NEW YORK — Courtney Vandersloot didn't realize it would be so emotionally draining. Or how much mental toughness the moment necessitated. Before she had lifted the WNBA trophy with the Chicago Sky in 2021, she couldn't know what winning a championship would truly require.
LAS VEGAS, NEVADA - AUGUST 15: Courtney Vandersloot #22, Breanna Stewart #30 and Jonquel Jones #35 of the New York Liberty walk to the bench during a timeout after Stewart hit a 3-pointer against the Las Vegas Aces in the fourth quarter of the 2023 Commissioner's Cup Championship game at Michelob ULTRA Arena on August 15, 2023 in Las Vegas, Nevada. The Liberty defeated the Aces 82-63.
“This is like a roller coaster if your mental isn’t in a great place during the playoffs,” said Stewart, who has never missed the postseason in her seven-year career. “It’s going to be really difficult for you and that’s why we talked about staying together in all of this.” She scored on two consecutive buckets in overtime to push a one-point lead to five and the Liberty won to avoid a winner-take-all game on the road. It would have been played fewer than 48 hours before Game 1 of the semifinals.
The message was all the more important since their road to the Finals had to go through an almost-fully healthy Mystics team that had caused them trouble in the regular season. The always playoff-ready Connecticut Sun were a hard out in the semifinals and were one basket from forcing a Game 5. The Liberty’s 4-0 record against Connecticut in the regular season was essentially meaningless.
Jones has a similar story of close calls. She has been here before. Twice. But the 2021 MVP walked away from both of those instances ring-less, and with a plethora of other close chances similarly gone.After missing the playoffs as a rookie in head coach Curt Miller’s first season, the Sun reached at least the second round in six of her seasons in Connecticut. In 2019, they were seven minutes of Game 5 away from winning the franchise’s first championship.
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