“As soon as the match ended on Thursday, I looked ahead to the match on Sunday”. As a great champion and a perfect professional, Breanna Stewart did not allow herself to be overcome by doubt after her two failures which could have allowed the New York Liberty to snatch Game 1.
More motivated than ever, the New York team came together to equalize at the end of an intense 40-minute battle which finally settled at the very end of the game. And Breanna Stewart worked on both ends of the floor to guide her teammates on the right path.
From +17 to… +2!
Sandy Brondello's protégés took the lead, especially after an 8-0 run concluded by 3-pointers from the Thornton-Stewart pair to end the first quarter (31-21). But the Lynx never gave up, even when the gap showed 17 points shortly before the break, following a new burst of 3-points from Betnijah Laney-Hamilton and Breanna Stewart (46-29).
Minnesota notably relied on the Williams-Smith-Collier trio to gradually come back, with a first alert at the end of the third quarter (57-53), to arrive at a breathtaking finale in the “money-time”. 3-pointers from Courtney Williams and Kayla McBride followed by Napheesa Collier's basket then reversed the pressure, with only two points ahead for New York (64-62).
The Liberty then held on to get the victory, with a first 3-pointer from Betnijah Laney-Hamilton then a second, the basket of the match, signed Leonie Fiebich on a counter-attack which made the Barclays Center vibrate (75- 66). The New Yorkers can take a deep breath before heading to Minneapolis for Game 3 on Wednesday evening.
The sacred union
Even if New York was able to count on precious relays, from Betnijah Laney-Hamilton (20 points) or even this improbable 3-point basket from Leonie Fiebich, Breanna Stewart redeemed herself by signing a still staggering stats line, at 21 points, 8 rebounds, 5 assists and 7 steals.
“She was everywhere on the pitch, she wreaked havoc, she was in the intervals, she made it difficult for the Lynx”, said Courtney Vandersloot about Breanna Stewart. “When you have your best player, your leader, who plays as hard as she does, game after game and impacts the game in different ways, not just scoring and rebounding, that's a great source motivation for everyone.
For her part, Sandy Brondello immediately wanted to take the pressure off her leading player's shoulders following the defeat in Game 1, ensuring that the setback was not her fault, but that of the entire group.
“We win together as a team, we lose together as a team”, she summarized. “Nobody points the finger at anyone else. We could all have done things better. It's something that hurts, but how are we going to react? We need to get Stewie back on track. And the good thing about her is that she bounces back pretty quickly.”
We saw the result… Now for the rest of the series, this time on the land of the Lynx.
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How to read the stats? Min = Minutes; Shots = Successful shots / Attempted shots; 3pts = 3-points / 3-points attempted; LF = free throws made / free throws attempted; O = offensive rebound; D=defensive rebound; T = Total rebounds; Pd = assists; Fte: Personal fouls; Int = Intercepts; Bp = Lost balls; Ct: Against; +/- = Point differential when the player is on the field; Pts = Points; Eval: player evaluation calculated from positive actions – negative actions.
