{"id":699263,"date":"2026-06-12T07:12:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-12T07:12:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/699263\/"},"modified":"2026-06-12T07:12:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-12T07:12:09","slug":"libertys-satou-sabally-has-big-night-as-she-works-into-form","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/699263\/","title":{"rendered":"Liberty’s Satou Sabally has big night as she works into form"},"content":{"rendered":"

ATLANTA \u2014 Satou Sabally heard a group of courtside fans\u2019 playful chirps Thursday night. They told her she needed to relax on her shooting.<\/p>\n

She told them she\u2019d hit three more before the night ended.<\/p>\n

When Sabally drained a 3-pointer midway through the fourth quarter, she turned back at them and they all laughed.<\/p>\n

Sabally checked out later, falling short of her promise to drain three more. <\/p>\n

But that didn\u2019t matter.<\/p>\n

What mattered is that Sabally continues to look more like herself with each passing day, her performance in Thursday\u2019s 104-90 win against the Atlanta Dream<\/a> being the latest example.<\/p>\n

Sabally finished with a team-high-tying 19 points, going 5-for-6 from downtown. She also grabbed three rebounds. She did that while coming off the bench for the fifth straight game.<\/p>\n

Sabally\u2019s selflessness doesn\u2019t go unnoticed. She deserves to be a starter, and she\u2019s expected to get promoted to the opening five at some point. <\/p>\n

A star of her magnitude could\u2019ve demanded the Liberty give her her starting spot back when she returned from illness 2 \u00bd weeks ago.<\/p>\n

But Sabally didn\u2019t. She\u2019s bought into the team\u2019s mentality and the performance staff\u2019s plans to ramp her up after she missed most of the offseason with lingering concussion symptoms and the start of this season with a cyst.<\/p>\n

\"SatouSatou Sabally, who scored a team-high 19 points, looks to make a pass during the Liberty 104-90 win over the Dream on June 11, 2026 in Atlanta. NBAE via Getty Images<\/p>\n

\u201cWe know what Satou can bring and that\u2019s it,\u201d Breanna Stewart said after the Liberty\u2019s sixth straight win. \u201cShe\u2019s really keeping the main thing the main thing and coming in and doing her job the same as she would any other place and hopefully she\u2019s having fun while she\u2019s doing it.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like you continue to just get more and more comfortable and having nights like tonight, like, nobody\u2019s surprised that Satou had a night like tonight. We\u2019re just really happy for her and we want to keep it going.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sabally keeps reiterating that the team\u2019s biggest strength is its depth. She thought the Liberty\u2019s 22-8 run to close out the third quarter \u2014 which included contributions from Sabally, Stewart, Leonie Fiebich, Jonquel Jones, Betnijah Laney-Hamilton, Rebekah Gardner, Raquel Carrera and Pauline Astier \u2014 was a prime example.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCovering the Liberty like never before\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSign up for Madeline Kenney’s Inside the Liberty, a weekly Sports+ newsletter.\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\tThank you\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\u201cBasketball is a game of runs,\u201d Sabally said. \u201cI think we just went on a run there and had some stops. \u2026 We had a lot of great things happening today but that particular stretch was also just fun.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gardner is one of the Liberty\u2019s unsung role players. <\/p>\n

She provides a jolt to the Liberty every time she steps on the court. She\u2019s a smart slasher and solid defender. <\/p>\n

The Liberty have outscored opponents by 27 points when Gardner is on the court \u2014 trailing only Laney-Hamilton for the best plus\/minus among the team\u2019s current reserves.<\/p>\n

Is Gardner underrated?<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, not for me,\u201d Marine Johann\u00e8s said. \u201cI don\u2019t know. It\u2019s a good question. I really have a lot of respect for her. She\u2019s a great player.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ATLANTA \u2014 Satou Sabally heard a group of courtside fans\u2019 playful chirps Thursday night. They told her she…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":699264,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[436,16808,99,434],"class_list":["post-699263","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wnba","tag-new-york-liberty","tag-satou-sabally","tag-sports","tag-wnba"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/699263","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=699263"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/699263\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/699264"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=699263"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=699263"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=699263"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}