Jessica Shepard dropped a triple-double of 22 points, 12 rebounds, and 11 assists to carry the Dallas Wings to an 88-77 victory over the New York Liberty on Tuesday night at Barclays Center.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Shepard was dominant on both ends of the floor and was supported by forward Awak Kuier, who had a strong outing as well. She scored 10 points and achieved season-highs in both rebounds (12) and assists (7).<\/p>\n
The Liberty struggled in key areas at different points in the game. New York turned the ball over 14 times, shot just 19% from three-point range, and had 13 fewer assists than the Wings. The Wings also outscored New York in the paint and shot 54% on two-point attempts.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI think we all understand that a lot of the errors we made are in our control,\u201d Sabrina Ionescu said. \u201cSo I think that\u2019s something that you shake your head [at] and hit yourself and then you get up tomorrow and regroup. We\u2019ve just got to be better.\u201d<\/p>\n
Breanna Stewart was the driving force for the Liberty, scoring 29 points while shooting over 60% from the field. Stewart added nine rebounds, four assists, and a steal, although it wasn\u2019t enough to keep New York in it.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Jonquel Jones, who was named a WNBA All-Star reserve before the game, scored 17 points herself and grabbed 12 rebounds to secure her seventh double-double of the season.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cCoach [has said] sometimes people take what JJ does for granted,\u201d Stewart said. \u201cShe\u2019s huge to what we do here in New York. She\u2019s obviously a player that\u2019s won a lot of things and she definitely deserves it\u2026 hopefully we\u2019ll be on the same [All-Star] team.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Jones joined in Stewart\u2019s hope as the two joked that they wished Chicago Sky head coach Theresa Weatherspoon would select them both.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
Sabrina Ionescu started the game slowly and missed each of her first seven shots. She turned it around in the second half and finished with 14 points and five assists.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Wings star Paige Bueckers also struggled early on, although she continued to impact the game in important ways for the Wings. After starting just 2-for-10 from the field, she ended with 15 points. The All-Star starter also added seven rebounds, six assists, and blocked two shots.\u00a0<\/p>\n
With the Liberty missing Leonie Fiebich and still without Satou Sabally, Rebekah Gardner made her first start of the season and the eighth of her career. Gardner played effective defense for much of the game but ended with just 4 points and 1 assist.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cMy mindset has just been [to] approach every game the same,\u201d Gardner said. \u201cI feel like that\u2019s part of being a role player, being mentally tough and knowing that any game can fluctuate, but you can be a difference maker\u2026 so that when I do get the opportunities, I can help the team.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Liberty leaned on their depth as they played ten different players, although the Wings\u2019 bench outscored the Liberty\u2019s 21-9.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re mixing and matching a little bit,\u201d Coach DeMarco said. \u201cYou know you have to see what works and what we like, what we\u2019re going to run with [in the future]\u2026 It\u2019s going to be [about] finding the right combination.\u201d<\/p>\n
Veteran Rebecca Allen made her eighth appearance of the season and former All-Star Bentijah Laney-Hamilton played 15 minutes after being left out of the lineup in recent games. Laney-Hamilton missed all five of her shots but played high-level defense.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt meant a lot to have [Laney-Hamilton] on the floor,\u201d Jonquel Jones said. \u201cShe\u2019s very aggressive whenever she\u2019s on the court. I think she does a lot for us defensively. She is one of those players that can really just get out there and guard whoever we\u2019re putting her on.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Liberty will depart for Minnesota to kick off a four-game road trip beginning with the Lynx on Saturday afternoon.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jessica Shepard dropped a triple-double of 22 points, 12 rebounds, and 11 assists to carry the Dallas Wings…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":923267,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[49],"tags":[4548,62,67,132,68,232],"class_list":["post-923266","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wnba","tag-liberty","tag-sports","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us","tag-wnba"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116890310206479880","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/923266","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=923266"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/923266\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/923267"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=923266"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=923266"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=923266"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}