Liberty 85, Mystics 80: The more things stay the same, the more they change
The Liberty waive hello to 2024 with a comeback win in D.C.
Most WNBA fans and observers expect the 2024 season to end the same way 2023 did: with the New York Liberty facing the Las Vegas Aces in the Finals. The Liberty opened 2024 where they kicked off last season, in Washington, against the only team besides the Aces to beat them more than once in 2023. In last year’s opener, the Mystics thumped the Lib by 16. Last night they led eight going into the fourth quarter. But this year, like any, ideally, is different.
For starters, Jonquel Jones is healthy. Last year she was playing her way back from a foot injury suffered in her final Finals with Connecticut, restricting her to just 19 minutes, six shots and five points. Last night in the first quarter alone she played all 10 minutes, made five of six shots for 12 points and all night looked every bit the two-way 94-foot dominant force she was the second half of last season.
The Liberty are still finding their stride after a very short and wildly disparate preseason. Breanna Stewart, Sabrina Ionescu and Courtney Vandersloot couldn’t make a three, though Ionescu did get to the line six times. The saving grace besides JJ was Betnijah Laney-Hamilton, whose name’s changed from a year ago but whose game is blessedly constant. The playoffs are often where the détente depth delivers shines through, something the Mystics learned to their chagrin last postseason when Stewart and Vandersloot struggled mightily, only for Jones and Laney-Hamilton in particular to step up. Yesterday nine Liberty played in the second half. The seven who weren’t JJ or BLH shot 3-of-14, the two who were 12-of-17. And Laney-Hamilton, like Jones, brings the pain on both ends.
The pair led a 22-7 run covering most of the final frame. Kennedy Burke had some bright moments in her Liberty debut; Nyara Sybally, too. Rookie Marquesha Davis didn’t play, a testament to the depth chart ahead of her and to what happens when monopolies grow wild. The WNBA has 12 teams and that’s not enough roster spots given how much professional talent there is available. Earlier in its history, the NBA faced real competition for a decade from the ABA, ultimately absorbing four teams from them before expanding by 50% over 15 years. There’s no ABA to compete with the W in this country, and the prioritization rule means the league is saying it’s our way or the highway. The headlines and many of those covering the WNBA beat bleat parroted praise over expanding to Golden State and Toronto while lottery picks can’t crack the team that drafted them and stars like Jones spend their “offseason” playing overseas to make some real base-salary scratch.
But those are shoes that’ll drop another day. The Mystics head into their season without franchise icons Elena Delle Donne and Natasha Cloud but with plenty to feel good about. Brittney Sykes is a ball-hawking guru never afraid of the moment – with the other Mystics missing 13 of 14 shots in the fourth, Sykes was an oasis of offense and efficiency. Two-time All-Star Ariel Atkins dropped 20. Stud center Shakira Austin scored some inside, scored some outside and blocked five shots. You don’t often see someone smack down a Stewart look like this.
The Liberty now go from something old to somethings new. Tomorrow they’re in Indiana for the honor of being the visitors for Caitlin Clark’s home debut with the Fever. Two days later Seattle visits Barclays, including new stars Nneka Ogwumike and Skylar Diggins-Smith, both associated with varying amounts of legitimacy as players New York targeted last offseason. Those teams and the W in general will have to deal with a Liberty team that on the one hand looks familiar – same five starters – but whose familiarity with each other makes them an entirely different proposition from last year. 2024 began by reversing 2023’s first outcome. Hopefully in September New York does the same in its last.
