Liberty need Breanna Stewart to be at her best if they are to claim their first WNBA championship
Liberty forward Breanna Stewart drives to the basket past Minnesota Lynx forward Bridget Carleton (6) during the first half of Game 4 of a WNBA basketball final playoff series, Friday, Oct. 18, 2024, in Minneapolis. Credit: AP/Abbie Parr
Breanna Stewart has pretty much done it all.
She’s won four NCAA titles, three Olympic gold medals, two WNBA MVP awards and two WNBA championships.
In a WNBA Finals featuring multiple superstars, Stewart is by far the most accomplished player on the court. Yet, when the Liberty host the Lynx Sunday in the first winner-take-all Finals game since 2019, none of this matters.
This is what does matter: If the Liberty are going to win the first WNBA title in their 28-year history, Stewart needs to be the best player, not just the most decorated.
It’s on her. Unfair as it is to single out a single player, this is the reason Stewart was brought to New York. Her addition two years ago turned the Liberty into a super team. She’s the one that gave them legitimate championship aspirations.
If the Liberty are going to avoid a re-do of last year’s humiliation — if they are going to avoid watching their opponents get crowned champions on their home court — Stewart is going to bounce back from her shockingly poor 11-point performance in Game 4 and have a monster game Sunday.
Considering Stewart’s poor night in Game 4, it’s a minor miracle that the Liberty were in position to win until the very end when the Lynx made two free throws with two seconds remaining for the 82-80 win.
From the very start, when Stewart’s three-pointer on the first possession of the game spun around the rim and fell out, nothing seemed to go right. Stewart missed her first eight shots. While much of her trouble had to do with the defensive prowess of Napheesa Collier, a fellow Connecticut graduate who was recently voted the WNBA’s defensive player of the year, Stewart also missed some wide-open three-pointers and seemingly easy layups.
In the end, Stewart shot just 5-for-21 overall, missing all four of her three-point attempts. In the fourth quarter — when her team needed her most — she was 1 for 8 including four misses on potential go-ahead buckets.
"I think that I was going a little bit too fast," Stewart said when asked about her shooting struggles. “I just needed to slow down. They are sending multiple people when I'm slipping on a screen, stuff like that. A little bit better awareness on my part. But quick turnaround and be ready for Sunday."
Collier is determined to do everything she can Sunday to continue to frustrate Stewart.
“I think we’re both great players,” Collier said after Game 4. “She’s a great player. One of the best in the world. My goal is to make it hard for her every time.”
Here’s the good news about Stewart’s ability to be reset for Sunday. Some of her best offensive performances have followed very poor games.
After shooting 7-for-17 and making just one assist in a Game 3 loss to the Aces in the semifinals, Stewart closed out the series with a 19-point, 14-rebound, five-assist and four-block performance in Game 4. Then, after missing a free throw at the end of regulation and a layup in the overtime of the Lynx Game 1 win, Stewart led her team to a Game 2 victory with 21 points, nine rebounds, five assists and a WNBA Finals record of seven steals.
The Liberty have talked all season about the pain of having to watch the Aces celebrate winning a championship last year at the Barclays Center. The Liberty’s record dropped to 0-5 in the WNBA Finals after the Aces won Game 4 by a point.
No one wants to avoid a repeat performance Sunday more than Stewart, who in that loss to the Aces scored just 10 points on 3-for-17 shooting and failed to get off the game winner at the end. She surely doesn't want to hear all next year about how the Liberty were good enough to win 80% of their games in the regular season but couldn’t win when it mattered most.
Stewart, for what it’s worth, sounds ready to change the narrative and finally win a title for Liberty fans. "We are going back to New York," Stewart said. "And we're going to get it done."
It’s on her.
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.
