WNBA Finals: Betnijah Laney-Hamilton provides spark to help Liberty avoid another late-game collapse

Betnijah Laney-Hamilton is not herself. She hasn’t been for most of the season. Laney-Hamilton had knee surgery in July and has been working her way back to full health since then. She returned to play following the Olympic break, but even now, in the WNBA Finals, she’s not 100%.

But if you didn’t know, you wouldn’t know.

You wouldn’t know because of the way Laney-Hamilton drove to the basket in Game 2 of the WNBA Finals on Sunday, finishing free-throw-line jumpers with ease. You wouldn’t know watching her knock down corner 3-pointers and blow by defenders like they were cones lined up for a practice drill.

You wouldn’t know because it’s the WNBA Finals, and after a Game 1 loss, the Liberty needed Laney-Hamilton.

So she stepped up.

“She brings this grit, this toughness,” Breanna Stewart said. “And all of us see that she’s giving us whatever she’s got.”

Laney-Hamilton scored 20 points in Game 2 as New York topped Minnesota, 80-66, to even the series. She was 8-of-14 from the field and 4-of-6 from beyond the arc.

“She’s digging deep, and that’s what we needed,” Liberty coach Sandy Brondello said. “We needed a bounce back, and B helped us win the game.”

Before Sunday’s contest, Brondello wasn’t sure what she would get out of Laney-Hamilton. She’s only scored in double-digits once during the playoffs — finishing with 10 points in a first-round victory over the Dream — and in Thursday’s loss to Minnesota, Laney-Hamilton had just 5 points on 2-of-7 shooting.

Laney-Hamilton is also typically a strong defender, but on Thursday, Brondello was forced to take her out during key stretches of Minnesota’s 18-point comeback. Laney-Hamilton played just 26 minutes in the overtime contest — the fewest of any starter.

“She wasn’t moving very well,” Brondello said Saturday. “She’s playing. She’s giving whatever she can. I think everyone sees that it’s not the same B that we’ve seen all season long, but it is what it is.”

She looked like the same B, the real B, on Sunday.

Laney-Hamilton provided a consistent stream of scoring for the Liberty, as they avoided the collapse that befell the squad in Game 1.

The Liberty led by as many as 17, but once again, the Lynx mounted a comeback. With 3:40 left in the game, Courtney Williams made a layup that cut the Liberty’s lead down to 68-66. Minnesota spent the second half slowly chipping away at the Liberty’s lead, but this time, New York managed to put a stop to the comeback.

Laney-Hamilton was a big reason why.

Following the Williams layup, Sabrina Ionescu drove to the hoop and found Laney-Hamilton in the corner. As soon as she passed, Ionescu knew it was going in.

“A corner 3 for B is like a layup,” Ionescu said. “That was a huge shot for us, and it changed the momentum of the game.”

The shot was the start of a 12-0 run for the Liberty to close out the win.

In addition to giving the Liberty the momentum needed to secure the victory, the shot, and her performance as a whole, gave Laney-Hamilton the momentum she needs to move forward in the series.

Her knee injury has been nagging since her surgery, and it was re-aggravated a month ago in a game against the Aces. It’s been a challenging road to recovery, but when Hamilton saw her late-game 3-pointer go through the hoop, she finally felt like herself.

That feeling was heightened by hugs from teammates following the buzzer and she was presented with the game ball in the Liberty locker room.

“It felt really good,” Laney-Hamilton said. “Because I know I’ve been struggling physically as I’ve been going through everything. So to see a glimpse of what I’m capable of, it felt really good.”