Three minutes into overtime in Game 1 of a first-round playoff series against the Phoenix Mercury, the New York Liberty gathered around their star Breanna Stewart, who lay on the court grabbing at her left knee.
Stewart attempted the free throw awarded on the play that led to her injury, missed it, and left the game for good shortly afterwards. She appeared to be fighting back tears as she watched her team eke out a 76-69 win.
Stewart had 18 points, six rebounds and four assists in the tight, albeit sloppy, postseason game, which was played in Phoenix. There is no update on her health at this time.
“We only just got back to the locker room. I’m sure she’ll be evaluated soon,” New York coach Sandy Brondello told reporters after the game. With the new playoff format, both New York and Phoenix will head to Brooklyn for Game 2 Wednesday night.
“She asked me to sub her out there, and she looked uncomfortable, so that was the reason we took her out … we’re just hoping that she’ll be okay.”
A serious injury to Stewart could stop New York’s postseason run before it even gets started.
The postseason was supposed to be a reset, a chance to wipe the slate clean. “Once the playoffs come, it’s just a new season,” New York guard Sabrina Ionescu said in the recent episode of Liberty Unlocked, the team’s all-access series.
Instead, Game 1 featured mental errors and an injury to a key player.
Breanna Stewart injury: Liberty star (knee) leaves Game 1 vs. Mercury in overtime, will be evaluated ‘soon’
Jack Maloney
A tumultuous season
The season hasn’t gone as expected for the New York Liberty. After a hot start, injuries forced the Liberty to use more than 15 different starting lineups in a 44-game season.
Stewart missed 13 games during the regular season with a right knee bone bruise. The Liberty went 5-8 without her. The team was also without the services of 2024 WNBA Finals MVP Jonquel Jones for 13 games, Sixth Player of the Year candidate Kennedy Burke for eight games and Nyara Sabally, who played a crucial role in the Game 5 overtime classic that sealed the 2024 WNBA championship for the Liberty, for 27 games. Fellow German Olympian Leonie Fiebich also missed seven games.
One may be tempted to blame all the 2025 woes on injuries. However, to do so would foolishly overlook that New York averaged 13.8 turnovers per game throughout the regular season. The Liberty also led the league in offensive rebounds (9.7) allowed per game, and gave up an average of 14.8 points off turnovers.
The Liberty gave Phoenix 15 points off 21 turnovers on Sunday.
Since the Liberty fell to the fifth seed in the playoffs, they are unlikely to have home court advantage throughout the playoffs. New York went 10-12 in away games during the regular season.
Everyone needs to step up
Phoenix nearly doubled the Liberty in free throw attempts. All but one of New York’s nine attempts came from Stewart and team scoring leader Natasha Cloud (23 points), who carried the team in the physical, low-scoring game,
If Stewart is out on Wednesday, one of her teammates will have to step up. Jones, who Phoenix held to seven points Sunday, is the prime candidate. Jones was aggressive on the boards, but will need to give the Liberty more offense if they hope to clinch the series in front of their home crowd. The defending champions are a gaudy 33-0 over the past three years when Jones tallies a double-double in the regular season.
“I just want to be able to be able to protect the rim and then, you know, use my rebounding to be able to help us close our possessions and ultimately win,” Jones said after Sunday’s game. She understands the physicality will only increase as the playoffs continue.
“You get treatment, you understand that that’s just the nature of the playoffs, that physicality is just how it’s going to be. It’s going to be really turned up from another level, from the regular season,” Jones said.
2025 WNBA playoffs winners and losers: Lynx, Aces score huge wins; Liberty lose Breanna Stewart to injury
Jack Maloney
“I think experience kind of helps us out in that aspect as well, because we’re used to it. We understood, or understand, what it took last year to be able to go to distance. So yeah, that’s just the nature of the playoffs,” she added.
Sabrina Ionescu had 16 points, seven assists, and six rebounds on the night, and Leonie Fiebich added 10 points — including a huge overtime shot from outside the arc to secure the win. Perimeter shooting could decide the winner of this series.
“We’re as great of a 3-point shooting team as are they. That’s where it came down to. We made a few more than them. And Leonie Fiebich, none bigger than that 3 in overtime,” Brondello said. New York and Phoenix took 419 and 414 three-pointers this seasons, respectively.
“Yeah, it was huge. You know, it’s funny. I was — you know she had missed some early on, and I knew she was going to hit the biggest one of the night. It’s just what she does,” Ionescu said about Fiebich postgame.
The Liberty’s bench only scored two points.
What’s next
Winning Game 1 tips the scales for New York, who went 17-5 at Barclays Center this season.
“We have the advantage. We won an away game and we won on their home court. Now the advantage is for us to take care of it. And this, like you said, it is an experienced team. We’ve been here before, and we know what our goal is, and you know, we want to keep playing,” Brondello said.
If the Liberty lose on Wednesday, the series heads back to Phoenix for Game 3. The Mercury are looking for their first postseason win since 2021, when then-Mercury head coach Brondello led a fifth-seeded Phoenix squad to the WNBA Finals. The winner of this series will face the winner of the Minnesota Lynx and Golden State Valkyries in the the semifinals.
Before the playoffs began, Stewart expressed optimism on the latest Liberty Unlocked episode about the team’s quest for a title defense.
“We haven’t peaked yet and that’s what’s like, the most exciting part about it, is we still haven’t played our best,” Stewart said in the episode while sitting underneath a statue of former teammate and 2025 Naismith Hall of Famer Sue Bird in Seattle.
“Everybody’s who’s been talking shit and doubting us, and all these things, that’s fine. But make sure you stay over there when it starts going good for us, too,” Stewart said.
While the Liberty did get the all-important win, Sunday did little to quiet doubts.
