Jonquel Jones’ dominant performance not enough for the Liberty in WNBA Finals Game 1

The officials were taking their sweet time to determine if Breanna Stewart had been fouled by Lynx forward Napheesa Collier as the clock trickled to the end of the fourth quarter. The Liberty were down 84-83 after having led 81-66 with five-and-a-half minutes remaining. 

Jones took a swig of Gatorade. “C’mon man,” she said while still waiting for the Liberty’s fate to be revealed. After a prolonged moment of anticipation, New York got its wish. Stewart was rewarded with a pair of free throws to take the lead while the clock was still paused at 0.8 seconds. Stewart took the first and made it. The home crowd bellowed. She then missed the second and the noise died down. Moments later, the buzzer sounded and it was on to overtime. 

In that five minute extra period, the Liberty only scored nine points on 4-for-13 shooting and turned the ball over three times to fall in Game 1 of the WNBA finals to the Minnesota Lynx, 95-93. Jones finished with 24 points on 9-for-14 shooting with 10 rebounds, three assists and a steal in the loss. 

“We got to do better for her,” Sabrina Ionescu said about Jones to a group of reporters postgame. “We got to go out there, and we gotta do what we do to continue to open up the floor for her. When she plays like that, we’re just a different team. I think she knows it. We know it, and so we’ve got to make sure that we lean into that and continue to find ways to get her the ball and just do what she did tonight.”

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Jones’ play was a point of question coming into this series especially when she had struggled in the season series against the Lynx. The Lynx had been intentional about taking her out of games by getting her into foul trouble and rendering her less effective with their paint congestion and three-quarter fronting of the Liberty’s 6’6 center.

The only Liberty win against the Lynx this season out of four games played came when Jones had a 21-12 double-double on July 2 at home. She came into Thursday night’s Game 1 with a heightened sense of awareness that her play was going to directly affect her team’s chances to win not only the first game but also the series. 

“I’m coming in really aggressively, obviously trying to play smart and not get into early foul trouble,” Jones said on Wednesday. “And trying to affect the boards because they are a smaller team and I think rebounding is one of the ways that we can kind of exploit them a little bit. But ultimately, just trying to have a good game so that we can be successful.”

In the first quarter, Jones was incredibly aggressive. She had 10 of her 24 points on 4-for-5 shooting. She had two of her three and-one, 3-point plays in the first quarter. Jones was demonstrative on her makes, as was her position coach Roneeka Hodges who was up from her seat and fist pumping every time Jones was establishing her dominance. 

In the second and third quarters, Jones did less damage offensively and had less touches, but her impact came on the glass. She had six of her 10 rebounds in the middle quarters. Jones was also clearly at her best or close to it on Thursday night because of how she was able to facilitate. While she registered three assists on the night, she had a hockey assist with 7:35 minutes left in the fourth quarter that proved her poise and understanding of how she ought to play against the Lynx. 

Ionescu found Jones deep in the paint, but once Jones caught the ball she felt the double come immediately. She dribbled once to get a better angle and then whipped the ball around Alanna Smith’s arms and into Betnijah Laney-Hamilton’s hands who then passed the ball to a wide open Stewart without any Lynx player in sight on the closeout. Stewart drilled the open wing 3-pointer.

And when the Liberty moved to overtime, it was Jones who made two plays that should have won New York the game. First came a clutch three following an out-of-bounds play with 1:38 left in overtime, and then Jones got into the passing lane and intercepted Lynx guard Bridget Carleton’s pass meant for Smith, drove the ball down the other end like a guard and scored the layup with ease.

Jones scored five of the Liberty’s nine total points in overtime. 

In theory, Jones’ 24-10 double-double on Thursday night should have been enough. Why wasn’t it? According to Stewart, the Liberty missed a lot of shots but also didn’t execute their game plan. 

“I think it’s pretty clear, [Jones] had an amazing game, and the way that she was aggressive from start to finish is exactly what we need,” Stewart said postgame. “I felt like there was just a few situations, time and score toward the end of the game, that really hurt us. But collectively there’s a lot of things that you could kind of look at and be like, well, this is one of the reasons why we lost.”

Did the Liberty revert back to some old mistakes? 

Jones shot 64.3% from the field on Thursday night. The Liberty’s two other 2024 All-Stars — Stewart and Ionescu — both shot under 35%. Both Ionescu and Stewart took tough contested one-on-one shots that didn’t involve moving the Minnesota defense. Ionescu believed she and her team were complacent down the stretch of the fourth quarter and she called some of their decisions passive. The Liberty were hesitant to drive and kick in response to the paint-packed Lynx defense. 

When Liberty rookie Leonie Fiebich was asked on Thursday night the one play that she couldn’t get out of her head, she pointed toward the and-one 3-pointer that Lynx guard Courtney Williams made with 5.5 seconds left in the fourth quarter. The Lynx got that score coming off a timeout, and it was a perplexing decision by head coach Sandy Brondello that she didn’t throw Laney-Hamilton and Kayla Thornton out for that one possession to defend with as much energy as they could. 

Brondello kept Ionescu and Courtney Vandersloot on the floor instead and as a result Williams missed her first attempt, Smith rebounded and then found Williams for another attempt that this time she made. 

Before tipoff on Thursday night, Brondello was asked about “the scar” that has motivated the Liberty all season long. The way that the team fell to the Las Vegas Aces against their home crowd in a series-deciding Game 4 last season haunted New York once again. The wound reopened on Thursday night. Once again the Liberty lost a game they should have won. 

The Lynx became the first team in WNBA playoff history to win a game when trailing by more than 15 points in the final five minutes of regulation. 

Not only was that wound re-opened Thursday night, but the reasons why the Liberty lost that Game 4 returned in Game 1. Even some of the reasons why the Liberty lost the Commissioner’s Cup earlier this season have come back to haunt them. Ionescu and Stewart’s decision making was flawed, Brondello had a brief lapse when it came to using the versatility this team has and Jones — a player whose been in now four WNBA Finals and has yet to win one — was one of the few New York players with the type of in-game poise that was needed. 

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But the postgame poise, however, belonged to Vandersloot. She implored her teammates that when they left the Barclays Center on Thursday night, the anger and frustration would have to be put behind. The dwelling would need to end. 

“I think that the best way we can go about this is realizing that it’s okay to feel the way we feel,” Vandersloot said postgame. “It’s hard. It wasn’t fun to lose that way. But moving on and moving forward, this is just part of our journey. This is just part of the story. And this is something that we can talk about one or two ways at the end. We’re looking at changing the course of this.”

And to change that course, the Liberty ought to stick together. While Jones’ double-double was spoiled by mistakes from the rest of her team and possibly her coach too, Jones doesn’t want those around her to feel that way at all. She’s not one to point fingers and neither will her team heading into Game 2 on Sunday afternoon. 

Stewart was notably annoyed when asked about her missed free throw with 0.8 seconds left in regulation that could have sealed the Liberty win. Jones noticed this and moments later when the presser concluded, Jones, Stewart and Brondello made a beeline for the door. But Jones made sure to put her hand on Stewart’s back as they were walking out to symbolize that Stewart’s mistakes won’t be held against her. The Liberty still have more basketball left to play.

Editor’s note: A previous version of this story incorrectly identified the amount of time remaining on the clock in regulation at the end of the fourth quarter. The correct amount of time is 0.8 seconds and the story has been updated accordingly.