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Breanna Stewart's Trio of Triples Solidify Liberty Blowout

Breanna Stewart's three-point abilities returned with a deafening message in the New York Liberty's return.

Geoff Magliocchetti

Brandon Todd, NY Liberty
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With summer winding down, New York Liberty star Breanna Stewart is looking to get out more.

The reigning WNBA MVP ignited against the Los Angeles Sparks, leading the Liberty with 27 points on 10-of-15 shooting en route to a 103-68 victory. While drama was kept to a minimum ... New York's lead never dipped under 20 after the second period ... Stewart's late landmarks were a solid reward for anyone sticking around, especially on an East Coast nearing midnight.

Fruitless on 14 three-point attempts during four appearances in June, Stewart ended that streak in style by hitting three on three consecutive possessions to inflate the Liberty lead to 37. From there, New York (22-4) coasted as it closed in on its fifth consecutive victory.

Having ended a four-game streak with no three-pointers (her longest such drought since her rookie year with Seattle in 2016), Stewart was more intrigued by the effect her triples had on the Liberty bench rather than the scoreboard.

"I'm going to just keep doing what I do," Stewart said. "When you get hot like that, it's obviously a feeling of when you shoot, it feels like the basket is the ocean. But to be able to celebrate with my teammates was a lot of fun, and I'm not really worried about what anyone else is kind of saying or thinking, or whatever the case may be. We're just trying to win."

Liberty
Brandon Todd, NY Liberty

Stewart did have digital bulletin board material going into Thursday's return from the All-Star/Olympic break: ESPN's Kevin Pelton, while ranking Stewart the second-best player in the WNBA going into the latter portion of the regular season, hinted that her somewhat diminished numbers, including the issues from deep, "could be the first sign of Stewart aging out of her prime."

Stewart's wife Marta Xargay tore Pelton's analysis apart on X and was supported by a quoted post from the Liberty's official account. Her efforts against Los Angeles began to buck at those trends and she continued to press forward in other areas that have expanded while she regains her shooting touch.

For example, WNBA Stats registered Stewart's defensive rating at 65.9 on Thursday, second-best behind only Sabrina Ionescu. Stewart's posting in the advanced category is at 92.5, good for fourth in the W and her best since finishing second in the Bradenton bubble in 2020.

Stewart, however, once again pointed to the effects of a team setting rather that centering on what she's done to pull herself up from any perceived lacking.

"We made it look a lot easier than what it was," Stewart said of Thursday's win. "I think that the fact that this team enjoys being around each other, that we have a chemistry and a camaraderie is huge. We know what the goal is. From the start of the season, we didn't want to make any excuses, and that's going to continue to carry over to the second half of the season."

"We were just playing. We weren't really kind of getting bogged down by running sets. We were just going to play basketball and let the game come to us."

Stewart and the Liberty return to action on Saturday late afternoon when they face the Las Vegas Aces (4 p.m. ET, CBS).

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Geoff Magliocchetti

GEOFF MAGLIOCCHETTI

Editor-In-Chief at All Knicks

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