League's best square off when Sun visit Liberty

The New York Liberty and Connecticut Sun likely will spend the rest of the season jostling for the WNBA's top two records.

Before taking a month off for the All-Star break and Paris Olympics, the Sun would like to inch closer to the top mark. Their next chance is Tuesday's visit to the league-leading Liberty in Brooklyn, N.Y.

The Sun (18-5) will get one more crack at the Liberty, following the break, on Aug. 24. Connecticut lost its the first two meetings on its home court by a combined 10 points. After a seven-point loss in a Commissioner's Cup contest on June 8, the Sun nearly overcame a 14-point deficit and took a 71-68 loss on Wednesday when Sabrina Ionescu hit the go-ahead basket with 1:58 left and blocked a potential tying 3-pointer by Tyasha Harris at the buzzer.

Connecticut bounced back nicely from its second disappointing loss to the Liberty by cruising to a 96-69 rout of the Phoenix Mercury on Sunday. The Sun achieved their most lopsided win this season in a game when Alyssa Thomas was held to six points and played 23 minutes.

Rachel Banham came off the bench and scored 24 points on eight 3-pointers. Banham finished five points shy of her career high and posted her sixth career 20-point game.

"We need to go into it and feel light and have fun," Banham said. "Like I think today we were laughing and having fun, like things were going right. And we got to keep that during times of adversity too. That's something that we talked about; we got to handle adversity better. And that's also going to separate us."

The Liberty (20-4) lead the Sun by a 1 1/2 games and have won three straight since their five-point loss to the Indiana Fever on July 6. After getting past the Sun last week, New York outscored the Chicago Sky by 29 points in a home-and-home sweep.

Breanna Stewart was held out of Saturday's 81-67 win at Chicago to rest a minor hamstring injury, but Ionescu delivered another big performance by scoring 28 points. Ionescu finished three shy of her season high, and in the two games against Chicago, she hit 8 of 19 3-pointers in totaling 49 points.

"Just taking time where we can," Liberty coach Sandy Brondello said. "It's a big game for us, but we still have to think big picture, be smart about our players' health as much as we can."

--Field Level Media