The Liberty returned to U.S. soil with Olympic medals, the WNBA’s best record and a mostly healthy roster.
Two-way guard Betnijah Laney-Hamilton (right knee) was the lone Liberty player on the injury report for Thursday’s game against the Los Angeles Sparks. During the Olympic break, the star rehabbed after undergoing a minor knee procedure and hasn’t played since the July 6 loss to the Indiana Fever.
Laney-Hamilton was “involved in a little bit of practice here and did most of it” on Wednesday, per head coach Sandy Brondello. But the head coach isn’t sure of an exact date for the 30-year-old’s return.
“She looks good, but obviously there’s still a time thing on that. I don’t know if that’s a week or two weeks. but we’re just going to build her up,” the head coach said about Laney-Hamilton, who the team announced would miss 4-6 weeks on July 16.
Laney-Hamilton, who is still on track with the 4-6 week timeline, had two loose bodies removed from her knee last month. The plan was for her to have most of that rehab time done while the WNBA went on break for the Summer Games. The same knee forced her to play just nine games after undergoing surgery in 2022.
The Liberty head coach, though, doesn’t seem too worried.
“Obviously we’re just making sure we continue to build her up in the right way and her knee responds well,” Brondello said. “She looks good, she’s she feels good.”
QUICK TURNAROUND
With the USA vs. France gold-medal game being played last Sunday and the WNBA resuming action Thursday, stars Sabrina Ionescu and Breanna Stewart barely had much time to rest. Germans Nyara Sabally and Leonie Fiebich finished Olympic action on Aug. 7, leaving them with a bit more time to rest.
Ionescu and Stewart played huge roles for Team USA, with the reigning MVP starting in each game and Ionescu playing an integral role off the bench en route to a gold medal. Sabally and Fiebich both logged heavy minutes in their four games in Paris.
While most of the roster — and the league — enjoyed a 25-day hiatus, the four Olympic athletes traveled and played throughout the summer. And they are now thrown back into the fire for the final 15 games in five weeks.
Brondello said her players that participated in Paris will be in more “game shape, but a little bit mentally fatigued.”
“We always want to win, but I think it’s just being smart with their minutes,” she said about her approach.
The head coach said she doesn’t expect to have any minute restrictions upon return but would like to lower minutes for the “Sabrinas and the Stewies” after they both carried much of the Liberty load in the first 25 games of the season.
Stewart (34.4) and Ionescu (33.7) ranked sixth and 12th, respectively, in minutes per game heading into the Olympic break.
“So that’s the goal there,” Brondello said. “… I’m not saying 20 minutes but not into the high 30s that we’ve had at times.”
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