The Liberty’s hopes of going back-to-back just got a boost.
Breanna Stewart will be a game-time decision for Wednesday’s Game 2 of the Liberty’s best-of-three first-round playoff series against the Mercury because of a left knee injury, head coach Sandy Brondello said Tuesday.
Though Stewart’s availability remains up in the air for Game 2, Brondello’s update came with a silver lining as the superstar forward’s injury isn’t serious enough to dash her hopes of playing again in this year’s playoffs.
Stewart underwent an MRI exam Monday, and the imaging on her knee came back “relatively clean,” Brondello said.
“Obviously there’s no serious things, but still, she hurt her knee,” Brondello said. “We’ll see how she feels tomorrow. We’ll give her as much time as we can.”
Stewart wore a gray sleeve on her left leg but did not participate in Tuesday’s practice. The Liberty did not make Stewart available to reporters.
Stewart was injured with 3:01 remaining in overtime of the Liberty’s Game 1 victory Sunday. Her left knee appeared to buckle as she took off for a layup, and she grabbed for the knee while on the floor in obvious pain.
The television broadcast later showed Stewart on the bench with tears in her eyes after she had been subbed out.
Brondello said Stewart is doing “OK,” and the team is remaining optimistic.
“We want to make sure that she’s good to go in that regard,” Brondello said. “It’s nice that we didn’t have to play tonight. I think that helps with an extra day of recovery, and we’re hopeful.”
That said, though, the Liberty are preparing for any and all scenarios.
“[If] Stewie’s in, Stewie’s out, we’re ready to go,” Brodnello said. “We know what’s at stake here. We’ve got to be a desperate team and take care. We don’t want to go back to Phoenix, but they’re going to come in hungry. We know that.”
Players being unavailable have been an unfortunate theme of this season.
Stewart, 31, was sidelined for 13 games during the regular season by a bone bruise on her other knee. She also had a “cleanup” surgery on the right knee in March before the start of the WNBA season.
The Liberty suspended forward Betnijah Laney-Hamilton’s contract before the season after she had knee surgery. They also played a month without Jonquel Jones and saw Sabrina Ionescu, Natasha Cloud, Leonie Fiebich, Nyara Sabally and Isabelle Harrison all miss time.
Even with Stewart’s status unsure for Wednesday, Ionescu said the team’s approach doesn’t change.
“It’s nothing new to us to be completely honest,” she said. “We’re well-equipped. I think the regular season really prepared us for this moment and we got to control the things that we can and we got to go out there and win on our home court.”
Stewart, a three-time WNBA champion, finished with 18 points, six rebounds, four assists and two steals in Game 1 and was a team-best plus-16 in 39:54 of playing time.
Before Mercury practice, Satou Sabally said the team is planning to keep its approach the same for Game 2 regarding Stewart.
“I feel like she will play, but I also feel like we have to prepare with her or without her regardless,” Sabally said. “The approach doesn’t really change and she’s just such a high value player that you would rather prepare than not.”
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