Liberty 96, Sparks 89: The spark
The star-studded Liberty win, sparked by less-lauded lights like Betnijah Laney & Stefanie Dolson
The Sparks had the spark. We’re starting very corny here because, well, it’s the end of the season and the end of the road for Los Angeles and their 2023 campaign. After a 96-89 loss to the Liberty, the Sparks are eliminated from the playoff picture while the Liberty add another home win under their belt and head into playoffs a very different team from who they were last year.
The Sparks looked like they were playing for their dinner, more efficient than the Liberty to start the game. They led 50-43 at the half, shooting 50% overall and 55% from three while having forced nine New York turnovers. Resilience was needed; unsurprisingly, we saw toughness from Betnijah Laney and Jonquel Jones, the former finding the open shot throughout, the latter sneaking in some dishes to her teammates. In the first half, Laney had 11 points and Jones three assists, second only to Courtney Vandersloot’s six.
This may not seem like much, especially when Sloot is consistently putting up double-digit dimes and Breanna Stewart leading both teams with 21 at the half, but it is significant. In July and throughout August, Laney and Jones were the key pieces this championship contender needed to maintain constant upward projection. Laney’s experience as a Liberty star is what makes her special on the squad: a team player who has put up three consecutive seasons of consistent greatness, including an All-Star appearance. She is a clear Defensive Player Of the Year candidate and her grittiness and ability to shapeshift into whatever the team needs makes her essential to the team’s chemistry and cohesion. When great players are added to a team, sometimes they can take over and dominate, as we’ve seen, but Laney is the anchor that has only gotten better throughout the course of this iconic season. She finished the night with 20 points, going 3-of-5 from deep, and managed to lock up Jordin Canada, holding the UCLA grad to 10 points, only the fifth time in 20 games since the All-Star break she’s scored so few.
The case for Jones is simply complicated: she only had four points and four assists, yet her decorated past as MVP, Sixth Woman of the Year and Most Improved Player speaks for itself. And if you don’t think it does, I’ll let her do the talking about what happened in the first half: “I think we just played soft, honestly,” she said in the tunnel after the game. “I think our guards were getting ahead, not really fighting through, I think post players weren’t in the right position . . . I think it was a lot of everyone kind of just worrying about their matchups and nobody just really being there for each other.”
The former Connecticut Sun is the clear choice for starting center, but she has the luxury of having a formidable sub coming off the bench in Stefanie Dolson. Dolson was the eventual star of the show, lighting up from three: she went 5-for-5 behind the arc and posted 17 points in a mere 13 minutes, playing the least amount of minutes by far for the Liberty. Like a true superstar, though, Jones only supports her teammate, noting that she knows Dolson has it in her, as do the rest of the Liberty bigs. Jones even said the bigs could beat the guards if it came down to a 3-point contest. Maybe we’ll see that this post-season. (Editor’s note: That’d be sick!!)
Speaking of post-season, the Liberty are just one regular season game away from the first round. They’ll face the Washington Mystics at Barclays to close out the season.
