Jonquel Jones Key to Liberty Evolution
Jonquel Jones has plenty of titles attached to her packed WNBA resume. Somehow the New York Liberty star found a way to apparently add "scientist" to her sterling gauntlet.
Jones went on a heater in Las Vegas over the weekend, putting up a career-best 34 points on 12-of-16 shooting in a WNBA Finals rematch against the Las Vegas Aces. The second-year New Yorker has been a mobile heat wave over the past three games, averaging 28.3 points and 8.0 rebounds while sinking over an astonishing 71 percent of her tries from the field.
"JJ looks great," head coach Sandy Brondello remarked after Saturday's win. "Coming over from China she had a great season over there, came in healthy. We've talked about the chemistry in the second year, she doesn't have to learn her teammates or the system. She feels comfortable."
"At the start of the year, when you're getting new people back together, you wonder if you're still getting her enough touches but I think it's not that we've changed anything. We just make sure she's inside, she's outside, JJ's doing the rest."
One can easily argue that the Liberty's scorching start, a 12-2 tally that has them flirting with the WNBA's top seed on the early playoff bracket, is the aftershock of a healthy Jones on the floor.
Some international ailments followed her into her maiden metropolitan voyages last season but Jones became an undeniable force over the latter portions of the season. She capped things off by posting double-doubles in all but one of the Liberty's 10 postseason games, though they were hardly consolation for the heartbreaking ending, which saw New York fall to Las Vegas in the aforementioned Finals.
In the immediate aftermath, Aces stars Kelsey Plum declared that the Liberty's assembly of All-Stars "(didn't) care about each other." Plum claimed that her comments were taken out of context but they struck a nerve with Jones, who referred to the quote as "classless" when the Liberty broke camp for the winter.
Months of reflection and pouring over game film, however caused Jones to give pause and pen a curious chapter in the Liberty-Aces rivalry.
"She definitely gave a different perspective and I saw it," Jones said in the leadup to Saturday, per Andrew Crane of the New York Post. "I saw what she saw when I went back and I watched the game, and it kind of felt like we were all trying to do it separately just trying to get one win versus coming together as a team and trying to get a win.”
New York partly banked on a year of developed chemistry amongst Jones and the rest of the primary lineup pacing greater endeavors. The starting five from last season was fully retained and familiarity has been used to improvise as bench leftover Kayla Thornton has stepped in for Courtney Vandersloot (out for personal reasons).
That bet, Jones remarked, is paying off, especially on Saturday in Vegas, of all places.
"It was the trust. I think we trusted each other to make the right plays, to do what we're really good at," Jones said after the win in Sin City. "Sabrina (Ionescu) got downhill and found people with 12 assists. Everybody's just doing what they're good at and understanding that it's not an individual thing. We're all there for each other, especially defensively, I think we were scrambling them around late, making them take a tough shot, and it showed."
With that chemistry in mind, Jones was free to do a little bit of everything on Saturday afternoon: she built a good bit of her tally on a 4-of-5 effort from three-point range and Brondello also praised her "really exciting" defense on Finals MVP A'ja Wilson, whose streak of eight consecutive games with at least 25 points came to an end with Jones drawing the primary assignment in a quiet fourth quarter.
The Liberty's next chance to showcase that cleansing chemistry lands on Tuesday night when they wrap up a brief West Coast tour in the desert against the Phoenix Mercury (10 p.m. ET, CBS Sports Network).
GEOFF MAGLIOCCHETTI
Editor-In-Chief at All Knicks