Natasha Cloud’s Mystics show Breanna Stewart’s Liberty they’ve still got work to do

WASHINGTON — As Breanna Stewart met with the media before the New York Liberty officially tipped off the first game of their much-hyped “Super Team” era, the Big Apple’s biggest new star said all the right things.

“We won’t be perfect, especially now, especially as we work out a lot of kinks,” Stewart said while seated next to fellow marquee newcomer Jonquel Jones and head coach Sandy Brondello.

But Stewart knew what everyone wanted to hear, and she felt it, too. After all, the two-time WNBA champion with the Seattle Storm — and four-time All-Star, two-time Olympic gold medalist, and four-time national champion at Connecticut — lit up the league’s offseason hot stove like rarely seen before as she debated whether to leave the Northwest for the Northeast.

“I think you embrace it,” Stewart said. “I think you have to. I think that everybody knows, with the roster that we have, we automatically have a target on our back even though we haven’t done anything.”

Nor did she hesitate to say, “We want to do something that this franchise hasn’t done, and that’s win and really get the city behind us.”

» READ MORE: The New York Liberty are a superteam — and the Big Apple’s best chance for a long-awaited first WNBA title

There was a measuring stick right across the floor when New York tipped off its season Friday night. The Washington Mystics have the thing the Liberty franchise has craved for all of the WNBA’s 27-year existence: a championship trophy.

Broomall’s Natasha Cloud and Wilmington’s Elena Delle Donne helped bring Washington’s title home in 2019 after the team’s own decades-long wait for a crown. The two Philly-area natives are among seven players from that squad who are on this year’s team, and an eighth is on the coaching staff.

Over the winter, the Mystics did their own share of big-time shopping, signing guards Brittney Sykes and Kristi Toliver and forward Amanda Zahui B. Their joining Ariel Atkins, Shakira Austin, and Shatori Walker-Kimbrough vaulted Washington to No. 3 in many media outlets’ preseason power rankings, right behind the Liberty and reigning champion Las Vegas Aces.

It was thus no surprise that while the Liberty have done plenty of talking, and had plenty of talking done for them, Mystics head coach Eric Thibault gladly said, “Yeah, I think we’ve done a little talking, too.”

And when Shakira Austin delivered a fiery block on Sabrina Ionescu midway through the first quarter, she had plenty to say, too. So did the crowd at the Mystics’ cozy arena in southeast D.C., which celebrated as the city’s favorite go-go music thumped on the speakers.

» READ MORE: The WNBA’s Philly connections: Kahleah Copper, Natasha Cloud, and some you may not know

There were many moments in Washington’s 80-64 rout when the Liberty definitely looked like a newly built team. New York shot just 34.3% from the field, as Ionescu was 7-for-20, Stewart was just 3-for-10, and she and new starting point guard Courtney Vandersloot were both 0-for-5 from three-point range.

Across the floor, four Mystics players scored in double figures: 14 points each for Cloud and Atkins, 13 for Delle Donne, and 10 for Toliver.

It was 39-26 at halftime, as New York’s big five stars — Vandersloot and Ionescu in the backcourt, and Betnijah Laney, Stewart, and Jones in the frontcourt — were a combined 8-for-33 from the floor. Ionescu’s 4-for-12 performance was punctuated by a Cloud block at the halftime buzzer.

Austin kept the momentum going early in the third quarter, converting a terrific reverse baseline layup and drawing a foul from Jones. Just past the midway point of the frame, Atkins snatched a pass from Ionescu to Vandersloot and dashed the other way for a layup.

Fans may want to see the stars light up the scoreboard, but opponents are allowed to win with defense in the WNBA, just like anywhere else. Washington tallied 13 steals and four blocks, and hassled New York into 20 turnovers.

“We just have such an edge about us on the defensive end,” Cloud said. “We’re a three-headed snake, but a five-headed snake when you add in ‘Delle’ [Donne] and ‘Kira’ [Austin].”

Was it a statement game?

“We’re confident in what we have in this locker room,” Cloud said. “And you can continue to talk about the superhero teams, but we know who we are, and we know what we bring every single night.”

Then she added a moment later: “Keep sleeping on us.”

Delle Donne, of course, was wide awake.

“We don’t care about the outside noise, we don’t care about the story lines,” she said. “We know this is one game. We’ve got 40 [in the season]. So it’s a great first step.”

Cloud went on to praise her teammates for their unselfishness, and said that “when you talk about what a makeup of a championship team, it is exactly that.”

Those words were about her team, not anyone else’s. But given who else was in the building, they made the point again.