WNBA semifinals: Key offseason additions Rebecca Allen, Tiffany Hayes help Sun steal Game 1 from Liberty

The story of the 2023 WNBA season became super-teams after Executive of the Year Jonathan Kolb built a New York Liberty roster featuring two free-agent signings and a blockbuster trade.

The Liberty stormed through the regular season to a No. 2 playoff seed and into the semifinals for the franchise’s first time since 2015. But in Game 1 on Sunday, it was two offseason additions on the other side, including one who came via that blockbuster trade, who determined Game 1 of the best-of-five series.

Connecticut Sun forward Rebecca Allen, who played the first seven seasons of her career with New York, and Tiffany Hayes, acquired in a trade with Atlanta, paced the No. 3 seed Sun early to steal a 78-63 win at a sold-out Barclays Center.

Game 2 is at Barclays on Tuesday (8 p.m. ET, ESPN) before the series shifts to Mohegan Sun Arena in Connecticut for two games.

Allen was a part of the three-team trade that brought 2021 MVP Jonquel Jones to New York in January. Allen said there were no hard feelings or any type of revenge game going against New York in her first WNBA semifinal appearance of her career.

“I said two words I wanted was to be assertive and confident,” Allen said after the Sun’s first win against the Liberty in five tries this season. “And I felt like I started like that.”

Allen hit two of her first three 3-pointers and led the Sun to a 25-21 first-quarter lead with eight points and two steals. She finished with 18 points shooting 77.8% overall and 4-of-6 from 3-point range, plus seven rebounds, two steals and two blocks.

“It wasn’t just scoring. It was her defense. Her length bothered us. Her rebounding, her cutting,” said Liberty head coach Sandy Brondello, who coaches Allen with the Australian national team. “She was a handful for us tonight. Hopefully, we don’t let her play as well next game.”

Sun head coach Stephanie White called Allen an “underrated defender” who had answered the call of better defense the past two games, which included a deciding Game 3 in the first round against the Minnesota Lynx.

“She’s just a long, athletic wing and to have her versatility to be able to defend multiple positions is important, particularly when you’re playing a team that can score from all five positions,” White said.

In the trade that brought in Allen, Connecticut also received the Liberty’s No. 6 overall pick in the 2023 WNBA Draft. The Sun sent it to Atlanta in a separate transaction for Hayes.

Hayes chipped in 12 points, half in the first quarter, with seven rebounds and two assists. The backcourt kept the Sun not only in it, but in control of it, until veteran leaders DeWanna Bonner (20 points, seven rebounds, three blocks) and Alyssa Thomas (eight points, seven rebounds, 10 assists) came alive.

“We’re going to go as far as our guards take us,” White said. “We certainly know that AT and DB are going to be the centerpiece of every defensive effort, every defensive scouting report, every scheme. So our guards have to be playmakers, and they have to be shotmakers and then they have to be great defenders.”

The Sun needed a complete team effort and solid game plan to take away all of the Liberty’s threats, particularly on the boards and beyond the arc. They won the rebounding battle, 35-30, behind seven boards each from four of five starters. New York hit eight 3-pointers, below its league-leading average of 11.1 per game, and shot 33.8% overall and 29.6% from 3.

Their 63 points was the worst offensive showing of the season. The Sun lost all four matchups against New York in the regular season, giving up on average 88.5 points per game. They never kept the Liberty to fewer than 81.

“They were being aggressive [and] blowing things up for us,” Liberty forward Breanna Stewart said. “I don’t think we handled it well. We didn’t stay poised or composed. We had the ability to get to the second and third side, we just didn’t do that today. So it’s a little bit frustrating to drop this one at home, but we’ll bounce back, watch film tomorrow and be ready for Tuesday.”

After the Liberty acquired Jones, they opened free agency by signing Stewart, a two-time WNBA champion and former MVP. The superstar was the most sought-after free agent in the offseason and immediately made them title contenders. WNBA champion point guard Courtney Vandersloot announced she’d sign shortly afterward.

They came out slow in the first quarter, scoring the first bucket, but quickly falling into a double-digit hole. By half it was 40-37 in their favor, until they came out slow again in the third quarter. The Sun went on a 9-0 run until Jones hit Stewart for a basket to snap it.

“It’s been happening the last few games,” Brondello said of the slow starts. “I think it’s mindset and I think frustration sets in, we don’t execute, and we all know we’re better than that. And now our backs [are] against the wall. We have to come and respond in the right way.”

Stewart led all Liberty scorers with 19 points, but was an inefficient 7-of-25. She’s shooting 28.8% through three games, far below her 47.8% career playoff mark that includes a 35.3% one-game showing in 2017.

Jones paced New York early with eight points and tapered off to finish with 14 and 11 rebounds. It is the first time this season the Liberty lost when Jones had a double-double. New York had 18 paint points in the first half and only four in the second to be outdone, 34-22.

Ionescu hit four 3-pointers for 12 points. Vandersloot had seven points, seven assists and six rebounds. And the Sun took Betnijah Laney out of the game almost entirely. She had three points.

“We couldn’t play any worse, and they played quite well,” Brondello said.

The Liberty super-team was built, and succeeded, with All-WNBA talent at every starting position. Theoretically, opposing teams couldn’t shut down everybody.

That exact thing happened Sunday, led by an experienced group who added their own key free-agent additions. Same as the Liberty, they hope to finally win their franchise its first WNBA championship.

But unlike the Liberty, the Sun are two wins away from a quick return to the WNBA Finals they lost in four games to the super-team Las Vegas Aces last September. The Liberty are forced to win three of four to reach their first Finals since 2002 and Brondello was asked if there were any positives to take into that quest.

“Not really.”