The Commissioner\u2019s Cup\u00a0has been a past indicator of the New York Liberty\u2019s future.<\/p>\n
In 2023, they beat the Las Vegas Aces in the Cup final before losing to them in the WNBA championship series. The following year, they lost to the Minnesota Lynx in the Commissioner\u2019s Cup championship game but won their first WNBA title that fall, beating the Lynx in a five-game series.<\/p>\n
Thursday\u2019s 104-90 win over the Atlanta Dream might be just another game. Or, with a commanding lead in the Commissioner\u2019s Cup Eastern Conference standings, it might be the earliest indication of what\u2019s to come.<\/p>\n
The Liberty have two remaining Commissioner\u2019s Cup games to solidify their place in the Cup final. They still have to face the Washington Mystics on Sunday and the Chicago Sky on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want to make sure that, over the next (two games), we try to win them all, just so \u2026 our growth as a team is continuing to be upward,\u201d Liberty forward Breanna Stewart said. \u201cOf course, knowing we would have an opportunity to be in the Commissioner\u2019s Cup championship just shows that we\u2019re one of the best teams at the halfway point of the season.\u201d<\/p>\n
New York (9-4) has been on an ascent under first-year coach Chris DeMarco despite navigating early injuries and absences. In the past two weeks, they\u2019ve notched six straight wins, including Thursday\u2019s road victory against the Dream and last Saturday against the Indiana Fever, two opponents in the top half of the WNBA standings.<\/p>\n
But the Dream were arguably the most formidable opponent the Liberty have faced this season. And in the face of that challenge in enemy territory, they put together one of their most complete games of the season. Five players finished scoring in double figures, including Satou Sabally with 19 points off the bench.<\/p>\n
Stewart matched Sabally\u2019s scoring output and added 11 rebounds and five assists. Marine Johannes added 17 points, and Jonquel Jones and Pauline Astier finished with 16 points each. Astier also had eight rebounds, five assists and one turnover.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe ball was moving,\u201d DeMarco said. \u201cWe were getting stops when we needed to. We were executing the game play, trying to keep the three out of the game. They\u2019re tough on the glass. We had a bunch of players make plays when they needed to.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Liberty and Dream averaged the fourth- and fifth-most 3-point attempts per game entering Thursday\u2019s meeting. But the Liberty are a far more efficient team. They gave up just nine makes from deep, with five coming from Rhyne Howard, who finished with 24 points.<\/p>\n
Angel Reese scored a game-high 25 points, but she was 0-for-4 from behind the arc. The Liberty also limited her to just nine rebounds, another point of emphasis in their game plan. They outrebounded the Dream 40-24 and limited them to 8 second-chance points, compared to their league-leading average of 14.1 per game. The Dream left 12 points at the free-throw line, shooting just 15 of 27 there.<\/p>\n
The Liberty shot 51.6 percent from deep, led by Sabally, who drilled 5 of 6 3-point attempts. That included one that came seconds after subbing into the game midway through the fourth quarter. After it sank through the net, Sabally turned to fans sitting courtside and exchanged some friendly words.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey said I needed to relax on my shooting,\u201d Sabally said. \u201cI told them, \u2018I\u2019ll hit three more,\u2019 and then I just hit one, so we were all laughing because I pointed at them. It\u2019s fun to have good interactions like that with fans.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sabally\u2019s performance is a reflection of the Liberty\u2019s greatest attribute: depth. But her buy-in to a new role is pivotal.<\/p>\n
Coming into this season, Sabally had started every game she played in over the last three seasons in Dallas (2020-24) and Phoenix (2025). At the start of the season, she was sidelined because of a cyst and later due to illness, but since returning to the rotation, she has been coming off the bench. She\u2019s averaging 11.4 points for the Liberty in a reserve role.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe know what Satou can bring,\u201d Stewart said. \u201cThat\u2019s it right now. She\u2019s really keeping the main thing the main thing and coming in and doing her job, the same as she would any other place. \u2026 Nobody\u2019s surprised that Satou had a night like tonight.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Commissioner\u2019s Cup\u00a0has been a past indicator of the New York Liberty\u2019s future. In 2023, they beat the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":699067,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[436,99,434],"class_list":["post-699066","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wnba","tag-new-york-liberty","tag-sports","tag-wnba"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/699066","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=699066"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/699066\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/699067"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=699066"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=699066"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=699066"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}