With less than a week remaining in the regular season of the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA), teams are jockeying for playoff position. Bahamian Jonquel 'JJ' Jones and the New York Liberty have secured at least the second seed in the playoffs, but they want more.
The Liberty are just a game and a half behind the league-leading defending champs, the Las Vegas Aces, but would have to finish ahead of them in the standings as the Aces own the tiebreaker. The Liberty are at 30-7 on the season while the Aces own the league's best mark with a 32-6 win/loss record. They split the season series, with the Liberty winning the Commissioner's Cup against the Aces convincingly on August 15.
They are the only teams in league history to amass 30 wins in a WNBA regular season.
In their latest outing, Jones and the Liberty slammed the Chicago Sky, 86-69. That win was at the Wintrust Arena in Chicago, Illinois, on Sunday, and gave the Liberty a franchise record extending 30th win.
As it turns out, the Aces have to lose both of their remaining games for the Liberty to have a shot at the pennant. The Aces play a home and away series against the Phoenix Mercury, ending their regular season on Sunday, hosting the Mercury at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.
The Liberty have three games remaining and would have to win out to have a shot at the pennant. They will face the fourth-seeded Dallas Wings at the College Park Center in Arlington, Texas, on Tuesday, before coming home for two games against the Los Angeles Sparks and the Washington Mystics to end their regular season. The Liberty's final two regular season games this season will be played on Thursday and Sunday at the Barclay's Center in Brooklyn, New York.
As for the game on Sunday, it was a low-scoring night for Jones, but her teammates picked her up. The Bahamian had just six points on 3-for-5 shooting from the field and collected eight rebounds. In her seventh season, she is averaging 11.4 points and 8.4 rebounds per game while shooting a respectable 52.6 percent from the floor and a career-high 86.8 percent from the charity stripe. Jones is fifth in the league in field goal percentage. She has shot over 50 percent from the floor in three straight seasons and six out of seven since coming into the league.
Jones' teammates Breanna Stewart and Courtney Vandersloot had double-doubles in the win on Sunday. They sparked a 22-0 fourth quarter scoring run that put the game away, lifting them from a one-point hole, 61-60, with a little over eight minutes remaining to a 21-point lead, 82-61, with 3:07 remaining. There was no coming back for the home team after that killer run.
The Liberty led 22-20 after one, was ahead 41-36 at the half and 59-57 at the end of three. The game went back and forth at the beginning of the fourth before the Liberty went on that killer 22-0 run. Vandersloot connected three times from beyond the three point arc in that 22-0 run that left the Sky wondering what hit them.
It is the sixth straight win for the Liberty, 12th in their last 13, and 16th of their last 18.
Stewart finished with 26 points, 14 rebounds and five assists for her 19th double-double of the season for the Liberty. Vandersloot pitched in with 20 points, 10 assists, six steals and five rebounds against her former team. Betnijah Laney had 17 points and Jocelyn Willoughby scored 10 off the bench.
Kahleah Copper scored 23 points to lead the Sky (15-22), as they continue to battle for one of three remaining playoff spots. The top five teams, including the Aces and Liberty, have already clinched.
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