Breanna Stewart and Sabrina Ionescu had precious little time to bask in the joy of winning gold medals.
It evokes the Liberty’s ambitions to win a WNBA title.
On Sunday, the star duo traveled to Paris and helped the U.S. team secure a dynastic eighth consecutive Olympic title with a tense second-half comeback to beat hosts France.
Sparks on August 15, 2024. NBAE via Getty Images
On Thursday, they visited Los Angeles, and the Liberty opened the second half with a commanding 103-68 win over the rebuilding Sparks, led by 27 points from Stewart and 18 from Ionescu.
The Olympic journey is over, but the memories will last a lifetime.
Ionescu specifically mentioned her experience attending the opening ceremony.
Stewart spoke about seeing her teammate, former Russian POW Brittney Griner, get emotional during the medal ceremony.
Looking back after four days and nine time zones, the highlight for both athletes was clear: their victory.
“It’s not easy to stop the season completely, everyone comes from different places. [WNBA] “The team,” Stewart said, “but our U.S. team really came together, it was a great group and we had a lot of fun.”
August 15, 2024. NBAE via Getty Images
Ionescu thought about sharing Team USA’s victory with her loved ones.
“Especially for parents who aren’t from the U.S., who moved to this country for their children and to see their daughter achieve her dreams,” Ionescu said. “Seeing how happy they are and how special it is, understanding how hard they work.” [paid] Being off is a memory I’ll never forget.”
Things are now tense as we move into the thick of the playoff race.
The Liberty (22-4), seeking their first WNBA title in franchise history, holds a three-game lead in the standings for home-court advantage throughout the postseason.
The second half of the schedule is a 15-game sprint in 36 days.
Stewart and Ionescu were given an extra day to recover on Wednesday before returning to practice.
Liberty reserves Leonie Fiebich and Nyara Sabari also played for Germany at the Olympics, while head coach Sandy Brondello led Australia to a bronze medal win in France.
“We want to keep playing and pick up where we left off, but we understand it’s going to take us a little bit of time to get back up to speed like we were,” said Ionescu, who played 23 minutes in the big win. “But I’m not too worried about it. We’ve been playing and I think we’re really eager to get back to New York and finish the second half of the season really strong.”
Up next is Saturday’s match against the Aces, who beat Liberty in last year’s final and are a likely semifinal opponent.
“What we did in the first half of the season doesn’t really matter much other than the records,” said Stewart, who played just 20 minutes and made three 3-pointers in 55 seconds. “It’s kind of tough being away from the whole team for a month, especially when you literally played Team USA on Sunday and now it’s Thursday and we have a game. So we make sure everybody is focused on the individual and team perspective, and they are.”
“And just like the first half of the season, there are no excuses.”
