Breanna Stewart’s third-quarter burst powers Liberty past Tempo 106-69 in Toronto

The last tight stretch ended early

Toronto had the game exactly where it wanted it for a few minutes. Laura Juskaite opened the scoring with a driving layup at 8:14 of the first quarter, and Kiki Rice twice nudged the Tempo in front, the second time at 6:43 for a 6-4 edge. That was the last moment of control. Jonquel Jones answered with a three at 6:32, and New York’s offense began to look wider, quicker and far more punishing. Rebekah Gardner hit from deep at 4:48, Rebecca Allen followed at 4:08, Han Xu added another at 3:13, and what had been a one-possession game was suddenly a New York lead with air around it. Toronto trimmed the gap to 24-19 late in the quarter, but Allen’s 25-footer with 44.4 seconds left and Pauline Astier’s basket with 19.7 seconds to go sent the Liberty to the break ahead 26-19.

The second quarter offered Toronto one genuine route back. Marine Johannes opened it with a three for New York, and Leonie Fiebich pushed the margin to 33-21 at 7:11, but the Tempo responded instead of folding. Juskaite scored inside, Rice found her pull-up game, and by 4:06 Toronto was down only 40-34. Isabelle Harrison’s three at 3:09 kept the pressure on at 41-37. That mattered, because the half could have gotten away much earlier. Instead, it stayed within range until the final minute, when Stewart scored at 52.4 seconds and Astier added a layup with 13.7 seconds left for a 45-37 halftime lead. Toronto had done enough to hang around, but it had also already used both of its made threes for the entire night.

Stewart broke the game open

If the first half left any doubt, the third quarter removed it with force. Astier opened the half with an 11-footer, Stewart added two free throws, and after Harrison got Toronto within 51-41 at 8:20, New York delivered the sequence that decided everything. From 8:01 to 4:49, Stewart scored four times, Jones added a layup and then a 27-foot three, and Sabrina Ionescu buried a 24-footer. In that span, the Liberty turned a 10-point game into a 67-43 separation. Toronto still found points through Juskaite, but the quarter had already shifted from competitive to conclusive.

Stewart’s line explains the scale of the problem for Toronto: 27 points on 10-of-14 shooting, 7-for-7 at the foul line, eight rebounds and four assists in only 22 minutes. But the more telling part of New York’s night was that Stewart never had to do it alone. Ionescu shot just 1-for-8 and still steered the game with nine assists. Allen hit four threes and scored 14. Jones gave New York 11 points on seven shots. Astier posted 10 points and nine rebounds. By the end of the third, the Liberty had won the period 33-20 and led 78-57. The fourth quarter became less about suspense than about how far New York’s depth could stretch the margin, and Marine Fauthoux’s nine points in eight minutes helped carry it to the final 37-point gap.

Our take: balance versus burden

The cleanest explanation for this result sits in two columns: shot-making and connection. New York finished at 56.5 percent from the field, made 16 of 37 from three, and assisted on 29 of its 39 baskets. Toronto shot 37.5 percent, went 2-for-22 from deep, and had 15 assists on 27 made field goals. The interesting wrinkle is that the Tempo were not wiped out everywhere. They matched New York with 38 points in the paint, collected 11 offensive rebounds, and went 13-for-15 at the line. The trouble is that those useful numbers could not survive the three-point gap. When one team makes 14 more threes than the other, the rest of the box score starts to feel decorative.

Our take on the Liberty is simple: this was a dangerous kind of balanced performance. New York reached 106 even though Ionescu had only six points, because the playmaking never stopped and the scoring came in waves. Eleven Liberty players scored, and the three-point production was spread across the roster rather than parked on one hot hand. That is the kind of offense that travels well from possession to possession. The one place New York can still look for sharper work is ball security. The Liberty finished with 17 total turnovers, and Toronto turned those into 13 points. In a game this lopsided, that number gets buried. Against a team that can actually match the shooting, it would matter more.

For Toronto, the burden landed on too few shoulders. Juskaite was excellent with 28 points on 10-of-15 shooting and a perfect 8-for-8 at the line. Rice added 19 points and five assists on 9-of-16 shooting. Together they produced 47 of Toronto’s 69 points and went 19-for-31 from the field. The rest of the Tempo shot 8-for-41. That is the piece Toronto has to change most urgently: not because one cold night tells the whole story, but because this particular box score shows how hard it is to survive when secondary scoring disappears. Harrison, Maria Conde and Kia Nurse combined to shoot 1-for-23, and the team finished with just two made threes overall. Toronto does not need to become a purely perimeter team to improve on this showing, especially after getting to 38 paint points, but it does need more support beyond its two best scorers and more creation than 15 assists provided here. Sunday’s margin was not built on one flaw. It was built on New York’s ability to do almost everything a little cleaner, and one or two things much better.

Scoring moments

1. 1st Quarter · 8:14

   Laura Juskaite makes driving layup (Kiki Rice assists)

2. 1st Quarter · 7:34

   Breanna Stewart makes running layup (Sabrina Ionescu assists)

3. 1st Quarter · 7:15

   Kiki Rice makes 19-foot pullup jump shot

4. 1st Quarter · 6:53

   Breanna Stewart makes 14-foot pullup jump shot (Sabrina Ionescu assists)

5. 1st Quarter · 6:43

   Kiki Rice makes driving layup (Julie Allemand assists)

6. 1st Quarter · 6:32

   Jonquel Jones makes 24-foot three point jumper (Pauline Astier assists)

7. 1st Quarter · 5:11

   Breanna Stewart makes driving layup (Sabrina Ionescu assists)

8. 1st Quarter · 4:48

   Rebekah Gardner makes 24-foot three point jumper (Rebecca Allen assists)

9. 1st Quarter · 4:34

   Kiki Rice makes 14-foot driving floating jump shot

10. 1st Quarter · 4:08

    Rebecca Allen makes 23-foot three point jumper (Breanna Stewart assists)

11. 1st Quarter · 3:23

    Kiki Rice makes running layup (Maria Conde assists)

12. 1st Quarter · 3:13

    Han Xu makes 23-foot three point jumper (Breanna Stewart assists)

13. 1st Quarter · 3:00

    Teonni Key makes free throw 2 of 2

14. 1st Quarter · 2:40

    Breanna Stewart makes 17-foot fade away jump shot

15. 1st Quarter · 2:40

    Breanna Stewart makes free throw 1 of 1

16. 1st Quarter · 2:09

    Laura Juskaite makes free throw 1 of 2

17. 1st Quarter · 2:09

    Laura Juskaite makes free throw 2 of 2

18. 1st Quarter · 53.7

    Julie Allemand makes driving layup

19. 1st Quarter · 44.4

    Rebecca Allen makes 25-foot three point jumper (Marine Johannes assists)

20. 1st Quarter · 31.9

    Kia Nurse makes free throw 1 of 2

21. 1st Quarter · 31.9

    Kia Nurse makes free throw 2 of 2

22. 1st Quarter · 19.7

    Pauline Astier makes two point shot

23. 1st Quarter · 3.1

    Kiki Rice makes 13-foot pullup jump shot

24. 2nd Quarter · 9:48

    Marine Johannes makes 24-foot three point jumper (Pauline Astier assists)

25. 2nd Quarter · 8:07

    Kiki Rice makes 20-foot pullup jump shot

26. 2nd Quarter · 7:28

    Jonquel Jones makes free throw 1 of 2

27. 2nd Quarter · 7:11

    Leonie Fiebich makes 23-foot three point jumper (Sabrina Ionescu assists)

28. 2nd Quarter · 6:49

    Laura Juskaite makes free throw 1 of 2

29. 2nd Quarter · 6:49

    Laura Juskaite makes free throw 2 of 2

30. 2nd Quarter · 6:25

    Laura Juskaite makes 8-foot driving floating jump shot (Kiki Rice assists)

31. 2nd Quarter · 5:57

    Kiki Rice makes 7-foot two point shot

32. 2nd Quarter · 5:35

    Sabrina Ionescu makes free throw 1 of 2

33. 2nd Quarter · 5:35

    Sabrina Ionescu makes free throw 2 of 2

34. 2nd Quarter · 5:17

    Laura Juskaite makes 4-foot two point shot (Maria Conde assists)

35. 2nd Quarter · 5:10

    Breanna Stewart makes free throw 1 of 2

36. 2nd Quarter · 5:10

    Breanna Stewart makes free throw 2 of 2

37. 2nd Quarter · 4:43

    Rebecca Allen makes 24-foot three point jumper (Han Xu assists)

38. 2nd Quarter · 4:25

    Kiki Rice makes 23-foot three point step back jumpshot

39. 2nd Quarter · 4:06

    Laura Juskaite makes two point shot (Kiki Rice assists)

40. 2nd Quarter · 3:24

    Sabrina Ionescu makes free throw 2 of 2

41. 2nd Quarter · 3:09

    Isabelle Harrison makes 25-foot three point jumper (Julie Allemand assists)

42. 2nd Quarter · 52.4

    Breanna Stewart makes two point shot

43. 2nd Quarter · 13.7

    Pauline Astier makes 1-foot layup (Sabrina Ionescu assists)

44. 3rd Quarter · 9:40

    Pauline Astier makes 11-foot two point shot (Breanna Stewart assists)

45. 3rd Quarter · 9:02

    Breanna Stewart makes free throw 1 of 2

46. 3rd Quarter · 9:02

    Breanna Stewart makes free throw 2 of 2

47. 3rd Quarter · 8:51

    Laura Juskaite makes 1-foot layup (Temi Fagbenle assists)

48. 3rd Quarter · 8:37

    Breanna Stewart makes 12-foot pullup jump shot (Leonie Fiebich assists)

49. 3rd Quarter · 8:20

    Isabelle Harrison makes free throw 1 of 2

50. 3rd Quarter · 8:20

    Isabelle Harrison makes free throw 2 of 2

51. 3rd Quarter · 8:01

    Breanna Stewart makes 6-foot driving floating jump shot

52. 3rd Quarter · 7:34

    Breanna Stewart makes 6-foot driving floating jump shot

53. 3rd Quarter · 7:11

    Temi Fagbenle makes 4-foot floating jump shot

54. 3rd Quarter · 7:03

    Breanna Stewart makes 16-foot step back jumpshot (Sabrina Ionescu assists)

55. 3rd Quarter · 6:29

    Breanna Stewart makes 11-foot driving floating jump shot (Sabrina Ionescu assists)

56. 3rd Quarter · 5:56

    Jonquel Jones makes 5-foot layup (Sabrina Ionescu assists)

57. 3rd Quarter · 5:20

    Jonquel Jones makes 27-foot three point jumper (Leonie Fiebich assists)

58. 3rd Quarter · 4:49

    Sabrina Ionescu makes 24-foot running jump shot (Breanna Stewart assists)

59. 3rd Quarter · 4:30

    Laura Juskaite makes driving layup (Kiki Rice assists)

60. 3rd Quarter · 4:30

    Laura Juskaite makes free throw 1 of 1

61. 3rd Quarter · 4:21

    Breanna Stewart makes free throw 1 of 2

62. 3rd Quarter · 4:21

    Breanna Stewart makes free throw 2 of 2

63. 3rd Quarter · 4:03

    Laura Juskaite makes 10-foot two point shot

64. 3rd Quarter · 3:54

    Laura Juskaite makes running layup

65. 3rd Quarter · 3:54

    Laura Juskaite makes free throw 1 of 1

66. 3rd Quarter · 3:02

    Jonquel Jones makes running layup (Sabrina Ionescu assists)

67. 3rd Quarter · 2:21

    Marine Johannes makes 25-foot three point jumper (Jonquel Jones assists)

68. 3rd Quarter · 2:03

    Teonni Key makes 3-foot layup (Julie Allemand assists)

69. 3rd Quarter · 1:09

    Laura Juskaite makes free throw 1 of 2

70. 3rd Quarter · 1:09

    Laura Juskaite makes free throw 2 of 2

71. 3rd Quarter · 45.6

    Laura Juskaite makes 6-foot driving floating jump shot (Teonni Key assists)

72. 3rd Quarter · 23.3

    Leonie Fiebich makes 27-foot three point jumper (Marine Johannes assists)

73. 3rd Quarter · 5.5

    Pauline Astier makes free throw 1 of 2

74. 4th Quarter · 9:44

    Temi Fagbenle makes layup (Julie Allemand assists)

75. 4th Quarter · 9:30

    Pauline Astier makes 23-foot three point jumper (Marine Johannes assists)

76. 4th Quarter · 8:52

    Han Xu makes 13-foot jumper (Pauline Astier assists)

77. 4th Quarter · 7:01

    Kiki Rice makes 18-foot step back jumpshot (Ornella Bankole assists)

78. 4th Quarter · 6:06

    Laura Juskaite makes finger roll layup (Kiki Rice assists)

79. 4th Quarter · 5:37

    Julie Allemand makes 20-foot step back jumpshot

80. 4th Quarter · 5:18

    Rebecca Allen makes driving layup (Anneli Maley assists)

81. 4th Quarter · 4:42

    Marine Fauthoux makes driving layup

82. 4th Quarter · 4:07

    Rebecca Allen makes 22-foot three point jumper (Marine Fauthoux assists)

83. 4th Quarter · 3:40

    Marine Johannes makes 26-foot three pointer

84. 4th Quarter · 3:28

    Ornella Bankole makes 1-foot layup (Maria Conde assists)

85. 4th Quarter · 2:47

    Madison Scott makes driving layup (Anneli Maley assists)

86. 4th Quarter · 2:42

    Marine Fauthoux makes 24-foot three point jumper (Han Xu assists)

87. 4th Quarter · 2:21

    Teonni Key makes driving layup

88. 4th Quarter · 2:08

    Han Xu makes 1-foot layup (Madison Scott assists)

89. 4th Quarter · 1:24

    Madison Scott makes 13-foot two point shot

90. 4th Quarter · 53.0

    Marine Fauthoux makes driving layup

91. 4th Quarter · 32.5

    Marine Fauthoux makes driving layup