NEW YORK — Betnijah Laney-Hamilton is not 100% healthy.
Liberty coach Sandy Brondello acknowledged as much Sunday ahead of Game 2 of the WNBA Finals.
But less than three months after she underwent right knee surgery, Laney-Hamilton came up big.
Laney-Hamilton scored 20 points on 8-for-14 shooting in the Liberty’s 80-66 win over the Minnesota Lynx at Barclays Center, which evened the best-of-five series at 1-1.
“It felt really good, because I know I’ve been struggling physically, mentally, as I’ve been going through everything,” Laney-Hamilton said. “To see a glimpse of what I’m capable of, it felt really good.”
Laney-Hamilton made four of her six 3-point attempts, including a dagger from the corner with 3:21 remaining in the fourth quarter. That shot, which came on a no-look assist from Sabrina Ionescu, put the Liberty up, 71-66, and kicked off a 12-0 run to end the game.
“We believe in her,” Ionescu said of Laney-Hamilton. “She knows that. This was a huge game. She played a huge role in the game ending up the way that it did, and she’s going to continue to do it.”
Laney-Hamilton, a versatile guard known for her tenacious defense, underwent surgery in July to clean up two loose bodies in her right knee.
She averaged only 5.9 points per game on 29% shooting through the Liberty’s first seven playoff games, down from 11.8 points per game on 45.6% in the regular season. She did not score more than 10 points in any of those previous postseason contests, including Game 1 of the Finals, when she finished with five points and went 2 for 7.
But after the Liberty blew an 18-point lead in that Game 1 loss, Laney-Hamilton came up with what Brondello described as a “massive” performance.
“They have been going under on screens, so we encouraged her to shoot the 3,” Brondello said. “She’s a great 3-point shooter. She was stroking it yesterday in practice before the game. She was digging deep and that’s what we needed. We knew we needed to bounce back and it was a big bounce-back game.”
Laney-Hamilton’s 20 points on Sunday — which matched her season-high — were the second most on the Liberty, behind only the 21 scored by Breanna Stewart.
And while Laney-Hamilton declined to put a number on how close she feels to 100%, she did say she believes her treatment is working.
“I’ve just been stacking days, stacking days, stacking days, making sure I’m preparing my body for these moments,” Laney-Hamilton said. “I’m finally starting to feel pretty good.”
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