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With the Liberty down three starters and shorthanded yet again, they needed a full-team, complete-game effort Thursday night against the Mystics.
And that's exactly what they got, resulting in an 89-63 win.
The Liberty got positive contributions from all eight players who stepped onto the court. No player scored fewer than six points, every player had at least one rebound and seven registered assists.
"It was a great team win," said Marine Johannès, who had 15 points and five assists. "It felt really great."
The Liberty's bench, led by Isabelle Harrison, provided a major boost, scoring 35 points -- two shy of tying the highest scoring output by the reserves all season.
The Liberty thought the injury woes were behind them.
Breanna Stewart was back after a monthlong, absence and Harrison finally received the green light to play. With the big three of Stewart, Sabrina Ionescu and Jonquel Jones intact and post depth added, New York could finally start building some synergy and momentum during this two-week final sprint of the regular season.
Then Sandy Brondello started Thursday's pregame news conference in an all too familiar way.
She opened with a lengthy list of injury updates to share. Some were surprises; others not so much.
Starters Ionescu and Jones were out, joining Natasha Cloud (broken nose) and Nyara Sabally (knee) on the sidelines. Ionescu suffered a left toe injury in the last play of Wednesday's practice, and Jones woke up sick Thursday morning.
Once again, New York would be limited to only an eight-player rotation.
It's become all too familiar of a situation for the Liberty, who's had only one person -- Johannès -- play all 39 games this season.
Understanding the toll this adversity-riddled season has already had on the group, Stewart stepped up as leaders do in these moments. She told her teammates not to focus on who was out and what they were missing but rather what they could do together.
"It doesn't matter," Stewart said. "We're just here to win a game."
Stewart's message stuck and the Liberty stitched together an overall solid win.
Despite being down two primary ball handlers, the Liberty did a good job moving the ball and limiting the turnovers to only nine all game.
Johannès played a major role in leading the offense and shared the duties with Stewart. They helped control the Liberty's tempo and ensured they ran, but didn't rush. When things started to come unglued, they slowed down and got reorganized.
Defensively, the Liberty had success slowing the Mystics with their zone and held Washington to only 26 points in the final 20 minutes.
But it wasn't the best start. The Liberty surrendered five offensive rebounds in the first 3:19. But New York regrouped and ultimately found success as it won the battle of the boards 35-22.
Brondello commended the team effort, especially reserves, Harrison, Stephanie Talbot and Rebekah Gardner, who've stayed patient despite fluctuating roles.
"They're being professionals and staying ready," Brondello said. "It doesn't matter that maybe you haven't played as many minutes as you would have liked in some of the games, it's always about being prepared for when your number is called... When you don't get those consistent minutes, you lose that little feel. So credit to all of them putting in the hard work for when their numbers called -- and they were big for us tonight."
The hope is that Ionescu and Jones -- along with Cloud -- will be ready for the team's three-game West Coast swing that starts Saturday in Phoenix.
But the team has plenty to build off of from Thursday's win.