Liberty vs. Storm: Breanna Stewart's 24 Powers Wire-to-Wire New York Win as Seattle Drops Ninth Straight

The New York Liberty's previous four wins came by a combined eight points, which is less a hot streak than a cardio program for anyone in seafoam. On Monday night at Barclays Center, Brooklyn finally got to exhale, at least for most of the evening.

The Liberty beat the Seattle Storm 95-83 without ever trailing or being tied, behind 24 points from Breanna Stewart, 20 from Jonquel Jones and 18 from Sabrina Ionescu. It was New York's fifth win in six games and Seattle's ninth straight loss, and proof that not every Liberty game has to come down to the last possession.

Three Players, 26 Points, No Help Needed

New York's first 26 points all came from Ionescu, Jones and Stewart, which is one way to tell the rest of the roster to get comfortable. The Liberty opened on a 24-7 run, shot 11 of 17 in the first quarter and held Seattle to 6 of 20. At 28-18 after one, this looked like a quiet night.

Seattle had other ideas. Natisha Hiedeman led the push back in the second quarter, and a 17-9 stretch capped by an 8-0 burst trimmed a 41-30 deficit to 41-38. New York took a 50-43 lead into the locker room, but the Storm had turned a stroll into actual work.

They kept at it. Flau'jae Johnson kept getting to her spots, and Seattle got within 70-67 late in the third, one possession from its first tie of the night. Then the Liberty decided they'd had enough drama for one month. Stewart scored four during a 9-0 close to the quarter, Marine Johannes and Han Xu kept it rolling to start the fourth, and by the 7:47 mark it was 85-67. Seattle never got closer than nine after that.

Stewart Stays Stewart

Stewart went 8 of 16 from the field, missed all four of her threes, and it didn't matter. She got to the line nine times, made eight, and added eight rebounds, six assists and two blocks with no turnovers in 31 minutes. Her plus-22 led everybody. The Liberty say it was her 253rd career game with at least 15 points, passing Tina Thompson for fifth-most in WNBA history.

Jones matched her season high with four threes on her way to 20 points and seven rebounds. Ionescu was the efficient one at 7 of 10 overall and 4 of 6 from deep in her 200th career game, though five turnovers kept it from being tidy. The team also notes this was the 14th time those three have each scored at least 15 in the same game, and no other trio in franchise history has done it more than five times.

Pauline Astier's 12 points on 4 of 5 shooting came with a bit of history too: per the team, no rookie in Liberty history had ever reached both 300 points and 100 assists until now. Rebecca Allen didn't score at all and still finished plus-10 with five rebounds and two blocks, both season highs, which is the most role-player sentence imaginable. Han Xu pulled down a season-high seven rebounds off the bench, and Marine Fauthoux handed out a career-high five assists.

Seattle's future was on display, and it looks pretty good. Johnson poured in 25 on 8 of 15 shooting with three steals. Dominique Malonga had 17 points and six rebounds, Hiedeman added 17 with seven assists and no turnovers, and Awa Fam grabbed nine boards, five of them offensive, on a 1-of-8 shooting night. It was also a homecoming for coach Sonia Raman, an assistant in New York last season, though nobody would call a 6-26 first year a victory lap. The Storm took decent care of the ball, with eight total turnovers. Their problem was the jump shot: 9 of 29 from three overall and, according to the Liberty, 4 of 16 in the second half.

The 15-0 That Closed the Door

Everything before 1:26 of the third quarter was a game. Seattle was down three, playing its best basketball of the night and threatening to give the Liberty another nail-biter. Everything after that was paperwork. New York scored the next 15 points in less than four minutes of game time, and the Storm's next points came with the deficit at 18.

The timing is what made it so brutal. A team on a losing streak needs a reason to believe, and for about 28 minutes Seattle had one. Then Stewart and the second unit took it away, and the Storm spent the rest of the night chasing a game that had already left the building.

The Short Version

• 14 of 34: New York from three, against 9 of 29 for Seattle. That's a 15-point gap from behind the arc in a 12-point game.
• 0: Lead changes and ties.
• 15 vs. 8: Total turnovers, with New York on the wrong side. It won anyway.
• 6: Straight games with at least 94 points. The Liberty call it a franchise record and tied for the second-longest such run in WNBA history.

A Rematch Already on the Calendar

New York is 18-13 and 9-5 at home. This was the start of a three-game homestand, and the Storm stick around for another one on Wednesday night. The season series is level at 1-1 after Seattle's 99-88 win in June.

Seattle drops to 6-26 and 2-15 on the road, last in the standings with no obvious exit from this skid. The AP's read is that Johnson, Malonga and Fam give the franchise a bright future, and nights like this one back that up, even if the record doesn't.

Hallmark Channel, Finally

After a two-week run of Uncut Gems finishes, the Liberty finally got to watch a Hallmark movie: the leads were charming, the plot had exactly one scare, and you knew how it was ending well before the credits. It won't win any awards. But after four wins by a combined eight points, the people of Brooklyn earned one night when their blood pressure stayed in the normal range.

Stats from the official box score via ESPN. Team notes from the New York Liberty. Game context as reported by the Associated Press.