Liberty is exactly where you’d expect it to be.
Where they should end up. Where they have always claimed to be.
It’s above.
The Liberty thumped the lowly Dream, 96-75, on Sunday afternoon at the Gateway Center in College Park, Ga. Combined with the Sun’s 72-61 loss to the Storm, the Liberty (15-3) currently has the best record in the WNBA.
This was the Liberty’s best 18-game start to a season in franchise history.
The Liberty again played without starters Courtney VanderSloot (returning fit) and Betnijah-Laney-Hamilton (knee) but were hardly slowed down.
The big three of Sabrina Ionescu, Breanna Stewart and Jonquel Jones filled in for the team in their absence, and all three were dominant on Sunday. Ionescu finished with 26 points on 9-of-18 field goals and 4-of-9 3-pointers to go with her 11 assists.
“I’m just trying to continue to play my game and know that I can be a scoring threat at all three levels,” Ionescu told reporters after the game. “But [my] pass – [we’re] If everyone is involved, we won’t be able to protect it.”
Stewart had 17 points, eight rebounds, six assists, three steals and two blocks, while Jones added 15 points and 11 rebounds.
Kayla Thornton, filling in for Laney Hamilton, had eight points and six rebounds, a day after hitting a career-best 3-pointer.
And after not getting any points from its bench players in Saturday’s win over the Sparks, the Liberty got 21 points from bench players Kennedy Burke, Markesha Davis and Ivana Dojkic on Sunday.
Thornton, along with Leonie Fiebich, who filled in for Vandersloot, are usually first choices on coach Sandy Brondello’s bench, but their inclusion in the starting lineup has thinned the Liberty bench in recent games.
“Sometimes that happens,” Brondello said of the dramatic improvement. “We have some role players in the starting five. … It was great that we were able to step up and not have to play long minutes like we did the other day.”
The Liberty has won 11 of its last 12 games while missing two starters and is riding a three-game winning streak.
It seems like the top WNBA teams are only getting stronger.
