{"id":152093,"date":"2025-08-17T03:06:09","date_gmt":"2025-08-17T03:06:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/152093\/"},"modified":"2025-08-17T03:06:09","modified_gmt":"2025-08-17T03:06:09","slug":"kennedy-burke-becoming-libertys-bench-spark-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/152093\/","title":{"rendered":"Kennedy Burke becoming Liberty’s bench spark again"},"content":{"rendered":"

MINNEAPOLIS \u2014 The sting of Saturday\u2019s 86-80 loss to the Lynx<\/a> hadn\u2019t worn off when Kennedy Burke plopped herself in a chair in a hallway under Target Center.<\/p>\n

It was only her second game back since she missed close to three weeks with a right calf strain<\/a>. <\/p>\n

The Liberty have dropped both games.<\/p>\n

But Burke is settling back into her role as the spark off the bench.<\/p>\n

Burke had missed each of her three attempts from deep in Wednesday\u2019s loss at Las Vegas. <\/p>\n

Kennedy Burke defends during the Liberty\u2019s loss to the Lynx on Aug. 16. Imagn Images<\/p>\n

But she rekindled her shooting groove Saturday against the Lynx.<\/p>\n

Burke drained back-to-back 3s for the Liberty. <\/p>\n

She finished with 11 points on 4-of-9 shooting, with two assists.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been feeling really good,\u201d said Burke, who had eight points against Las Vegas. \u201cI feel like my teammates have played a big part in that, just trusting in me. Knowing that I\u2019m still not there yet because it\u2019s my second game back, but knowing that they have their trust in me. It means a lot. And I know when I come into the game, I just have to be a spark defensively, offensively. And just trusting that when I\u2019m open, I have to make those shots. And then if I have a wide-open lane, like attack, to make something happen on the offensive end.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kennedy Burke reacts on the Liberty bench during their Aug. 16 loss to the Lynx. NBAE via Getty Images<\/p>\n

Kennedy Burke attempts to block a shot during the Liberty\u2019s Aug. 16 loss. Matt Krohn-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

Burke and Marine Johann\u00e8s played important roles in helping the Liberty claw their way back and maintain a lead for part of Saturday\u2019s game.<\/p>\n

Johann\u00e8s had 12 points and two assists.<\/p>\n

Together, Burke and Johann\u00e8s outscored the Lynx bench 23-12.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCovering the Liberty like never before\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSign up for Madeline Kenney’s Inside the Liberty, a weekly Sports+ newsletter.\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\tThank you\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Emma Meesseman has played against Burke and Johann\u00e8s at times over the course of her career. <\/p>\n

She joked that she\u2019s been on the receiving end of Burke\u2019s lethal catch-and-shoot capabilities.<\/p>\n

But Meesseman has been impressed with both as her teammates.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is only the second game with KB for me, so I like the way she\u2019s coming in, just being super aggressive, being physical, too,\u201d said Meesseman, who had 10 points, three rebounds and three assists against the Lynx. \u201cAnd I\u2019ve seen Marine playing during the offseason\u2026 how she can play, so I\u2019m just happy that she found that a little bit more tonight. So I\u2019m just hoping for her to be just confident and believe that she could do this every single game.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Liberty depth has been tested this season because of injuries. But the hope is that reserve players\u2019 extended experience during the regular season will pay dividends in time of need during the playoffs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MINNEAPOLIS \u2014 The sting of Saturday\u2019s 86-80 loss to the Lynx hadn\u2019t worn off when Kennedy Burke plopped…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":152094,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[1519,1520,62,67,132,68,232],"class_list":{"0":"post-152093","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wnba","8":"tag-minnesota-lynx","9":"tag-new-york-liberty","10":"tag-sports","11":"tag-united-states","12":"tag-unitedstates","13":"tag-us","14":"tag-wnba"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115041899920623841","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152093","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=152093"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152093\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/152094"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=152093"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=152093"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=152093"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}