Breanna Stewart scored 18 points, but the New York Liberty still fell 87-70 to the Golden State Valkyries on Thursday night in New York as Satou Sabally made her season debut and the home side struggled from long range.
Sabally was introduced to a warm ovation and finished with five points in nearly 16 1/2 minutes of action in her first game since suffering a concussion during Game 3 of last season's WNBA Finals. The Valkyries led early, taking an 18-9 edge just over six minutes into the contest, and never relinquished control.
Golden State led by eight at halftime and extended its margin to 63-46 after three quarters. New York was outscored 21-12 in the third quarter and never seriously threatened in the fourth, opening what will be a seven-game homestand with the 87-70 loss. The Liberty had played their first game in a week.
The shooting story was stark: New York collectively went 6-for-24 from behind the 3-point line, while the Valkyries converted 13 of 35 attempts from deep. Golden State hit 5-for-10 from distance in the first quarter before going 2-for-10 from deep in the second, a sequence that underpinned the Valkyries’ early cushion and the runs that followed.
New York trailed 25-15 after the first quarter and briefly cut the deficit to two early in the second before Golden State pulled away again. The Liberty’s two leading scorers had nights that fit the team result — Stewart’s 18 points and Jonquel Jones’ 16 were not enough to overcome the gap in perimeter production.
Jones said afterward: "It’s disappointing for us to lose no matter what. It’s just obviously a learning experience for us. It’s still early in the season, we’re not making excuses, but we do understand that we’re not where we want to be. And we’re definitely not in playoff mode (yet) nor do we expect to be so we’re still learning, we’re still going to grow from this and we’ll be OK."
Stewart was blunt about how the game unfolded: "I feel like not much went right. We gave a lot of 3s up to a pretty good shooting team and then we couldn’t get back into it. Defensively, like setting the tone of giving 25 points in the first quarter gave them a level of confidence and a head of steam that we couldn’t contain for the moment."
The loss dropped the Liberty to 3-2 on the young season while the Valkyries improved to 3-1. New York entered the game averaging a league-best 100 points across its first four contests, a mark that underlined how unusual the 70-point output felt for the home team on Thursday.
The Liberty were missing several players: Sabrina Ionescu did not play because of a foot injury, Betnijah Laney-Hamilton did not play for personal reasons, and Leonie Fiebich and Raquel Carrera remained out because of overseas playing commitments in Spain. Sabally, signed by New York in the offseason as a prized free agent acquisition, was playing for the first time since the concussion that cost her the final game of last season’s finals when she was with Phoenix.
Golden State, meanwhile, will finish a back-to-back set on Friday at Indiana. The immediate question for New York now is clear: can the Liberty find consistent perimeter defense and three-point production as they try to salvage momentum at home during a seven-game homestand?
