The New York Liberty’s victory Sunday in Game 2 of the WNBA Finals was largely the product of the offensive explosion from Betnjiah Laney-Hamilton.
The wing hasn’t been 100 percent health-wise throughout the Liberty’s postseason run, but New York coach Sandy Brondello noted Laney-Hamilton was feeling better in the days ahead of Sunday’s game, and that was demonstrated in her performance.
Laney-Hamilton made four three-point shots, making the Lynx pay for going under on screens, en route to a 20-point performance as the Liberty eeked out enough offense to salvage a split in their two home games to open the championship series.
New York’s brightest stars are Breanna Stewart, Jonquel Jones and Sabrina Ionescu, but Lynx coach Cheryl Reeve noted the Liberty have a “big five.” That includes Laney-Hamilton, as well as Leonie Fiebich. Fiebich was quiet in Sunday’s matinee, but she drilled five triples in Game 1.
“Their starters are all very capable, just like our starters are all very capable. And you need players beyond your stars. And for two games, they’ve done that,” Reeve said. “We’re having trouble getting that consistently, and we’ve got to have that.”
Indeed, the production of all-world forward Napheesa Collier and starting point guard Courtney Williams for the Lynx is fairly bankable at this juncture. Collier is one of the top two players in basketball who produces on a nightly basis, and Williams is averaging a very efficient 15 points per game this postseason.
But in order to score enough points to win games against such a high-level opponent, the Lynx need at least three scorers, and probably four. Who’s No. 3 and No. 4? That’s a bit of an unknown on a game-to-game basis. Kayla McBride buried four triples in Game 1, scoring 22 points in the win. But she went 3 for 9 from the field on Sunday in Game 2.
Alanna Smith had 14 points in Game 2 after a 3-for-8 shooting performance to open the series. Bridget Carleton hasn’t cracked double-digit scoring in any of the Lynx’s past four games after acting as an inferno from beyond the arc all season to this point.
Then there were the reserves, who combined for five points total in Game 2, all from Natisha Hiedeman. That’s not enough for the Lynx, who relied heavily on bench production at key points in their semifinal series victory over Connecticut.
“You’ve got players that are playing a lot of minutes, a lot of heavy minutes, and any time you can get your bench to come in and be productive, and you can keep them out there longer, that’s an advantage,” Reeve said. “But I don’t think either bench has been, necessarily, a separator. … Both teams are looking for anywhere else you can go to so that you don’t have all this pressure on your top players.”
The Lynx need at least one player — if not two — to step up in support of Collier and Williams as the series shifts to Target Center for Game 3 on Wednesday. Because those types of offensive outbursts from non “stars” make, as Reeve noted, “a huge difference” between winning and losing.
