The New York Liberty came into the 2025 WNBA season with a ton of expectations on their shoulders. As the reigning champs, who in a lot of ways upgraded their roster in the offseason, they were expected to dominate the league. For parts of the season they did exactly that, spending a lot of the early 2025 campaign in the top two of the WNBA standings, winning every event at WNBA All-Star Weekend, and maintaining a winning record.
But July and August have proved difficult for the Liberty, and now they see themselves lower in the WNBA standings than they have been in years.
The biggest factor, just like every team in the league, has been injuries. This season’s condensed schedule has been a point of contempt with players, and the injuries are proving it. Per The IX Basketball’s injury tracker, there have been 214 injuries in the WNBA this season, and there are still several weeks to go before the regular season ends. According to the same tracker, there were a total of 203 injuries in the 2024 season, indicating an obvious increase in injuries from one season to the next.
The biggest blow to New York’s season has been the injury to Breanna Stewart, who suffered a bone bruise in her knee at the end of July. She was out from July 26 until Aug. 25, and New York went 5-9 in games during that stretch, dropping from 2nd place in the league to 5th in an extremely tight race for playoff positioning. They are 7.5 games behind the Minnesota Lynx in 1st place, 1.5 games behind Atlanta in 2nd place and Las Vegas in 3rd, and technically tied with Phoenix in 4th. These standings will very likely change as we get down to the final days of the regular season, but it’s still not an ideal position for the reigning champions to be.
On Aug. 25, Breanna Stewart announced at shootaround that she would be playing in Monday night’s Liberty game against the Connecticut Sun, meeting her goal from weeks ago to be back on the court by her birthday on Aug. 27. While her team has a lighter load this week, playing the already eliminated Connecticut Sun and soon-to-be-eliminated Washington Mystics, easing Stewart in with a minutes restriction to prepare for a crucial game against Phoenix later in the week was ideal. Especially given other Liberty players like Sabrina Ionescu (foot), Natasha Cloud (nose), Isabelle Harrison (concussion), and Nyara Sabally (knee) have all been on the injury report this week. Getting their leader in Stewart, back at the crucial time in the season will help boost them in these last weeks before the playoffs.
That’s exactly what happened in Stewart’s return, as she went into Monday’s game with a 20-minute playing time restriction. That meant the Liberty still had to battle for the win, beating the Sun by just 2 points in the end, but Stewart made a huge impact. She scored 19 points and grabbed 5 rebounds to go with 1 block, also making an impact by getting to the free throw line while she tried to get into a shooting rhythm. While she only shot 33% from the field, she attempted 13 free throws, making 11, which is crucial in a close one-possession game.
Stewart’s absence was clearly felt on the court during her month away. Besides the obvious fact that she is the veteran vocal leader for her teammates, she also provides a ton of output in the game from multiple fronts. At 6’4, her defense at the rim is rock solid, but she can also defend the perimeter. And as versatile as Stewart is on defense, she is more so on offense. A brilliant screener and roller to the basket, a great finisher, can draw fouls easily and make her free throws, and besides a little bit of struggle from distance this season, can shoot the ball from basically anywhere on the court. Her ability to quietly take over or save a game makes her elite, and her resume of accolades speaks for itself. Three WNBA Championships, two MVPs, four NCAA tournament titles, and seven All-Star appearances just scratch the surface of what Stewart has accomplished.
Hopefully, re-integrating her into the lineup brings back some energy for this Liberty team, who are still favorites to return to the WNBA Finals despite this recent dip in performance.
