PORTLAND, Ore. — The Liberty capped off a stretch of playing four games in a week Thursday night with a comfortable 100-82 win against the Portland Fire.
We’ve got you covered on the Liberty beat Join Post Sports+ for exciting subscriber-only features, including real-time texting with Madeline Kenney about all things Liberty and WNBA.
The Liberty (3-1) didn’t have a great first half.
But a third-quarter attack, led by Breanna Stewart, allowed New York to put the game away for good.
The first 10 minutes after halftime was a promising turn of events, considering leading up to Thursday a troubling yet familiar trend had started to emerge in the Liberty’s first three games.
Similar to a year ago, New York had been struggling in third quarters.
That issue appeared to be a carryover into this campaign.
Stewart said the team had to nip it in the bud — and it started with her.
“When we have the lead, knowing that the other team is going to come out and try to punch first, that’s on me,” Stewart said after Tuesday’s stunning loss to the Fire. “And I’ll get the rest of the group really ready to go because … we’ve struggled with this in the past and we don’t want to have that continue.”
Stewart led the Liberty’s third-quarter onslaught.
She scored 11 of her team-high 22 points in the first 10 minutes after halftime.
Rookie Pauline Astier joined in the attack, scoring seven of her 20 points in that frame, as she continues an impressive start to her WNBA career.
The Liberty led 70-53 after the third and held on to the end.
New York unsurprisingly got its lick back after being on the losing end of the Fire’s first win in franchise history.
Before the game, he predicted the Liberty to come out and play with desperation.
That’s not exactly what happened — at least early.
The Liberty scored just 14 points in the first quarter — their lowest output to start a game this season — and trailed by six.
It was the type of game that put even a brighter spotlight on Sabrina Ionescu’s absence as the Liberty could’ve used her as an on-court organizer.
Ionescu still kind of found a way of impacting the game.
Before the first quarter ended, Ionescu was standing on the sidelines giving an earful to an official.
The start of the second quarter wasn’t much better than the first.
Then the Liberty started to play its way back into the game.
After going 2-for-9 from deep in the first quarter, New York shot 6-for-14 from distance in the second quarter.
Covering the Liberty like never before Sign up for Madeline Kenney's Inside the Liberty, a weekly Sports+ newsletter.
Thirty of the Liberty’s 32 made field goals were assisted.
Marine Johannes contributed a career-high 11 assists.
Jonquel Jones had six points, nine rebounds and three assists.
Alex Fowler, whom the Liberty signed Thursday morning to a developmental contract, scored 12 points on 4-for-7 shooting off the bench.
After playing every other night to start the season, the Liberty will have a week off to regroup.
There’s hope that Ionescu (left foot) and Satou Sabally (cyst) may return when their schedule resumes May 21 against the Golden State Valkyries.
The Liberty are also expected to have more reinforcements on the horizon with Leonie Fiebich and Raquel Carrera possibly one win away from capturing the Spanish League title.
