The best players find other ways to contribute.
The New York Liberty had little business winning their first-ever WNBA title on Sunday night. Not when Stewart and Sabrina Ionescu were a combined 5-for-34, the basket looking as small as a thimble for the two stars.
But it was everything else they did that made the difference. Ionescu had eight assists, two of which were on Nyara Sabally buckets in the third quarter that gave New York its first lead of the game. Stewart had a game-high 15 rebounds, four assists and three blocks.
She also had a steal with less than a minute left in OT and New York clinging to a three-point lead.
“I came in with a game plan of, it doesn’t matter,” Stewart said after the game. “I want to play defense. I want to rebound. I want to do the little things, and I’ll continue to be aggressive and shoot my shots. But if they are not falling, they are not falling. I’m not going to let that affect the way I do things.”
Stewart did go 5 of 8 from the foul line, including two makes with five seconds left in regulation that forced overtime, and two more with 10 seconds left in OT that sealed New York’s 67-62 win.
“Before I made the free throws (in regulation), I missed two free throws. I was like, no, I can’t do this again, I can’t,” Stewart said. (Assistant coach Olaf Lange) and I have talked about being a python, where it’s like you know your moment when to strike.
“At that moment, I was just thinking about being a python.”
Whatever works. Whatever it takes to get the job done.
Every player wants to win a title, but this one was deeply personal for both Ionescu and Stewart.
Ionescu was the rock star of college basketball in the spring of 2020, leading Oregon to the top of the rankings and, she hoped, a national title. Then the COVID pandemic struck. There was no title. No NCAA tournament, even.
Stewart already has titles. Four when she was in college at UConn and two when she played with the Seattle Storm. But she’s a New York kid. Her first exposure to the WNBA was a Liberty game at Madison Square Garden way back when.
Leading the Liberty to its first title, bringing the city of New York its first basketball championship in half a century, it was a weight they carried. A weight that got even heavier with last year’s loss in the Finals to the Las Vegas Aces.
“I was just thinking about today, and it’s like whether we win or lose, we want to put it all on the line,” Stewart said. “Because last year when we lost, there was more in the tank. And this year, that wasn’t happening.”
So she and Ionescu kept shooting. And as the misses piled up, they found other ways to hustle. Scrapping for rebounds. Threading passes to their teammates who did have hot hands. Cranking up their defense so the Lynx never got an easy shot. Calling out screens and yelling encouragement at teammates.
Any little thing they could do that could make a difference.
Both Stewart and Ionescu have been clutch throughout this five-game series. No one will ever forget Ionescu’s dagger three-pointer that gave New York the win in Game 3. Or Stewart’s monster effort in Game 2, when she had 21 points and a Finals-record seven steals.
But their performances Sunday night were no less impressive. With the go-to parts of their games not working, they could either accept it as a bad night to have a bad night or they could figure out a workaround.
“I’m really proud of how resilient we were,” Ionescu said.
Good players win championships. Great players earn them.
Follow USA TODAY Sports columnist Nancy Armour on social media @nrarmour.
