Bahamian Jonquel 'JJ' Jones is a bonafide star in the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) – a near unanimous Most Valuable Player (MVP), a two-time rebounding champion, a most improved player and a sixth woman of the year in the WNBA. Additionally, she is an established star overseas, even though I seriously doubt she or any other American female star would ever play professional basketball in Russia again.

Jones brings a significant amount of clout to the basketball roster of the New York Liberty – hoping to lead them to their first title in the WNBA. She along with former WNBA MVP Breanna Stewart and all-stars Sabrina Ionescu and Courtney Vandersloot, present a fearsome foursome for the Liberty and give them one of the best lineups in the league. They have one goal this season – to win a WNBA title.

However, the preseason wasn't too kind to the new-look Liberty as they dropped both of their games – to Jones' old team, the Connecticut Sun, last Wednesday and the team which beat Jones and the Sun in the WNBA Finals last year, the Las Vegas Aces, on Saturday.

When Jones was with the Sun, they came within a game of winning the WNBA title in 2019, losing to the Washington Mystics, and within two games of winning the title last year, losing to the Aces.

Jones, Stewart and Vandersloot missed the preseason opener against the Sun last Wednesday while Ionescu, who just signed with the Liberty through the 2025 season on Monday, played and had six points on 2-for-9 shooting from the field. All with the exception of Vandersloot, who is day-to-day in concussion protocol, played on Saturday.

Experiencing her first action in the league, they dropped game four of last year's finals, Jones dropped in six points and had four rebounds in Saturday night's 84–77 loss to the defending champions Aces at Michelob ULTRA Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. She played less than half of the 40-minute game, and was 3-for-6 from the field and 0-for-3 from three-point range.

Stewart, the 2018 MVP and two-time WNBA Finals MVP, logged 23 and a half minutes on the floor and had just nine points on a woeful 3-for-16 shooting from the field. She was 1-for-6 from three-point range. Ionescu played about the same amount of time as Stewart and finished with 14 points on 5-for-10 shooting from the field. She was 3-for-5 from distance.

Kelsey Plum had 22 points to lead the Aces and two-time WNBA MVP A'ja Wilson added 17 points and seven rebounds.

To say whether the result of the game was a good gauge or not, as far as the outlook for the season is concerned, would be a bit premature.

It's only been one game and it was in the preseason.

Jones and Stewart have both won MVP titles in the last five years and the Liberty is the only team in the league that can boast of two such players on their roster. They open their regular season with a trip to the nation's capital, Washington D.C., on Friday, to face former WNBA MVP Elena Delle Donne and the Mystics. That game will be played at the Entertainment and Sports Arena in Washington and will tip off at 7 p.m. on Friday.

Jones and Stewart, both four-time WNBA all-stars, are expected to form a formidable duo for the Liberty and Ionescu and Vandersloot are expected to provide adequate support.

Jones and Stewart are familiar with each other's style of play, having played with and against each other over the years. They spent three years together in Russia, playing for UMMC Ekaterinburg, a women's professional basketball team based in Yekaterinburg, Russia. They play in the Russian Premier League, and until February 2022, in FIBA (International Basketball Federation) Europe's EuroLeague Women. Vandersloot was also a member of those teams for UMMC Ekaterinburg.

Following their game against the Mystics on Friday, that will be televised on NBA TV, Jones and the Liberty will head home for two games at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York, against the Indiana Fever and the Sun, before going back on the road for two games.

The Liberty traded for Jones as part of a three-team deal with the Sun and the Dallas Wings in January, and later added Stewart and Vandersloot, to form a formidable lineup in New York.

The post Jones, Liberty winless in preseason appeared first on The Nassau Guardian.

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