Jonquel Jones leads way for Liberty with words and performance
New York Liberty forward Jonquel Jones high fives with head coach Sandy Brondello late in the fourth quarter of Game 3 of the WNBA Finals against the Las Vegas Aces at Barclays Center on Sunday. Credit: Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke
Jonquel Jones wasn’t going to let it end this way.
She wasn’t about to get swept out of the playoffs in front of the biggest crowd ever to watch a WNBA game at the Barclays Center. She wasn’t ready to spend another offseason sorting through a pile of “what-ifs” and “I should haves.”
And so, prior to tipoff Sunday of a do-or-die Game 3 against the Las Vegas Aces in the WNBA Finals, Jones laid it all on the line to both her teammates and the media.
“I think we need to prove we belong,” Jones declared just hours before doing exactly that.
Jones proved that and more Sunday, coming up with a monster performance that pushed her team to an 87-73 win that narrowed the Aces’ lead to, 2-1, in the best-of-five series.
Jones finished with 27 points on 10-for-15 shooting, eight rebounds, three assists two steals and three blocks. Most stunningly, the 6-foot-6 center was her team’s top three-point shooter, hitting 4 of 7 from beyond the arc.
“With JJ, it just keeps getting better and better,” Liberty coach Sandy Brondello said. “It’s her will to win. She’s a superstar, this girl. She’s amazing. She’s humble. She’s carried us in the games we lost as the only one being consistent.”
While most of her teammates struggled in the Liberty’s two blowout losses in Las Vegas, Jones produced in every game. She paired 16 points with 10 rebounds in Game 1 and was the only player on the Liberty to score at least 20 points in Game 2.
It was Jones who got the team rolling early Sunday, hitting two three-pointers in the first quarter as the Liberty came out with force for the first time in the series. The Liberty continued to push, never trailing after the first quarter and leading by as much as 17 in the second half.
It wasn’t just on offense where Jones made her presence known. Defensively, she spent a lot of time guarding A’ja Wilson. The Aces superstar had scored 19 and 26 points in her team’s first two wins, but was held to 16 points on 4-for-16 shooting in Game 3.
For Jones, the matchup was personal. Last year, she was on the Connecticut team that lost to Las Vegas, 3-1, in the WNBA Finals. She knows what it is like to come that close to a trophy before falling short, and she cautioned her teammates about doing the same.
“These opportunities don't come around often,” Jones told them following the back-to-back losses. “You have to take advantage of the opportunity. To play with pride.”
Jones suffered a stress reaction in her foot during last year’s Finals and was still nursing the injury at the start of training camp this year. She didn’t really come into her own until after the All-Star break. Brondello is impressed with the way she has developed as a leader since then.
“We have a lot of leaders, but JJ’s voice has been heard these last few days,” Brondello said. “That leadership really does matter to us. It gives confidence with her actions and her words. I’m really proud of her and what she’s capable of.”
Jones’ performance wasn’t just good for the Liberty; it was good for the league. The hype all season long had been about this inevitable clash of the league’s two superteams. Yet, there was only one team that looked super through the first two games. Sunday’s game was the Aces’ first loss in the playoffs.
No team has ever come back from a 0-2 deficit to win a best-of-five series in the WNBA. But, after this win, there does seem to be a sliver of hope for the Liberty. Aces point guard Chelsea Gray suffered some sort of lower leg injury in the fourth quarter and was seen on crutches after the game. Coach Becky Hammon did not have much information about the injury after the game, but said it was “next up” if Gray couldn’t play.
For the first time since getting blown out in Game 1, the Liberty are sounding confident, sounding like the gritty team that lost only five times at the Barclays Center this year.
Said Jones: “We had to have a level of pride coming into this game.”
Barbara Barker is an award-winning columnist and features writer in the sports department at Newsday. She has covered sports in New York for more than 20 years.
