Liberty's Betnijah Laney-Hamilton feeling good and making team better in WNBA Finals

This was a sight that hadn’t been seen in this run at the WNBA’s top prize, a sight that the Liberty really needed to see.

Betnijah Laney-Hamilton was making a very large and very timely impact, unhindered by her problematic right knee. The points were piling up.

“She looked different,” Courtney Vandersloot said after Laney-Hamilton scored a season-high-tying 20 and helped the Liberty even the Finals at 1-1 Sunday at Barclays Center with an 80-66 win over Minnesota. “… When she’s playing like that, we’re a different team.”

So they could hope that she would be a difference maker again, this time in Minnesota Wednesday night in a key Game 3.

“It’s feeling pretty good,” Laney-Hamilton said via Zoom about her knee before the Liberty’s shootaround at Target Center. “We’ve continued to stay on top of treatment and everything, managing the pain and stuff.”

Laney-Hamilton is known around the team as B. And B generally gets an A as a two-way value pack. The 6-foot forward/guard plays very tough defense and she can score.

But her knee began to become an issue in the second half of June. Laney-Hamilton then missed the final five July games before the All-Star/Olympic break. She underwent surgery July 16 to remove a few loose bodies, then missed the first four games after the break. She returned Aug. 26 for the final 10 before the postseason tipped off.

In her fifth game back, she aggravated the knee in a collision with Jonquel Jones in the fourth quarter of a win over Las Vegas. While she continued to start every game, the trouble didn’t go away.

Laney-Hamilton was averaging just 5.9 points over the first seven postseason games, through the opener of the Finals. She was feeling restricted.

“Just not being able to move the way that I would’ve liked,” she said. “I was just kind of feeling it a lot more.”

Her teammates kept encouraging her. But Laney-Hamilton was limited in her stretches of playing time and was shooting just 35.6%, including only 18.2% from beyond the arc.

“It’s not the same B that we’ve seen all season long,” coach Sandy Brondello said before Game 2, “but it is what it is.”

And then it wasn’t what it was.

Laney-Hamilton felt better in Game 2 and played 31:49. She defended well and went 4-for-6 on threes and 8-for-14 overall. Laney-Hamilton, the 2023 league leader in corner threes, hit one to launch a 12-0 closing run.

“A corner three for B is like a layup,” Sabrina Ionescu said.

Laney-Hamilton was contributing again at a crucial juncture in this Liberty team’s dream of claiming a first championship.

“I think God’s timing is everything,” Laney-Hamilton said. “It was frustrating, but I think it gave me an opportunity to get some rest. It gave me an opportunity to kind of just reflect on some things. The team was still in a really good position. We have a lot of great players on the team, and so they were able to keep us going while I was recovering.

“And then to just come back at the right time [and play well] when I was feeling good the last game and to make this push for the goal that we all have in mind is really satisfying.”

During Game 2, she was interviewed on the ABC telecast and made a comment that “the shot finally kicked in.” She was asked Wednesday if she meant her jump shot or another kind of shot, indicating an injection.

“Both,” Laney-Hamilton said.

The 30-year-old former Rutgers standout is in her ninth season overall and fourth with the Liberty.

“I think what B brings is like this grit, this toughness,” Breanna Stewart said.

Laney-Hamilton was an All-Star in 2021 when she averaged 16.8 points. She made the 2023 All-Defensive Second team.

This season, she averaged 11.8 points, 4.2 rebounds and 3.3 assists while playing 28 of the 40 games. She topped the league in average plus-minus at a franchise-record plus-9.7.

“She’s just impactful because she plays at both ends of the floor and plays hard, and she’s a winner,” Brondello said. “So I’m happy [that in Game 2] she got the success.”

Liberty honorees

Stewart was named to the All-WNBA First Team for the sixth consecutive season. Ionescu and Jones made Second Team. The Liberty had never had three All-WNBA selections before in the same season.