{"id":176506,"date":"2025-08-26T08:09:13","date_gmt":"2025-08-26T08:09:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/176506\/"},"modified":"2025-08-26T08:09:13","modified_gmt":"2025-08-26T08:09:13","slug":"breanna-stewart-returned-when-faltering-liberty-needed-her-most","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/176506\/","title":{"rendered":"Breanna Stewart returned when faltering Liberty needed her most"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Liberty\u2019s medical staff granted Breanna Stewart\u2019s wish of returning to the court before her 31st birthday<\/a>.<\/p>\n

After missing the past month with a bone bruise in her right knee, Stewart made her highly anticipated return to the floor in Monday\u2019s 81-79 win against the Connecticut Sun<\/a> at Barclays Center.<\/p>\n

Stewart, who turns 31 Wednesday, scored a team-high 19 points, made 13 trips to the free-throw line and corralled five rebounds in nearly 21 minutes of action.<\/p>\n

\u201cI felt great,\u201d Stewart said. \u201cI wanted to push it while I was out there and see how I felt and it was great to be back with the team.\u201d<\/p>\n

Stewart said she had been practically begging the team\u2019s training staff to allow her to rejoin the team, which struggled in her absence. <\/p>\n

Breanna Stewart #30 of the New York Liberty stands on the court against Minnesota Lynx on August 19, 2025 at Barclays Center Arena in Brooklyn, New York. NBAE via Getty Images<\/p>\n

She even stayed on coach Sandy Brondello throughout Monday\u2019s game to try to play more.<\/p>\n

Her impact was felt from the moment she stepped on the floor.<\/p>\n

\u201cHer being aggressive all the time,\u201d Kennedy Burke said. \u201cI would say her first attack to the basket [Monday night] was, like, \u2018I\u2019m glad you\u2019re back, Stewie.\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n

Stewart had been sidelined since she left the Liberty\u2019s July 26 game against the Los Angeles Sparks with an apparent leg injury. <\/p>\n

It\u2019s unclear when exactly the bone bruise occurred as she didn\u2019t appear to bump knees with anyone before exiting.<\/p>\n

New York went 5-8 without Stewart and dropped from second to fifth in the WNBA standings. <\/p>\n

The defending champions (22-15) entered this week two games behind the second-place Atlanta Dream (24-13.)<\/p>\n

Stewart\u2019s absence was especially felt on the defensive end. <\/p>\n

Breanna Stewart #30 of the New York Liberty drives to the basket as Natasha Howard #6 of the Indiana Fever defends during the third quarter. Charles Wenzelberg\/New York Post<\/p>\n

The Liberty\u2019s defensive rating swelled from 97.2 to 107.0 over the past month without Stewart.<\/p>\n

New York had also surrendered a whopping 27 offensive boards and 41 second-chance points in the two games prior to Monday.<\/p>\n

Stewart\u2019s return injects the Liberty\u2019s lineup with a fresh body who can bring energy, length and added versatility on both ends of the floor.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe\u2019s just got this relentlessness about her that can rub off on her teammates,\u201d Brondello said. \u201cShe\u2019s got the highest motor I\u2019ve ever seen in a player that just keeps going and going. Now tonight, she\u2019s not going to be happy because I have to take her out all the time, but it\u2019s just nice [to see her] be out there \u2013 the vibe she brings to the team, the confidence that she brings to the team. They\u2019re all the intangibles that we\u2019ve missed in this long month.\u201d<\/p>\n

Breanna Stewart #30 of the New York Liberty drives down court during the third quarter against the Fever on July 16. Charles Wenzelberg\/New York Post<\/p>\n

Stewart diagnosed some of the Liberty\u2019s woes after shootaround, but said she believes they\u2019re all fixable.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe first thing that we can do is continue to focus and lock in on effort plays \u2014 50-50 balls, loose balls, like, those are things that are controllable,\u201d Stewart said. \u201cWhether the ball goes in the basket or not, you can\u2019t always control but making sure that we\u2019re on a string and we know that we\u2019re ready to fight. We\u2019re in an uphill battle right now and it\u2019s not going to get any easier.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sabrina Ionescu, who missed Saturday\u2019s loss in Atlanta with a left foot injury<\/a>, also returned the lineup, contributing 11 points, nine assists and seven rebounds as well as helping Burke with a game-saving stop in the final seconds.<\/p>\n

Injuries have kept Stewart, Sabrina Ionescu and Jonquel Jones from sharing the floor this season.<\/p>\n

Monday was only the 13th game they\u2019ve started together and the 10th they finished.<\/p>\n

Breanna Stewart #30 of the New York Liberty clocks against Brionna Jones #24 of the Atlanta Dream during a regular season matchup at Barclays Center on July 13. Michelle Farsi\/New York Post<\/p>\n

The Liberty improved to 10-0 when their big three play together. <\/p>\n

Ionescu said the team hadn\u2019t realized how little its star trio had done so.<\/p>\n

\u201cSomeone was talking about it, and it was like, \u2018Wait, that\u2019s crazy,\u2019\u201d Ionescu said. \u201cIt\u2019s just been tough for this group and I think it\u2019s kind of one of those opportunities where we know when we\u2019re at full strength, we\u2019re a really tough team to beat.\u201d<\/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

The Liberty have only six remaining regular-season games, with Thursday\u2019s game against the Mystics next. Four of those contests will be on the road.<\/p>\n

This stretch will allow the Liberty a final tuneup before the real title defense begins when the playoffs start Sept. 14.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Liberty\u2019s medical staff granted Breanna Stewart\u2019s wish of returning to the court before her 31st birthday. After…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":176507,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5122],"tags":[5229,5336,405,403,1520,5226,5225,5228,5227,62,67,586,132,5230,68,2969,232],"class_list":{"0":"post-176506","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-breanna-stewart","10":"tag-new-york","11":"tag-new-york-city","12":"tag-new-york-liberty","13":"tag-newyork","14":"tag-newyorkcity","15":"tag-ny","16":"tag-nyc","17":"tag-sports","18":"tag-united-states","19":"tag-united-states-of-america","20":"tag-unitedstates","21":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","22":"tag-us","23":"tag-usa","24":"tag-wnba"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115094052565085251","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176506","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=176506"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176506\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/176507"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=176506"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=176506"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=176506"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}