More than a month had passed since Jonquel Jones’ last double-double, through the final 11 games of the Liberty’s regular season and their playoff opener against the Atlanta Dream.She still had her double-digit rebound games, still had the games with more than 15 points.
But they hadn’t overlapped in the same 40-minute window.That changed during the Liberty’s 91-82 win over the Dream in Game 2 of their first-round series on Tuesday night at Barclays Center, when Jones collected 20 points and 13 rebounds on 8-for-12 shooting.The Liberty improved to 12-0 this season when Jones records a double-double, and against Atlanta, it served as the complement to Sabrina Ionescu’s playoff career-high 36 points that they needed to advance and avoid a winner-take-all Game 3.“I was kinda thinking what I was gonna do with the ball before I got the ball, then it was obvious,” Jones said.
“And so just going out there and just understanding that if they give me the jump shot, I can make the jump shot.If they give me the drive, I can drive.
And then trusting that my teammates will find me, and as long as I did the work, they’ll give me the ball.”Jones, the former WNBA MVP whose pairing with Ionescu on pick-and-rolls ignited the Liberty offense at times this year, helped the Liberty trim their deficit before halftime by hitting a 3-pointer with 26 seconds left.Then, in the early minutes of the third quarter, she grabbed her own miss and converted a put-back.
She also initiating crisp ball movement — which started with her and hit Betnijah Laney-Hamilton, Breanna Stewart and then Leonie Fiebich for a 3-pointer — to stay within striking distance of the Dream.In Game 1, she finished with just nine points on five shot attempts, while grabbing just seven rebounds.There were moments in Game 2 Jones encountered difficulties when trying to post up, too, including in the first quarter when she tried to back down former Liberty star Tina Charles near the paint and coul...