Since the start of the regular season, Breanna Stewart had admitted the 2023 playoffs were still on her mind — and would likely always stick with her.
A year ago, the two-time MVP didn’t look as such during the Liberty’s first run to the WNBA Finals since 2002.
Against the Aces in the four-game series, she averaged just 16.3 points and shot 3-for-17 in the deciding contest for a mere 11 points.
Since then, Stewart has vowed to make up for the poor Finals performance and has said she still has another offensive level to hit within the tied 2-2 series against the Lynx, who forced a winner-take-all Game 5 for Sunday at Barclays Center after an 82-80 Game 4 win on Friday night.
Nevertheless, it has been an up-and-down series for Stewart.
She has averaged 20 points in the Finals, and scored 30 points in Game 3, but in the Liberty’s two losses, she has shot just 25 percent from the field.
On Friday night, Stewart didn’t score until three minutes into the second quarter and entered the fourth with eight points and three personal fouls.
She finished Game 4 with 11 points, shooting 5 of 21 from the field.
“I think that I was going a little bit too fast. Just needed to slow down,” Stewart said on Friday after the loss. “They’re sending multiple people when I’m setting up for a screen. Just a little bit better awareness on my part.”
Sunday’s Game 5 sets up as a legacy game for the Syracuse native, who came to New York in the hopes of bringing her home state and the Liberty their first WNBA championship.
If Stewart falls short again in the close-out game, it’s not hard to imagine if not now, then when?
Stewart is signed only through the 2024 season but said during the Finals that she will sign another one-year deal in the future.
She likely will receive a core designation again from the Liberty, which means Stewart would only be allowed to talk, negotiate or sign with New York — no outside teams — during the free-agency period.
Stewart won two championships with Seattle in 2018 and 2020, while also winning both Finals MVP honors. In the 2020 playoffs, she shot a playoff career-high 53.8 percent, while this year she is only 39.1 percent from the field — slightly better than 2023’s 35.8 percent.
“I think for our team, we bounce back after a loss really, really well, and making sure everyone is on the same page going forward,” Stewart said. “In the playoffs, in a series, there is going to be momentum shifts. … Like [Liberty head coach] Sandy [Brondello] said in the locker room, we haven’t won anything yet. We haven’t lost anything yet. And we have the opportunity to do that on Sunday.”