Nyara Sabally Plays Big Role in Brief Liberty Return
BROOKLYN — A former Oregon Duck that could carry the nickname of "Sab" returned for the New York Liberty on Tuesday night ... as did Sabrina Ionescu.
A celebratory evening at Barclays Center ended in style with the re-entry of Nyara Sabally, who played the final two-plus minutes of a 75-66 win over the Washington Mystics, the penultimate game of the Liberty's regular season. It marked Sabally's first action since July 16, as a knee ailment kept her sidelined for nearly two months and almost the entirety of the post-All-Star break schedule.
Despite Sabally's brevity, Liberty head coach Sandy Brondello hopes that she can serve as the bench's benchmark for the knockout portion of the team's title defense, considering her unforgettable performance in the championship clincher last fall.
"I think we have a deep bench. Yes, we'll limit some of it, we'll have to get cut out rotations, but we can always lean into it," Brondello said prior to Tuesday's game. "I remind them of Nyara's game five, when we needed to do something and we had faith in her that she could come in and do the job."
Brondello, of course, refers to Sabally's 13-point, seven-rebound showing off the bench in the winner-take-fall finale against the Minnesota Lynx at Barclays Center, one that helped secure the Liberty's first-even postseason championship. To date, she's the only player in WNBA Finals history to reach such plateaus off the bench in a Game 5, which, until this season's best-of-seven ledger is introduced, was the longest a series could've gone.
It's been hard for Sabally, the Liberty's first-round pick in the 2022 draft, to follow up on that sterling breakout as further injuries ate away at her third professional tour. Lower-body ailments have sadly defined Sabally's career: she missed her entire rookie season due to a torn ACL and has been limited to 16 games this time around.
With New York's opening round playoff series getting underway on Sunday — against a Phoenix Mercury group partly led by Sabally's older sister Satou — there's likely not enough time to get the forward ramped up well enough to the workloads she was burdened with early in the season. Brondello offered a ceiling of 10 minutes for her Sabally on Tuesday and it's likely such a tally will still be in effect when the Liberty faces the Chicago Sky in its regular season finale on Thursday (8 p.m. ET, My9).
Nevertheless, seeing Sabally overcome her season-long injury to get back to the floor and offer the Liberty a full contingent for the first time since late May inspired the assembled seafoam savants looking for a late shifting on the their narrative.
"She's a huge part of this team," forward Breanna Stewart said. "The most exciting part is that she's someone who's gone through injuries a lot. She knows what it is, but she continues to show up, and she continues to do whatever she can to get back on the court for the team. So even though tonight, her minutes were limited, it was still just a big hurdle for her. [It was great] for all of us to be able to be there cheering her on, she's worked so hard to get back."
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.