It had been more than a month since Jonquel Jones last recorded a double-double, which came in the Liberty's final 11 games of the regular season and their first playoff game against the Atlanta Dream.
She still had games where she had double-digit rebounds and games where she scored 15 or more points.
But they didn't overlap during the same 40 minutes.
That all changed on Tuesday night at Barclays Center in the Liberty's 91-82 Game 2 win over the Dream in their first-round series. Jones finished with 20 points and 13 rebounds on 8-of-12 shooting.
The Liberty improved to 12-0 this season with Jones recording a double-double and needed Sabrina Ionescu's playoff career-high 36 points against Atlanta to help them avoid a winner-take-all Game 3.
“I had an idea of what I was going to do before I got the ball, but after that it was clear,” Jones said. “So I just went out there and understood if they let me have a jump shot, I can take a jump shot. If they let me drive, I can drive. And I trusted my teammates to find me and if I worked hard, they'd give me the ball.”
Jones, a former WNBA MVP who has sparked the Liberty offense this year by pairing with Ionescu in pick-and-roll situations, drained a 3-pointer with 26 seconds left to help the Liberty close the gap before halftime.
Then, early in the third quarter, she picked up her own miss and converted a putback.
She also started the game with some crisp ball-running, setting up 3-pointers for Betnijah Laney-Hamilton, Breanna Stewart and Leonie Fiebic to keep the Dream within striking distance.
In Game 1, she scored just nine points on five shots and had just seven rebounds.
Jones also had trouble posting up at times in Game 2, when she couldn't create space in the first quarter while trying to drop former Liberty star Tina Charles near the paint.
Instead, Jones kicked the ball out to Ionescu, who drained a 3-pointer.
Jones will continue to be a key piece of the Liberties puzzle through the remainder of the postseason.
She can take control of a match, just like Ionescu or Stewart.
Like Stewart, she can act as a defensive anchor in the paint when opponents try to score near it.
And Tuesday was another reminder of that.
“She was doing her job on the block,” Stewart said. “I think that's what we wanted for her.”
