Liberty Survive Game 1 Ot Thriller, but Breanna Stewart Buthury and Sloppy Play put the defense title in question

Three minutes after the extensions in match 1 of a first -round eliminatory series against the Phoenix Mercury, the New York Liberty gathered around their star Breanna Stewart, who was on the field by entering the left knee.

Stewart attempted the franc launch awarded on the game that led to his injury, missed him and left the match for a little time after. She seemed to retaliate back, watching her team release a 76-69 victory.

Stewart collected 18 points, six rebounds and four assists in the tight but sloppy match, which was played in Phoenix. There is no update on your health at the moment.

“We have just returned to the locker room. I’m sure she will soon be assessed,” New York coach Sandy Brondello told journalists after the match. With the new eliminatory format, New York and Phoenix will go to Brooklyn for match 2 Wednesday evening.

“She asked me to approach her there, and she looked uncomfortable, so that was the reason why we got her out … We just hope that she will be fine.”

A serious injury to Stewart could stop the race in the New York eliminatory series before he even begins.

The playoffs had to be a reset, a chance to wipe the slate. “Once the playoffs are just a new season,” said Sabrina Ionescu, New York goalkeeper, in the recent episode of Liberty Unlocked, the team’s all accessible series.

Instead, match 1 included mental errors and a key injury.

A tumultuous season

The season did not go as planned for New York freedom. After a hot start, injuries forced the freedom to use more than 15 different starting alignments during a 44 game season.

Stewart missed 13 games in the regular season with a bone bone of the right knee. Freedom went 5-8 without it. The team was also without the services of the WNBA final in 2024 Jonquel Jones for 13 games, the candidate of the sixth player of the year Kennedy Burke for eight games and Nyara Sabally, who played a crucial role in the classic of match 5 in overtime which sealed the WNBA 2024 championship for the Liberty, for 27 games. The German compatriot Léonie Fiebich also missed seven games.

We can be tempted to blame all the 2025 misfortunes on injuries. However, to do so, would stupidly ignore that New York recorded an average of 13.8 reversals per game throughout the regular season. The Liberty also led the League in offensive rebounds (9.7) authorized per game and abandoned an average of 14.8 reversal points.

The Liberty gave Phoenix 15 points of 21 reversals on Sunday.

Given that the Liberty fell to the fifth seeds of the playoffs, it is unlikely that they have an advantage at home throughout the playoffs. New York went 10-12 in outdoor matches during the regular season.

Everyone must intervene

Phoenix almost doubled freedom in attempts at free throws. All the nine attempts from New York came from Stewart and the leader of the Natasha Cloud team (23 points), who wore the team in the physical match and at low score,

If Stewart was released on Wednesday, one of his teammates will have to intensify. Jones, which Phoenix held seven points on Sunday, is the main candidate. Jones was aggressive on the boards, but will have to give more offensive to freedom if they hope to win the series in front of them. The reigning champions are a 33-0 indicators in the past three years, when Jones has a double-double in the regular season.

“I just want to be able to protect the edge and then you know, use my rebound to be able to help us close our goods and finally win,” said Jones after Sunday’s match. She understands that physicality will only increase as the qualifiers are continuing.

“You get a treatment, you understand that it’s just the nature of the playoff series, that physicity is how it will be. It will be really revealed from another level, of the regular season,” said Jones.

2025 winners and losers of the WNBA, Lynx, aces marks enormous victories; Liberty loses Breanna Stewart because of the injury

Jack Maloney

“I think that experience also helps us with this aspect, because we are used to it. We understood or understand what it took last year to be able to go away. So yes, it’s just the nature of the playoffs,” she added.

Sabrina Ionescu collected 16 points, seven assists and six rebounds in the night, and Leonie Fiebich added 10 points – including a huge prolongation from the exterior of the arc to guarantee victory. The shooting of the perimeter could decide the winner of this series.

“We are as great from a shooting team at 3 points as them. This is where it comes down. We have done some more than them. And Léonie Fiebich, no bigger than 3 in overtime,” said Brondello. New York and Phoenix took 419 and 414 three points of these seasons, respectively.

“Yeah, it was huge. You know, it’s funny. I was – you know that she had missed it very early, and I knew she was going to hit the biggest at night. That’s exactly what she is doing,” Ionescu said about Fiebich after the match.

The Liberty bench has only scored two points.

What is the next step

The winning match 1 tips for a tip for New York, which went 17-5 to the Barclays Center this season.

“We have the advantage. We have won an outside match and we won on their field. Now the advantage is that we are dealing with it.

If the Liberty lost Wednesday, the series returns to Phoenix for match 3. The Mercury has been looking for their first victory in the playoff series since 2021, when the head coach of Mercury, Brondello, led a team from Phoenix to the head of the WNBA. The winner of this series will face the winner of Minnesota Lynx and Golden State Valkyries in the semi-finals.

Before the start of the playoffs, Stewart expressed his optimism in the last episode of Liberty unlocked on the team’s quest for a defense of the title.

“We have not yet reached a summit and that is what it looks like, the most exciting part on this subject is that we have still not played our best,” said Stewart in the episode when he was seated under a statue of the former teammate and 2025 Naimismith Hall of Famer Sue Bird in Seattle.

“Everyone has talked about shit and doubt us, and all these things are fine. But be sure to stay there when it starts to go well for us too,” said Stewart.

While the Liberty obtained the very important victory, Sunday did not make silent doubts.