The New York Liberty know what it feels like to bring a championship to New York City.<\/p>\n
It was less than two years ago that the franchise captured the city\u2019s first professional basketball title since the 1973 Knicks when they beat the Minnesota Lynx in 2024. But as they took in the celebration of the Knicks\u2019 first NBA championship in 53 years on Saturday night \u2014 Jonquel Jones from Soho, Breanna Stewart from her home in Brooklyn and coach Chris DeMarco from an outdoor projector in Park Slope \u2014 the contemplations started.<\/p>\n
DeMarco didn\u2019t hesitate before saying \u201cabsolutely\u201d when asked if he\u2019s already thinking about his desire to recapture the Knicks\u2019 championship magic in the fall.<\/p>\n
Stewart predicted \u201cthe city would be crazy\u201d if the Liberty could follow the Knicks and give New York City WNBA and NBA championships in the same year. \u201cLet\u2019s talk about it in October,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Jones said their 86-64 win over the Washington Mystics on Sunday afternoon, which clinched their place in the Commissioner\u2019s Cup final, was a good place to start.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a pretty high number of teams that go to the Commissioner\u2019s Cup championship that play in the (WNBA) finals,\u201d Jones said.<\/p>\n
The Liberty\u2019s opponent has yet to be determined, though the Las Vegas Aces currently sit atop the Western Conference standings with two Commissioner\u2019s Cup games remaining, one against the Dallas Wings and one against the Phoenix Mercury. Home-court advantage will be awarded to the team with the higher regular-season win percentage through all games up until Wednesday night (the last night of Commissioner\u2019s Cup games).<\/p>\n
The Aces (10-3) currently hold the advantage over the Liberty (10-4) to host the in-season tournament championship on June 30.<\/p>\n
Since the league introduced the in-season tournament in 2021, one or both teams that played for the Cup title have gone on to compete for the WNBA championship three times \u2014 in 2022, 2023 and 2024. But the Liberty aren\u2019t willing to foreshadow any future success.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s expected,\u201d Satou Sabally said of the Liberty\u2019s third Commissioner\u2019s Cup berth in four years.<\/p>\n
Sunday was the Liberty\u2019s seventh consecutive win, the longest active win-streak in the WNBA, and their first game with a clean injury report.<\/p>\n
Sabrina Ionescu returned to the rotation after missing seven games with a back injury and finished with five points, three rebounds and three assists in 26 minutes off the bench. She spent a considerable amount of time postgame getting treatment, but said she\u2019s feeling \u201cgood.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cShe was phenomenal,\u201d DeMarco said. \u201cYou could feel her presence out there. But it\u2019s hard sometimes when you\u2019re out for a while, you come back trying to find your game and I thought it was really good decision-making from her.\u201d<\/p>\n
The last time the Liberty faced the Mystics, in the first week of the season, they barely squeaked by with an overtime win. They played with two hardship players on their roster, Julie Vanloo and Aubrey Griffin, as they waited for Leonie Fiebich and Raquel Carrera to return from their overseas commitments, and for Ionescu, Sabally and Rebecca Allen to reach full health.<\/p>\n
Ionescu missed the Liberty\u2019s first five games with a left ankle injury, and Sabally was sidelined with a cyst to start the season. Allen missed the Liberty\u2019s first two games due to reconditioning.<\/p>\n
In Ionescu\u2019s absence, rookie guard Pauline Astier has carried the load of leading the Liberty\u2019s offense. She had six points, six assists and just one turnover Sunday afternoon. Ionescu certainly won\u2019t be in a bench role long-term, but on Sunday it was a priority for her to ease into her return and also respect the chemistry that\u2019s been developed by the starting group in her absence.<\/p>\n
Of that unit, Jones led the way with 20 points. Stewart added 14 points, 12 rebounds and a career-high seven blocks, and Fiebich and Marine Johannes contributed eight points each.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re feeling a little bit more complete as far as having our whole roster today,\u201d Stewart said. \u201cNow we\u2019re starting to build. Beginning of the season, we were trying to work through some things and just get wins when we could. This is like our Day One.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ionescu, similar to Stewart, watched the Knicks make history from the comfort of her own home. But the celebration was still audible. She is the Liberty\u2019s cornerstone as the 2020 No. 1 pick and the player general manager Jonathan Kolb built their title team around.<\/p>\n
Witnessing the city\u2019s reaction to the Knicks\u2019 championship didn\u2019t change the way Ionescu looks at the Liberty\u2019s title pursuits, but it did bring her back.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf we keep playing the right way, taking it one game at a time, we\u2019re kind of in control of our own destiny,\u201d Ionescu said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The New York Liberty know what it feels like to bring a championship to New York City. It…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":704629,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[436,99,8253,434],"class_list":["post-704628","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wnba","tag-new-york-liberty","tag-sports","tag-washington-mystics","tag-wnba"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/704628","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=704628"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/704628\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/704629"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=704628"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=704628"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=704628"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}