Flashing lights. Roaring crowd. Final seconds ticking away. This wasn’t just another WNBA showdown — this was basketball chaos bottled in Brooklyn.
The New York Liberty, queens of the 2025 season, looked ready to steamroll the Connecticut Sun again. After all, they’d humiliated them earlier this year with a 100–52 destruction derby, burying a record-tying 19 threes. But this one? Nah. The Sun weren’t about to be extras in a Liberty highlight reel.
With the score razor-thin and the game hanging by a thread, Connecticut smelled blood. They pushed, they clawed, they nearly broke through. Then came Sabrina Ionescu.
The Liberty’s heartbeat didn’t just drain the clock — she erased destiny. A last-second chase-down block sealed an 81–79 escape act that will live on as one of the most gut-punch endings of the season.
And if that wasn’t enough for the Liberty faithful, the night doubled as a homecoming. Breanna Stewart returned after a 13-game layoff with that banged-up knee. Her presence? A calming storm, even if not full force yet.
But here’s the twist: the Sun have proven they’re no pushovers. Just weeks ago, they flipped the script and stunned New York 78–62, leaving everyone wondering if the champs had cracks in their crown. Monday night’s near-upset only turned up the volume on that question.
Clutch Crunch Take:
The Liberty are still that team — but the Sun? They’ve got that dark-horse energy. They’ve already handed New York their worst loss of the season. They’ve already made Sabrina bleed for her heroics. Don’t be shocked if this matchup gets real nasty come playoff time.
Verdict: Liberty survive. Sun rising.
(Image credits: John Mac, CC BY-SA 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0, via Wikimedia Commons. Image cropped)