Jonquel Jones Explains How Liberty Controlled Paint in Historic Lynx Sweep

Jonquel Jones went 9-of-14 from the field Tuesday night and finished with 21 points and 13 rebounds. The New York Liberty closed out the Minnesota Lynx with an 87-71 win at Barclays Center, completing a two-game sweep and moving on to the WNBA semifinals.

Jones grabbed six offensive rebounds and went 5-of-5 on second-chance attempts. New York finished with 14 second-chance points, and Minnesota had three.

She scored 16 points in the paint. The Liberty outscored the Lynx 44-28 there Tuesday after a 30-22 edge in Game 1, and they finished the series with a 74-50 advantage in paint points.

Jones had eight points in Game 1 on Sunday in Minneapolis while playing through an ankle injury, The Associated Press reported. She hurt the ankle late in the third quarter of the Sept. 23 regular-season finale against the Atlanta Dream and did not return.

Leonie Fiebich scored 16 points on 6-of-7 shooting in Game 1, and Breanna Stewart had 34 points and 12 rebounds. On Tuesday, Jones and Stewart each scored 21.

Getting Jones easy baskets when she is rolling and sealing is part of the job for Ionescu as the point guard.

"She set the tone for us offensively and defensively, with her ability to get on the boards," Ionescu said. "That's what JJ does night in and night out. For us, it's kind of someone different every night, and I think that's what makes this team really special, whether it's Leo's surge in the last game, Stewie having the game she had, and now JJ instilling her will the way that she did."

"Every night it's somebody else, and we rely on everyone to do their job," Ionescu continued. "But when JJ is doing that, it makes our job easy. We're confident taking those shots and getting those looks. Obviously, for me as a point guard, it's my job to try and get her easy ones, especially when she's rolling and sealing. I'm glad we were able to find her tonight."

Ionescu finished with 18 points and seven assists.

Minnesota went 14-of-30 on shots in the paint Tuesday. The Lynx made 18 of their 48 attempts inside the arc.

Lynx center Natasha Howard finished with two points and five rebounds in Game 2.

Jones expects a lot of physicality in playoff basketball and sees the paint as one of the areas that can decide a series.

"I think it's an understanding that we have that we can bang down there in the paint, obviously, and that a lot of the game is going to be won playing down there and playing in that type of way," Jones said. "It's playoff basketball, so there's going to be a lot of physicality. The team that's able to take advantage of it, adapt to it, and score in the paint is probably going to be the more successful team. We understand that, and we did a really good job of making sure that we were the victors."

Minnesota scored 21 points in the first quarter and 16 in the second. New York led 49-37 at halftime.

Jones and Stewart combined for three of the Liberty's four blocks.

Jones said Ionescu used a timeout to get the Liberty to pick up the ball earlier.

"I think we really just talked about slowing them down in transition," Jones explained. "They were getting the ball out really quickly, pushing the ball up and down the court. We came into the timeout, and I think it was Sab talking to us about making sure we picked up the ball a little bit earlier to slow them down, and then give everybody else time to build a wall defensively and protect the paint. That was just the mindset, to do that."

New York lost 106-92 at Indiana on Aug. 11 and 93-86 at Chicago on Aug. 18. The Liberty went 4-3 the rest of the regular season.

The Liberty had to accept, as a team, that they had a lot to figure out.

"I do think that we as a team really had a moment where we were like, look, this is where we are," Jones said. "Yes, we think that we're supposed to be this, and we have high expectations for ourselves, and we know that individually we're great players, but as a team and as a collective right now, we had a lot of things to figure out. Once you start to really embrace that, you can start trying to figure out ways to be successful and make it right."

"Tonight was a combination of us figuring that out and everybody having the mindset to really want to work on it and want to better for the team," Jones added. "Just everybody really wanting to work."

Jones joined New York in a January 2023 trade with the Connecticut Sun, two seasons after she was named league MVP with Connecticut in 2021. She was the WNBA Finals MVP in 2024, when New York beat Minnesota in five games for the franchise's first championship.

New York lost its last two regular-season games to Atlanta, 95-84 on Sept. 21 and 83-65 on Sept. 23. The Dream lead their first-round series against the Washington Mystics 1-0, and the winner meets the Liberty in the semifinals.