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The Liberty showed why they’re the best basketball team in New York on Sunday afternoon.
The 2024 WNBA champions and 2023 Commissioner’s Cup champions opened this season’s Commissioner’s Cup action with a history-making victory over the Connecticut Sun, 100-52. The 48-point win, the second-largest in WNBA history and the biggest in franchise history, was the perfect present for the birthday girl, Big Ellie.
There was not a singular star performance that spurred the Liberty’s domination. Instead, it was a display of the balanced, all-round excellence that makes New York look like the favorite to capture another Cup, as well as a second-straight WNBA championship.
Up 31-13 after the first quarter and 60-28 at the half, the Liberty started hot—and never let up, extending their lead to as many as 57 points. Efficient shooting, especially from behind the arc, drove the Liberty’s dominance. Just seven games into the 2025 season, the Liberty hit a league-record 19 3 pointers for a second time, going 19-for-32, good for almost 60 percent, from 3 as 10 of the 11 players who saw action on Sunday sunk at least one triple. Sabrina Ionescu was 4-for-6 from downtown on her way to a team-high 18 points. Leonie Fiebich went 3-for-4 from deep, finishing with 13 points, a total that was matched by Breanna Stewart and Jonquel Jones, who also grabbed a game-high 11 boards. The New York bench gave Connecticut no reprieve, producing 35 points on the afternoon.
In a non-Cup regular season game, the Liberty’s margin a victory would merely serve as evidence of their excessive excellence. But in the context of the Commissioner’s Cup, a 48-point win could provide the Liberty with an insurmountable advantage, as point differential serves as the first tie breaker if teams are tied atop the Cup standings. Of course, at the moment, it’s hard to imagine the 7-0 Liberty losing a game.
As far as where things stand for the Sun, let’s just say that Łukasz Muniowski was not wrong when he wrote that this team is not very good. Fortunately, the rest of Sunday’s Commissioner’s Cup action proved a bit more compelling.
Dominique almost does it
The Seattle Storm may have handled the Las Vegas Aces in Jewell Loyd’s first return to Seattle. The second time around, the Aces outlasted the Storm, securing the 75-70 victory in the game that arguably mattered more. Yet, what happened on the court for Seattle may have mattered the most, especially in the long run.
A subpar first quarter forced the Storm to chase the Aces for most of the afternoon, with the visitors entering the final frame up by 14 points before an and-1 from rookie Aaliyah Nye gave Vegas a 17-point advantage, their largest of the contest.
Then, Seattle’s rookie began to swing the tide. Dominique Malonga scored eight-straight points—the entirety of her scoring output—for the Storm. Erica Wheeler found her under the basket. She posted up Jackie Young for a close-range turnaround finish. She dropped in a driving floater. Wheeler hit her in transition for a driving layup.
Malonga’s spurt cut the margin to 11 points, and invigorated Seattle. Only down five points with under 40 seconds left, Gabby Williams breezed to the basket for a layup out of an out-of-bounds action to make it a one possession contest. Seattle then got the stop they needed, setting up a chance to send the game into overtime with 13 seconds remaining.
The final play was puzzling, yet also encouraging. Despite needing a 3-pointer, Skylar Diggins dumped the ball into Malonga in the paint, who has guarded by two-time Defensive Player of the Year A’ja Wilson. Malonga managed to get off a fadeaway jumper that didn’t fall. Even if the bucket had dropped, the Storm would have still trailed and been forced to rely on the foul game in order to extend the contest.
Nonetheless, the fact that Diggins trusted Malonga in that situation speaks volumes about the rookie’s rapid rise up the Storm’s ranks. After playing just two minutes in the first half, she played the entire fourth quarter, with Seattle outscoring Vegas by eight points in her 12 total minutes. Although, that doesn’t mean she wasn’t subject to several “Welcome to the W” moments, with both Wilson and Chelsea Gray dropping jumpers over her solid contests.
Wilson, unsurprisingly, led the way for the Aces, finishing with 19 points, seven rebounds, three assists and four blocks in the win.
PHX finds their motor without the Engine
Down Alyssa Thomas due to a calf injury, the Phoenix Mercury found themselves down by 18 points on the scoreboard to the Los Angeles Sparks in the closing moments of the second quarter, seemingly on their way to an uncompetitive loss without their best player.
Not so fast. Phoenix flipped the script in the third quarter, winning the period 24-9 behind two 3s and 10 points from Kathryn Westbeld.
That set up closely-contested final quarter, where the Mercury managed to maintain a slight edge throughout most of the period due to contributions from across the roster. While Satou Sabally netted a pair of 3s and scored seven points, Kitija Laska added six points, four of them from the line. Monique Akoa Makani also hit a triple and put in five points, as Westbeld, Kalani Brown and Haley Jones, who was just picked up on a hardship contract, also each chipped in with a crucial bucket. Phoenix ultimately exited LA with a 85-80 win.
All five of the Mercury’s starters finished in double figures, led by 24 from Sabally. It was a performance that exemplified what’s made the Mercury successful so far this season. The star(s) will produce and a cast of overlooked, underrated players who know their roles will fill in the gaps.
That’s not what’s happening in LA. Three Sparks—Odyssey Sims, Kelsey Plum and Dearica Hamby—combined for 62 points, led by Sims’ 32 points. No other Spark scored more than six points.
The Lynx remain golden
Albeit in less dominant fashion, the Minnesota Lynx, like the Liberty, remained undefeated, with the defending Commissioner’s Cup champions advancing their overall record to 7-0 with a 86-75 win over the Golden State Valkyries.
Napheesa Collier, who missed Minnesota’s previous game, was back to stuffing the stat sheet, scoring 24 points, grabbing 11 boards and dishing four assists. Courtney Williams was her sidekick, with 20 points, five boards and five assists. Natisha Hiedeman, the Lynx’s hero in their Phee-less win over the Mercury, continued her impactful play, as her eight points, four assists and two steals helped the Lynx outscore the Valkyries by a team-high 21 points when she was on the court.
While Golden State held a one-point halftime lead, an eight-point third quarter doomed their upset bid. The 11-point win puts Minnesota at the top of the Western Conference Commissioner’s Cup standings, ahead of both Vegas and Phoenix with their five-point wins.
