BROOKLYN—Kennedy Burke offered a brand new meaning to sixth woman in the New York Liberty’s latest triumph.
Burke, a second-year New Yorker, has made a case for the WNBA’s top substitute honor thanks primarily to her success from deep. But a Burke breakout on the other side of the ball, namely six steals from the Las Vegas Aces, guided the Liberty to a much-needed 87-78 victory on Tuesday at Barclays Center, putting New York back in the win column after a sour Sunday against Seattle.
“It was a must-win for us, especially after the game that we played vs. Seattle,” Burke said after the game. “We didn’t really finish the [Seattle] game, we didn’t play our best, honestly, and I feel like we just needed this win, We really buckled down and really stayed together when it really counted. “It showed, tonight what, how dangerous we can be, even when we’re down three [key players].”
The defending champion Liberty’s return flight to the Finals has hit its first bit of turbulence, a good bit of it brought about by gloom in June that extended into July.
Missing Leonie Fiebich and Jonquel Jones for most of June, the Liberty mustered a 5-5 finish. But from the time Jones reinjured her ankle on June 19 through Sunday’s sluggish show against the Storm, the Liberty dropped five of seven and their defensive rating dropped to 10th among the W’s baker’s dozen in that span.
Burke helped the Liberty succeed in the latest attempt to make things right.
Though the rival Aces lost A’ja Wilson during the course of Tuesday’s game, they lingered thanks to the prevalent threats of Chelsea Gray, Jewell Loyd, and Jackie Young, as well as a reserve breakout from Dana Evans. The Liberty had a packed sick bay of its own: in addition to the continued absence of Jones, regular starter Natasha Cloud and super sub Isabelle Harrison were sidelined with injuries.
Burke’s six swipes, the 11th such occurrence in Liberty history, helped steadily push momentum to the Liberty size, taking away Las Vegas possessions and opportunities at the top of the key for the Sin City sharpshooters. In the aftermath, Burke credited Cloud for a pep talk that eventually led to her winning the famed Freddy Kreuger glove bestowed to who plays “above” in each victory.
“I feel like it came from Honestly, my frustration in the first half, I feel like I wasn’t really doing my best for the team,” Burke said. “After halftime, I feel like Tash did a good job of just coming up to me, telling me to shake it off, like it’s a brand new half. I feel like that just really helped me just get into the momentum of just being almost everywhere on the defensive end, and I think that translated onto the offensive end.”
“I think it was a switch in my head, just realizing that whatever happened in the first half, it’s over with moving on to the next 20 minutes, and that’s what I did.”
All but one of Burke’s six steals came in the second half and each one in the latter 20 yielded Liberty points: New York (13-6) put in 11 off Burke’s takeaways, including seven of Sabrina Ionescu’s team-best 28 points. Burke took a pair herself through a interception-turned-fastbreak victimized Evans while another featured a collaborative number between Marine Johannes and Breanna Stewart, the latter putting in an open layup for the first Liberty lead of the second half.
To cap things off, Burke, whose Tuesday plus-12 was one behind Ionescu’s for the team lead, dealt a de facto dagger to the Aces to posting layup that drew a successful and-one, part of a 15-6 run over the final five minutes that gave the Liberty a lasting lead. That gave Burke her 10th game in double-figures this season after putting up just two in her debut metropolitan season.
Though Fiebich has made her way back into the Liberty lineup, Burke continues to fill the spot left empty by Jones’ injury, getting the nod in each of the last three games. Burke has been quite the early summer bandit, posting at least one steal in her last four. In that latter span, she ranks 14th among all WNBA players to average a minimum of 20 minutes and play each of the quartet.
“We like playing big and I think Kennedy, she was so disruptive in the stagger-actions on the pick-and-rolls with the steals,” Liberty head coach Sandy Brondello said of the way Burke justified her continued presence in the starting five. “She’s deceptively quick and she’s got a bit body, that allows us to do a little more switching … That, all the steals, but also her post-up at the end of the game, because she’s pretty quick at giving help.”
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