Liberty 86, Sky 69: The dot and the line
Shaken or stirred, clear from the start or blurred, the Liberty keep stacking Ws as the regular season winds down
“The Dot and the Line: A Romance in Lower Mathematics” is a 1965 animated film about a line who’s in love with a dot who’s crazy about a squiggle.
In the end, the line wins the dot’s affection thanks to a display of fluidity and versatility the one-trick squiggle can’t match. If you were to host an awards show for the 2023 Liberty, odds are top billing would go to stars Breanna Stewart and Sabrina Ionescu; Jonquel Jones would be celebrated as a leading lady who willingly stepped into a supporting role. Sandy Brondello has a shot at best director. Games like Sunday’s 86-69 win over the Chicago Sky remind us that winning a WNBA championship is a more complicated calculus than a dot and line getting together. In the Liberty’s case, the line and the squiggle are interchangeable and essential to winning. Their line and squiggle are Courtney Vandersloot and Betnijah Laney.
Vandersloot poured in 20 points, 10 assists, six steals, five rebounds, five threes and two blocks in New York’s win. No player has ever put up those numbers across those categories before – not in the W nor in the NBA. Snatch blocks aren’t really something you associate with Vandersloot, though she is third on the team in rejections.
Alas, one of the joys of this season has been seeing Sloot play enough to recognize that’s precisely what you do grow to expect from her – anything and everything. In that way she is the Liberty’s squiggle, a pile of all of this and that: she leads the teams in assists, second in steals, third in minutes, fourth in free throws made and attempted, and fifth in rebounds, field goals and 3-pointers made.
Vandersloot can also be the line that points to a game’s turning point. The block above came 20 seconds after a Breanna Stewart three put New York up 63-61 and sparked another 19 unanswered points from the Liberty for a 22-0 run that sealed the win. Hitting more 3-pointers in the fourth quarter (six) than your opponent does total field goals (five) goes a long way; half of the Liberty’s six came courtesy of Courtney.
One of those late threes belonged to Laney, the through-line who runs through much of what this team does so well on both ends. She scored 17 points on 12 shots, two-thirds of which were makes, while adding five rebounds. Her glasswork continues to impress, particularly her growth on the offensive glass, where she’s raised her rate of retention 300% since the All-Star break. To call her a glue gal or complementary is to miss how much of a force Laney is on this team. She’s second in minutes, baskets and field goal percentage, third in 3-pointers made and accuracy from distance and fourth in assists and steals. Laney isn’t simply an accessory to the machine that is Superteam Sea Foam. She’s an integral part a whole that would be lesser without her.
Binaries are limiting. The idea of the dot and the line makes for an easy contrast, but shapes are similar to basketball positions in that they’re mostly theoretical. The best of both are versatile; they expand rather than limit. Vandersloot and Laney bring layers of possibility to New York’s offense and defense. The more of them there is, the better. Dot, line, squiggle: a true champion can be any or all, whatever the moment requires. Increasingly the Liberty appear capable of whatever the moment asks of them.
