The New York Liberty’s victory Sunday in Game 2 of the WNBA Finals was largely the product of Betnjiah Laney-Hamilton’s offensive explosion.
The winger hasn’t been 100 percent healthy throughout the Liberty’s playoff run, but New York coach Sandy Brondello noted that Laney-Hamilton was feeling better in the days leading up to the game on Sunday, and it showed in his performance.
Laney-Hamilton made four three-pointers, making the Lynx pay for their slump on screens, en route to a 20-point performance as the Liberty managed enough offense to save a division 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 has a “big five.” This includes Laney-Hamilton, as well as Leonie Fiebich. Fiebich was quiet during Sunday’s matinee, but she hit five triples in the first game.
“Their starters are all very competent, just like our starters are all very competent. And you need players beyond your stars. And for two games they’ve done that,” Reeve said. “We struggle to get that consistently, and we have to have it.”
Indeed, the production of all-around forward Napheesa Collier and starting point guard Courtney Williams for the Lynx is quite profitable at this point. Collier is one of the two best players in basketball to produce on a nightly basis, and Williams is averaging a very efficient 15 points per game in the postseason.
But to score enough points and win games against such a high-level opponent, the Lynx need at least three scorers, and probably four. Who is number 3 and number 4? It’s a bit of an unknown from one game to the next. Kayla McBride hit four triples in the opener, scoring 22 points in the victory. But she went 3-for-9 from the field Sunday in Game 2.
Alanna Smith had 14 points in game two after a 3-of-8 shooting performance to open the series. Bridget Carleton has failed to reach double-digit scoring in the Lynx’s last four games after acting like hell from beyond the arc all season thus far.
Then there were the reserves, who totaled five points in the second game, all from Natisha Hiedeman. That’s not enough for the Lynx, who relied heavily on bench production at key moments in their semifinal win over Connecticut.
“You have players who play a lot of minutes, a lot of heavy minutes, and any time you can get your bench in and be productive, and you can keep them around longer, that’s an advantage,” Reeve said. “But I don’t think either bench was necessarily a divider. …Both teams are looking for somewhere else to go so they don’t have all that pressure on your best players.
The Lynx need at least one player — if not two — to back up Collier and Williams as the series moves to Target Center for Game 3 on Wednesday. Because these types of offensive outbursts from non-“stars” make, as Reeve noted, “a huge difference” between winning and losing.
