– by Adesina O. Koiki
A Lot of Sports Talk editor-in-chief
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NEW YORK — The desperation level the New York Liberty needed played with on Sunday to get on the board in the WNBA Finals had already been mirrored by the desperation one of their players, Betnijah Laney-Hamilton, in trying every single thing possible over the past three months to reclaim the form that perfectly fit inside the team’s steam train that rolled through the league this season.
Laney-Hamilton is not healthy, but her best game of the 2024 WNBA Playoffs allowed the Liberty to get one step closer to feeling whole again … and one step closer to a championship.
Laney-Hamilton, one of the role players who have surrounded the Liberty’s Big Three and and have taken turns sharing the spotlight, came through with the white-hot spotlight shining down on the Barclays Center, scoring 20 points in helping New York to an 80-66 victory over the Minnesota Lynx to even the WNBA Finals series at one game apiece. Coming into today averaging just 5.9 points in the postseason, Hamilton took advantage of the Lynx sloughing off of her on the perimeter to pack in their defense in the paint, as the former Rutgers star made four three-pointers, including what turned out to be the most pivotal shot of the game, a corner three that gave New York a 71-66 lead with just over three minutes remaining and were the first points of a game-ending 12-0 run to see off a Minnesota comeback akin to the Lynx’s stunning late-game revival in Game 1.
*Editor’s note: Above the byline is the photo gallery from Sunday afternoon’s game, with photos taken by ALOST staff photographer Roberto Carlo. After clicking on a photo to enlarge the picture, press the left and right arrow buttons on either side of the caption to scroll through the rest of the pictures that appear on the first page. Also, click on the numbers and/or arrow appearing immediately below the picture grid to load the next set of photos. There are 23 pictures in total.
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