Liberty ahead Jonquel Jones shoots a free throw towards the Mystics throughout a WNBA first-round playoff sport at Barclays Middle on Sept. 15.
Credit score: Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke
Jonquel Jones noticed the identical factor on the within that everybody else noticed within the Liberty from the surface.
“I undoubtedly suppose from the start of our entire journey, I felt like this crew was particular and was going to have the ability to do a whole lot of particular issues,” the 2021 WNBA MVP mentioned.
The journey has included the winningest common season in Liberty historical past at 32-8, their first Commissioner’s Cup crown and a two-game sweep of Washington within the opening spherical. In order that they’re among the many closing 4 standing for the primary time since 2015, which had been the final time they took a playoff sequence.
Now their chase continues for probably the most particular factor — the franchise’s first WNBA championship. The second-seeded Liberty will attempt to climb the following treacherous step, the best-of-five semifinals, and attain the WNBA Finals for the primary time since 2002.
They are going to face the Solar in Sport 1 at 1 p.m. Sunday at Barclays Middle. Third-seeded Connecticut has made it to the semifinals 5 years working. The Solar are also trying to find their first league championship.
Jones helped take the Solar to the WNBA Finals in 2019 and 2022 earlier than being traded to the Liberty.
“I perceive that if we play the way in which we’re presupposed to play and do what we’re presupposed to do, the probabilities of us being profitable are very excessive,” Jones mentioned.
The Liberty swept the four-game regular-season sequence, though they needed to rally from 20 down in a single assembly earlier than profitable in additional time.
Connecticut encompasses a formidable energy couple, All-Star ahead and MVP candidate Alyssa Thomas and All-Star forward-guard DeWanna Bonner, who introduced their engagement in July.
Thomas delivered six triple-doubles through the common season and averaged 15.5 factors, a league-high 9.9 rebounds and seven.9 assists. Her factors and assists accounted for 58 factors — a postseason league file — within the Solar’s series-clinching 90-75 Sport 3 win Wednesday at Minnesota. She posted 28 factors, 12 assists and 6 rebounds.
Bonner had 25 factors and 10 rebounds, turning into the third participant with 1,000 factors and 500 rebounds in postseason competitors. She averaged a team-leading 17.4 factors in Connecticut’s 27-13 common season.
“They’re a terrific crew,” Liberty coach Sandy Brondello mentioned earlier this month. “ . . . They’ve all the time been powerful on protection and so they’re disruptive. The way in which that they play, they’re sharing the ball. [Thomas], on the level ahead place, definitely type of helps them. However they’re all doing their jobs.”
Las Vegas, the top-seeded defending champion, is taking part in No. 4 Dallas within the different semifinal. The expectation since earlier than the season tipped off has been a Liberty-Las Vegas superteam showdown within the Finals.
“I might say the dedication that now we have to 1 one other has actually made this factor go,” Sabrina Ionescu mentioned late within the Liberty’s common season. “I’ve seen so many groups come collectively, particularly within the NBA, which might be superteams that haven’t been in a position to make it work as a result of there are such a lot of egos, there’s so many position adjustments, and there’s one ball.”
