Liberty Stifle Sparks as Sandy Brondello Sets Wins Record
Despite being severely shorthanded, the New York Liberty mustered a Hollywood ending in its yearly inter-conference series against the Los Angeles Sparks.
Playing with only eight available women, the Liberty put up a season-high in scoring with a 105-97 victory over the Sparks on Tuesday night at Crypto.com Arena. That avenged a last-second loss at Barclays Center back on July 26 and allowed New York to take the three-game season series between original WNBA franchises.
New York (21-11) got back in the win column after a disappointing defeat to the Minnesota Lynx on Sunday and it was the 101st triumph in Liberty head coach Sandy Brondello's seafoam tenure, breaking a record Richie Adubato had held since 2000.
In her fifth showing as a New Yorker, in-season acquisition Emma Meesseman put up 24 points and fell a rebound short of double-double while fellow international import Leonie Fiebich added 20 more. Jonquel Jones did reach the double-double realm with 21 points and 11 boards, improving the Liberty's all-time mark to 31-0 when she reaches such a double-figure stat line.
The Liberty once again played shorthanded, as Isabelle Harrison (concussion) joined Kennedy Burke, Nyara Sabally, and Breanna Stewart on the injury list.
While that put something of a damper on the Liberty's defensive prospects — which Kelsey Plum too advantage of to the tune of 26 points for the hosting Sparks — New York shot just under 56 percent from the floor to stave off the Los Angeles deluge headed by Plum and Dearica Hamby.
All five Liberty starters, with Natasha Cloud and Sabrina Ionescu joining the aforementioned three, shot at least 50 percent from the floor. They're just the 12th opening quintet to pull that off with a minimum of eight tries from the field and the first since the 2023 Chicago Sky.
Off the bench, Marine Johannes and Stephanie Talbot each stood at plus-10 on the scoreboard while adding to the offensive deluge: Johannes sank a trio of triples (her sixth this season, most among WNBA bench players) while Talbot had four assists and a three that allowed her to cross the 1,000-point plateau in her WNBA career.
The backcourt rally allowed the Liberty to survive the lost of their post prowess, as the Sparks (15-17) outrebounded them on the offensive glass 11-8, four alone landing in the hands of the previous matchup's heroine Rickea Jackson, allowing her to make up for 2-of-10 tally from three-point range.
With the win over Los Angeles, the first team off the eight-squad bracket, the Liberty's magic number to clinch a playoff spot fell to seven. Still 8-3 over their past 11, the Sparks were forced to play without touted sophomore Cameron Brink in the second half after she endured an ankle injury in her seventh game back from an ACL tear.
The Liberty immediately return to action out west, as they'll face the streaking Las Vegas Aces in Sin City on Wednesday night (9:30 p.m. ET, ESPN).
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.