The Liberty made certain to trade pleasantries early.
With Kayla Thornton on the town, the franchise welcomed her again with a pregame tribute video and the ahead obtained her 2024 championship ring at halfcourt.
Every thing after that was disagreeable.
What adopted was a 95-67 blowout victory over the Golden State Valkyries, which stored the Liberty undefeated within the 2025 season. The Valkyries, the WNBA’s latest franchise, are of their inaugural season after an offseason of signings and an growth draft. The dearth of starpower was on full show Tuesday.
However that isn’t the Liberty’s downside as gamers on that loaded roster all took turns in contributing to the blowout.
Breanna Stewart led the way in which with 24 factors, three assists and three steals. Stewart began the onslaught with 9 first-quarter factors that contributed to an early 10-2 run. Protection created simple offense and within the halfcourt, the ball skipped round. It led to a 27-10 benefit for the Liberty on the finish of the primary quarter.
Y’all wanna see a magic trick?! 🪄
Then Marine Johannes stepped ahead to showcase her theatrics.
The French sparkplaug got here off the bench to empty 4 three-pointers within the second quarter. Johannes’ most highlight-worthy trey got here on the 8:44 mark within the second, when she tossed up a one-legged trey to increase her workforce’s result in 21. She went on to make two extra treys earlier than the ultimate buzzer in her 18-point outing.
The Liberty led, 48-29, at halftime. The Valkyries, although, fought again to keep away from an awesome rout. Golden State obtained inside 11 factors after Carla Leite’s layup on the 2:08 mark. The lead shortened on account of sloppy play and a lapse in protection from the Libs. Jonquel Jones even picked up a technical foul after being known as for her fourth private of the sport.
Thornton and Veronica Burton — each former Dallas Wings teammates — mixed for 13 factors within the third, however the lead once more stretched to 16 on the finish of the third.
Natalie Nakase’s Valkyries workforce fought arduous, however not a lot could possibly be achieved towards a Liberty workforce opposing no actual starpower. They misplaced the ultimate interval, 28-16, as Liberty head coach Sandy Brondello stored her starters in for a majority of the ultimate interval.
It took a 25-point lead with 3:15 remaining for Brondello to tug her starters out the sport.
Jones completed with 13 factors, 10 rebounds and 5 assists. Sabrina Ionescu recorded eight factors, six assists and 5 rebounds. Natasha Cloud scored 5 factors and dished 10 dimes, transferring previous Seattle’s Skylar Diggins for Tenth-place on the all-time help leaderboards.
Thornton completed with 13 factors, six rebounds and 4 steals in her homecoming. Burton additionally scored 13 factors to go together with six assists and 4 rebounds.
Golden State fell to 2-2 on the season. The 2 groups will meet once more on Thursday night time at Barclays Heart.
