Betnijah Laney started Sunday’s Game 4 with one of her patented corner three-pointers followed by an old-fashioned three-point play. She quickly made her mark on the game, finishing with nine points in the quarter.
She then contributed to a 7-0 run to start the third quarter after knocking down a three-pointer that forced Sun head coach Stephanie White to call timeout. At the time, Laney led all scorers with 18 points with 7:10 remaining in the period. The trey was a momentum-shifting bucket and completed another third-quarter run, which have been the recurring theme for the winning team in each game in the semifinals series between the Sun and Liberty.
Laney’s fingerprints were all over Sunday’s win and the entire semifinals series. The Libs edged the Sun riding Laney’s elite play on both ends of the floor. And her postseason dominance booked her team with its first WNBA Finals appearance in 21 years.
“B is built like this,” head coach Sandy Brondello said about her star guard who finished with 21 points, seven rebounds and five assists in the Game 4 victory. The head coach added that Laney finding her groove in the offense after the superstar additions in the offense was “a little bit of a process.” But Brondello noted that “the team took off when [Laney] got more integrated into the offense because she’s an amazing scorer.”
Prior to Game 1 of the semifinals, Brondello — along with some of her teammates — referred to spark plug Marine Johannes as an “X-factor” for a deep Liberty postseason run. But with a shorter rotation keeping Johannes on the bench, MVP Breanna Stewart struggling to find rhythm in some games, and Jonquel Jones getting constant attention in the post, Laney has been the X-factor. In fact, she’s been more than that.
She’s the reason the Libs are in the finals.
Her postseason play has gone up a notch after averaging 12.8 points, 2.4 assists and 3.3 rebounds per game in a regular season where she earned a spot on the All-Defensive Second Team.
She averaged 19 points, five rebounds and two assists per game in the first-round series against the Washington Mystics. She scored at least 20 points in the three wins against the Sun in the semifinals. Her lone off game in the postseason was in the Game 1 loss of the semis to the Sun, when Connecticut stole a game at Barclays Center after playing the best defensive game of its season.
But Laney quickly bounced back after that to finish the series with 16 points, five rebounds and four assists in the series, all marks that surpass her regular-season averages.
Her 20 points per game in the team’s victories in the semifinals proved her to be one of the most reliable pieces in the series. For a player that’s been with the Liberty years before the team’s enormous success in 2023 and missed time last season with a knee injury, Laney couldn’t help but to sit at the postgame press conference Sunday with a huge smile on her face.
She and the Liberty had been bounced in the first round for the past two seasons. Now, she sees a chance at getting hardware.
“I mean honestly it feels good. It feels amazing,” Laney said about reaching the WNBA Finals.
“Like, I’m so happy right now,” she said before laughing. “I got a few days where I can enjoy this moment. And then the work starts. We’re not content, we’re not satisfied with everything, but I am happy. Especially from where we started, being knocked out in the first round every time to now be here. … We’re in the finals.”
The always-reliable guard picked up Stewart offensively in Game 2, when the 2023 MVP inefficiently scored 19 points while missing 18 of 25 shot attempts. Laney shot 53% from downtown in the wins during the semifinals. And she picked up the toughest assignment on the perimeter on defense.
And how important was she in the decisive Game 4? She played all 40 minutes — alongside Stewart — to end the series against the Sun.
When Brondello was asked postgame if there would be a scenario where Laney would rest in Game 4, the coach provided a simple answer: No.
