With or without Breanna Stewart, New York Liberty face familiar challenge in Game 2 vs. Mercury: 'We know what’s at stake'

NEW YORK — The modus operandi at Barclays Arena all season has been facing adversity. Head coach Sandy Brondello brings it up often. Jonquel Jones reiterated it on Tuesday.

That doesn’t magically disappear because the playoffs are here. The New York Liberty are back on the injury merry-go-round, awaiting news about whether Breanna Stewart will be available for Game 2 on Wednesday (8 p.m. ET, ESPN) against the Mercury. The No. 5 Liberty can advance to the semifinals with a win over No. 4 Phoenix.

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“We've done a really good job in the season of staying together and learning from it and being in that position,” Jones said after practice at Barclays Arena on Tuesday. “So it's not like we're in the playoffs and it's a new position for us.”

Stewart did not participate in practice on Tuesday and is a “game-time decision,” Brondello said. The veteran forward injured her left knee in the Game 1 overtime win on Sunday and underwent an MRI on Monday. Brondello said those scans were “relatively clean.” In the open media portion of practice, Stewart was in a leg sleeve without a brace and stayed back with Brondello, briefly talking and pointing out a call with assistant coach Olaf Lange. She was not available to media.

“She’s tough,” Brondello said. “Any player that you’ve had injuries before, I think one of her superpowers is her mental toughness. If she’s able to go, she’ll go.”

The Liberty were without the three-time WNBA champion for most of August while she rehabbed a bone bruise in her right knee. It was the same knee she underwent a scope on in March after the inaugural season of Unrivaled, the 3x3 league she founded with Napheesa Collier.

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“Stewie’s in [or] Stewie’s out, we’re ready to go,” Brondello said. “We know what’s at stake here. We’ve got to be a desperate team and take care — we don’t want to go back to Phoenix. But they’re going to come hungry. We know that.”

Kennedy Burke stepped into Stewart’s spot with the starters during a drill at the end of the open media portion of practice. And Emma Meesseman, the Liberty’s late-season acquisition, will see more time if Stewart can’t play. The 2019 Finals MVP with Washington had an off shooting day on Sunday, making one of six attempts.

Meesseman started 10 of the games Stewart missed after she arrived from Belgium. She became the first two-time EuroBasket MVP in March after leading the country to the title, and spent time after team practice working with the men’s practice team in 3-on-3 reps.

“I've been in a situation before where you lose one of the key players, or they're not really healthy, but then I think it's a job of the whole team and staff and everybody to make sure that you have 12 players ready to take that role,” Meesseman said. “So it shouldn't matter. I mean, obviously, she's a great player, and we do depend on her. But it shouldn't make or break a result or a season in the end.”

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Not on this team that’s cycled through a rolodex of different lineups while trying to manage injuries to its big three and most of its frontcourt, plus various other absences. When Meesseman arrived, nearly the entire frontcourt was on the availability report. Jones missed 13 games earlier this season with an ankle injury. Sabrina Ionescu missed time late in the season with a toe injury. Natasha Cloud, the scoring leader of Game 1, also missed a few games.

Only reserve guard Marine Johannes played in all 44 regular-season games. She did not play in Game 1; with the exception of one minute for Rebekah Gardner, Brondello leaned exclusively on her starting five, Meesseman and Burke.

“We understand that, you know, everybody that's stepping onto the court has experience now,” Jones said. “There is no excuses, there is no learning curve. We just kind of move on from it.”

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The Liberty are 13-0 when their big three of Stewart, Jones and Ionescu start and finish a game. Otherwise, they’re 15-17. It plummeted their season from a 9-0 start to a fifth seed that will have to potentially go through three MVP contenders to win a repeat championship.

The Mercury are led by Alyssa Thomas, who missed a game-winning open layup in the final seconds on Sunday. Awaiting in the semifinals could be No. 1 seed Minnesota and Napheesa Collier in what would be a 2024 Finals rematch. And in the Finals, New York could meet No. 2 Las Vegas and three-time MVP A’ja Wilson, a rematch of the 2023 Finals.

Stewart, a two-time Finals MVP, is the vocal and emotional leader of the Liberty. Her impact on the defensive end was felt in her absence, and it will be a detriment to New York if she can't play on Wednesday. Jones said the team felt Game 1 against Phoenix “almost felt more physical than the Finals last year” as both teams shored up defensively.

“That's a team that was playing at home, essentially had the advantage, and now they're gonna come in here and they're gonna be even more desperate,” Jones said. “So the level of physicality is probably going to be cranked up even more.”

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Mercury head coach Nate Tibbetts said before Game 1 tipped off that either way, it was Game 2 that would be the biggest of the playoffs for both sides.

The Liberty won the rebounding battle, a key for a team that lacked effort on the boards. But they will need to clean up the turnovers against a hungry group trying to keep their season alive. Brondello stated the obvious ahead of Game 1: that whoever scores more points will be the winner. Each possession is valuable, something the Liberty have struggled with for much of the year.

As Jones noted, Game 1 really could have gone either way. She missed a gimme, and her former teammate Thomas did the same on the other end. They played together in Connecticut as the winningest group of that period to have not won a championship. Thomas still has not won one. Jones surveyed the mountaintop last year, and said on Tuesday she feels the team’s confidence is about the same as it was when they began that summit as the No. 1 seed last year.

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It’s a new environment for this group to be a lower seed. But it's old hat for them to head into a major matchup not knowing who is available.

“We're not seeing anything that we haven't seen,” Ionescu said. “And I think when we were talking about beauty and struggle during that time, it's kind of paid off to a moment like now, when there's uncertainty and you're not sure what's going to happen. But this group has been able to continue to find different combinations and play with one another, and have built great chemistry.”