Last year this didn’t happen at all.
That wasn’t the case when Sabrina Ionescu was sidelined with a hamstring injury.
The same was true when Courtney VanderSloot missed the second game of a back-to-back in late July.
Through 15 games in 2024, despite VanderSloot’s continued absence for personal reasons, the Liberty and their current core have avoided further injuries and playing games without two starters.
That all changed on Thursday, when Betnijah Rainey-Hamilton was late added to the available list with a right knee injury and went from available to questionable to out in a matter of hours.
Rookie Leonie Fiebic made her first start.
Kayla Thornton filled in for VanderSloot for the sixth straight game.
But the Liberty put together enough offensive firepower to make up for injured defensive keymen and beat the Sparks 93-80 on Thursday at Barclays Center to avoid just their second straight losing streak this season.
Sabrina Ionescu led the Liberty with 31 points, and Jones added 22 points before fouling out.
Rainie Hamilton has been battling a swollen knee since their last outing, which ended in a loss to the Mercury on Tuesday.
Head coach Sandy Brondello said before the game that if Laney Hamilton is unable to play, she is hopeful she will be able to return on Saturday when the Liberty and Sparks face off again.
But that didn’t solve their short-term problems.
Coach Brondello turned his attention to Fiebich, who came off the bench to start the season and sparked the team’s success.
Ionescu and Jones led the first-half offense with 15 and 11 points, respectively, while Liberty prevented any Sparks players from scoring in double figures.
Los Angeles is also playing without rookie and No. 2 overall pick Cameron Brink, who tore his ACL early last week.
