New York Liberty lose Jonquel Jones to injury, battle to Phoenix Mercury, 89-81

Despite a heroic effort from Breanna Stewart, the New York Liberty lost their second game of the season. Worse yet, they lost their star center, and are now facing real adversity. About time.

For just a bit, the New York Liberty imagined away the bigger issue at hand.

The worst part of a muddy first half in which the home team turned it over 14 times, going down by just a possession to the Phoenix Mercury, who couldn’t hit an open jumper, had nothing to do with the quality of basketball. Jonquel Jones, a week removed from a right ankle sprain, went down in audible pain after a drive to the rim, this time grabbing her knee…

Though it’s still too early to assess the severity of the injury, she was ruled out with an ankle issue. Not the knee.

Kennedy Burke said that Jones, who later left the arena in a walking boot, was in good spirits postgame — “she always has a good attitude when things happen” — but there were no good spirits inside Barclays when she went down.

Jones’ painful exit to the locker room and an active Phoenix defense threatening to hand New York their second loss of the season dampened the mood considerably. But then Breanna Stewart took over in the way Breanna Stewart typically takes over, a long-limbed tornado that blows up screens, cuts to the rim, and finally regressing to career norms on Thursday night, makes 3-pointers…

Stewie finished with a monster ____ line on 10-of-16 shooting and a bunch of free-throws. It harkened back to 2023, when a newly formed Liberty superteam often had to rely on Stewie simply willing them to wins by any means necessary.

Throw in some Marine Johannès insanity …

…and though the Liberty never built their lead greater than a couple possessions, and Sabrina Ionescu couldn’t find her shot or any holes in Phoenix’s defense, New York was on track with an ear-splitting Barclays Center behind them.

Natasha Cloud not only hit multiple 3-pointers for the first time in weeks, but helped New York shore up their ball-screen defense by being a bloodhound, and consistently drove into the paint on the other end. The sea foam defense held Satou Sabally to an ugly 4-of-18 shooting.

But the Mercury, even on the second night of a back-to-back, were up to the challenge. The visitors trapped Ionescu on nearly every ball-screen action while taking away the short-roll, short-circuiting New York’s offense. Ionescu shot just 3-of-16 on the night, and 1-of-10 from deep.

“It’s pretty tough when there’s two on the ball every single time you come off a pick-and-roll to really be able to find the open person,” said Ionescu, who was coming off consecutive 34-point nights. “I mean, they’re a great defensive team. They’re long, they’re active, they bait you into passes. And obviously, I think that’s something we didn’t really execute well on was their traps, making everything difficult. Obviously, they watched the last few games of us being able to just come off and pick and choose what we wanted to do offensively, and their adjustment was track, blitz the ball-screen and make the next pass really difficult. And they did that really well, and I think that’s something we’ll learn from.”

As a result of a stagnant offense, Stewie and Sabrina took 33 field-goals, and 20 free-throws. Their teammates combined for 28 attempts and five freebies.

Despite defensive flashes from the Liberty, Phoenix had no such problems. Even with a resting Kahleah Copper, longtime foe Alyssa Thomas ended with 18/15/7, constantly probing from the elbows to the block, hitting a few of those unorthodox jumpers too. Monique Akoa Makani steadied the Mercury all game with 21 points, but ex-Lib Sami Whitcomb hit the real daggers in the fourth quarter…

The Liberty might have been able to throw their hands up and move on quickly, but they made too many unforced errors to breathe easy. Aside from their 20 turnovers, they also allowed 26 second-chance points. When asked if New York was simply ball-watching on the boards, a displeased Breanna Stewart said, “Yeah. That’s what happened.”

Without Jonquel Jones, the Liberty’s margin for error kept shrinking and shrinking, until it ultimately vanished. Down five with half-a-minute left, Ionescu tossed up a difficult but, for her, manageable 3-pointer as she faded into the Phoenix bench. Clank. Ballgame.

Brondello, with obvious disappointment in her tone, chose to focused on the rebounding postgame: “It’’s really hard when we lose JJ. It obviously takes a little bit of energy away from us for a bit. That’s normal. But we got to find a way to rebound. You know, we just can’t just put it all on her. So it’s all about all of us.”

A seething trio of Brondello, Stewie, and Sabrina sat at the podium on Thursday night, soaking in not just a loss, but for the first time all season, real adversity. Jonquel Jones is facing a serious injury at best and a devastating one at worst, and Leonie Fiebich is at EuroBasket for, at least, the upcoming West Coast road trip.

It had to rain at some point.

Final Score: Phoenix Mercury 89, New York Liberty 81