo — to get back on the floor.
"Traveling is kind of tough on my ankle too, so it's really good to be back home and not have to worry about that," she said. "I can see my dogs every day, and they make me happy, and I can do my regular walks and stuff like that, and just kind of get into that routine of just when I'm showing up to the gym, when I'm doing rehab, when I'm doing conditioning and all that stuff and just putting everything together to get back on the court."
Geoff Magliocchetti is a veteran sportswriter who contributes to a variety of sites on the "On SI" network. In addition to the Yankees/Mets, Geoff also covers the New York Knicks, New York Liberty, and New York Giants and has previously written about the New York Jets, Buffalo Bills, Staten Island Yankees, and NASCAR.