Alexa Philippou, ESPN
NEW YORK — Guard Sabrina Ionescu and the New York Liberty overcame a slow start and 14-point deficit to handily beat the visiting Chicago Sky 91-76 on Thursday night at Barclays Center.
The Liberty — who are 2-1 against the Sky this season — join 13 other teams across WNBA history in winning 19 of their first 23 games of a season. Twelve of those teams made the WNBA Finals that year, and 10 won the championship.
“This is a veteran team, an experienced team,” Liberty coach Sandy Brondello said. “They can lock in. We’ve got great leadership. There’s a commitment to excellence. Even if you struggled one quarter, they’re always encouraging each other, ‘Come on, let’s do it. Let’s be better.'”
Ionescu missed her first seven shots of the game and was 1-for-8 from the floor at halftime before finishing with a team-best 21 points behind 6-for-9 shooting (4-for-6 from 3) in the second half.
“Kind of hung my head at halftime and then came back to start that third with an understanding I need to go out there and get the ball in the basket for this team to win,” Ionescu said. “Just thankful that I had that opportunity to go out there and get good looks.”
“Sometimes when shooters like that get a rhythm, it doesn’t matter who’s there,” Sky coach Teresa Weatherspoon added. “They feel like they can make whatever shot they take.”
The 2020 No. 1 pick is averaging a career-best 19 points and 6 assists per game this season.
“She’s a pretty special player, isn’t she?” Brondello said of Ionescu. “I know Sabrina had a pretty untypical start to the game, but you never can keep her down for more than 20 minutes, and she showed that in the second half.”
The Sky were paced by Chennedy Carter (22 points, 14 in the first half), while rookie Angel Reese (10 points, 10 rebounds) extended her WNBA record streak of consecutive double-doubles to 15 games behind a five-rebound fourth quarter.
“We could have been better defensively, could have done some things better the second half and so could I as their coach,” said Weatherspoon, whose Sky fell to 9-13 and sit in seventh in the WNBA standings.
The game featured a reported crowd of 17,758, the largest in Liberty history at Barclays Center.
It was a strong night for the Liberty’s big three, with Breanna Stewart chipping in 19 points and Jonquel Jones finishing with 18 points, 13 rebounds and 4 blocks. New York improved to 16-1 this season when Jones scores 10 or more points compared to 3-4 (including the Commissioner’s Cup championship) when she manages nine or fewer.
Rookie Leonie Fiebich — starting in place of the injured Betnijah Laney-Hamilton — added a season-high 13-points, while veteran Kayla Thornton provided a massive presence on both ends with 16 points and four steals.
After 14 lead changes and five ties in the first 30 minutes, New York took control with a 28-14 fourth quarter in which Ionescu and Thornton combined to outscore the Sky 22-14.
Thornton’s grit and hard work on both ends elicited cheers from the Barclays crowd, including in the fourth quarter when she ran into the tunnel after chasing down the Sky’s Lindsay Allen and knocking the ball away from her on a fast-break opportunity.
“That’s what KT does,” Jones said. “She understands her role and she does it to the best of her ability. We need more of that from her, to just continue to just leave it all out there. And we’re a better team when she does it.”
The Liberty also outscored the Sky 17-2 in fast-break points and scored 21 points off 13 Chicago turnovers.
“I think we’ve got the tools to be a great defensive team,” Brondello said of her squad, which held the Sky to double-digit scoring in the second and fourth quarters. “It’s the consistency, and we’ve shown it a lot this year: When we lock in, we can lock teams down, too. Not always for 40 minutes, but we know how to raise the level. And it’s just the communication and the trust that they have, I think, that’s pretty special.”
The teams will meet again Saturday at 1 p.m. ET for a rematch in Chicago.