WNBA: Why everything is still going right for the New York Liberty

Even though they lost their first game of the season, failing to advance to a 10-0 start after standing as the league’s lone remaining undefeated team, everything is still more than okay for the New York Liberty.

They still own the WNBA’s best offense and best defense, with an offensive rating of 110.8 and defensive rating of 91.3 giving them an overall net rating of 19.5, which is nearly seven points better than the second-place Minnesota Lynx. There are no signs of a championship hangover in Brooklyn, only evidence that this team is drinking an elixir of excellence that has them on track to follow up the franchise’s long-awaited first championship with a second-straight one.

Before the season, we identified the key contributions New York needed from their five starters in order to be in position to repeat.

Unsurprisingly, the Liberty’s first five, which has outscored opponents by 65 points on the season, is mostly meeting those benchmarks—and then some. All-Star honors should be in short order for Breanna Stewart, Jonquel Jones and Sabrina Ionescu, while Natasha Cloud and Leonie Fiebich have thrived as All-Star role players.

Stewie’s still not shooting the 3, but she’s doing everything else

Concerns about Breanna Stewart’s wayward 3-point stroke have not been alleviated. She’s followed up her career-worst 29.5 mark from downtown by shooting an absolutely frigid 13.8 percent from 3 to start the season. Before last season, Stewie had never shot worse than 33 percent from 3; she also has a nearly 42 percent 3-point shooting season on her resume (2018). The drop off is insane and inexplicable.

But, does it really matter?

Stewie’s shooting a career-best 67.5 percent from 2-point range. With 26 percent of her field goal attempts coming from 3, the second-lowest mark of her career, she’s traded triples for 2s. While that’s often considered an unwise swap, as modern, analytically-included strategies prioritize the extra value of the 3-pointer, it’s smart for Stewart. In particular, she’s not opting for ill-advised long midrangers, but feasting around the basket and from the short midrange. On shots taken less than five feet from the basket, she’s converting a scintillating 82.2 percent; from five to nine feet away from the hoop, she’s cashing in at almost 67 percent.

Her 1.6 offensive win shares, which estimates how a player’s offensive production contributes to wins, ranks first on the Liberty and third in the league, proving that her poor shooting from deep is doing little to drag down her offensive value.

JJ is the WNBA’s double-double queen

The Liberty are at their best when Jonquel Jones is at her best. And through the seven games in which she has played, Jones has been pretty dang good. (It’s not a coincidence that New York suffered their first loss without JJ, who has missed the past three games with an ankle injury that she is expected to return from on Tuesday.)

She’s not only averaging the requested double-double, she is one of only two players in the W who currently is scoring and rebounding in double figures, posting 13.9 points and 10.3 boards per game. (Angel Reese is her fellow double-doubler.)

The fact that Jones is shooting below her career norm from the field, despite exceeding her career average with a 42.9 percent effort from 3, suggests she has even more upside. A career 50 percent shooter from the short midrange, she’s currently hitting just over 35 percent of her shots from that area, a number that’s sure to improve. Nonetheless, the Liberty offense still hums with a league-best 114.6 offensive rating when she is on the floor.

Jones also is at the center, literally and figuratively, of the Liberty’s league-best defense. New York’s defensive rating when JJ is on the court is 81.4. That means opposing offenses are about nine points worse that the Connecticut Sun’s league-worst offense when Jones is out there.

Keep shooting Sab!

In the Liberty’s June 5 win over the Washington Mystics, Sabrina Ionescu became the Liberty’s all-time leader in made 3-pointers with 401. Along the way to that record, she also established another milestone, becoming the fastest player to reach 400 3s in WNBA history.

Those achievements are evidence of Ionescu’s 3-point shooting prowess—a weapon that she and the Liberty are again deploying more frequently this season. Over 56 percent of her shots have been 3-pointers, an increase from last season’s 53 percent. She’s also taking the most 3s per 100 possessions of her her career at 13.4.

And a somewhat unimpressive 34.1 percent from deep should not deter Ionescu’s aggressiveness, nor does it dull the effectiveness of her 3-point weapon. It’s her willingness to eagerly fire away from behind the arc and dare to take deep, difficult attempts that makes her such a dangerous shooter. Her 3-point bombing demands that the opposing defense cover even more of the floor as they attempt (often futilely) to guard the Liberty’s excess of offensive talent. Because, regardless of her shooting percentage, no defense wants to see Ionescu get loose, as there is a decent chance a deluge will ensue. And once Sab starts raining in the triples, it’s over!

Through 10 games, Ionescu has made 28 3s, tied for the third-most in the league. Her pace is not quite prolific enough to reach a record-breaking 150 3s. But if she can get on heater similar to her 2023 season, when she shot an outstanding 44.8 percent, she could claim another 3-point record.

Tash is bringing the two-way energy

While Natasha Cloud has cooled since starting her tenure in seafoam on a scoring hot streak, she’s still doing exactly what the Liberty intended when they acquired her during the offseason. She’s an offensive orchestrator and a defensive menace.

Cloud keeps the Liberty offense buzzing. While her 6.1 assists per game is not a career high nor the best in the league, she is sporting a career-best assist-to-turnover ratio of 3.05, the highest mark in the league among primary ball handlers who have played in the majority of their teams’ games. Overall, the Liberty rank second in assist and turnover percentage, evidence of Cloud’s imprint.

Compared to last season’s championship-winning squad, New York is also better at turning defense into offense, another Cloud trademark. In 2025, the Liberty lead the league in points off turnovers, a trait that contributes to their league-leading amount of fastbreak points. The team’s points of turnovers have increased by almost four points per game, from 15.8 to 19.6 per game. They’ve seen a similar leap in fastbreak points, jumping from 12.5 to 16.4 per game. Cloud is averaging a career bests in both categories, while her career-high and team-leading 1.8 steals per game are sparking a number of those opportunities.

Thus, despite her middling shooting percentages and single-digit scoring average, Cloud is helping key New York’s hyper-efficient offense, all while still strengthening their defense.

It’s all love for Leo

Just as it’s not coincidental that the Liberty’s first loss did not feature Jones, it’s also no accident that Fiebich’s first absence of the season was a contributing factor in the Liberty finally taking an L.

She’s off to represent Germany in EuroBasket Women and, despite the Liberty’s strong depth (which includes a breakout season from Kennedy Burke), she will be missed. Leo unlocks the Liberty. A 6-foot-4 wing who is long, strong and makes 48 percent of her 3s, she is a perfect “3-and-D” player, fitting seamlessly alongside New York’s stars as the ultimate “star in her role.”

She’s not leading the league in plus/minus. She’s just in second place, with the 15.4 points per game that the Liberty outscore opponents by when she is on the court trailing only Jones’ mark. In terms of net rating, only Jones again ranks above her, as the Liberty have an offensive rating of 111.9 and a defensive rating of 80.8 in Fiebich’s minutes.

Such statistics capture her overwhelming impact on winning basketball, even if her modest traditional stats—6.7 points, 3.8 rebounds and less than one assist and steal per game—do not pop off the page. The Liberty will still get plenty of wins without Leo, but they’ll likely find that some of those victories will not come as easily until she returns.