Liberty open WNBA season with loss to Storm as rookie Sabrina Ionescu scores 12 in debut

BRADENTON, Fla. — Sabrina Ionescu had 12 points, six rebounds and four assists in her debut, but Breanna Stewart had 18 points, eight rebounds and four steals in her first game since helping Seattle win the 2018 WNBA championship, sending the Storm past the Liberty, 87-71, Saturday in the season opener for both teams.

The 2020 WNBA season, delayed and shortened by COVID-19, will be played in a bubble at the IMG Academy.

Stewart missed all of last season after tearing her Achilles tendon while playing for her Russian club team in April 2019.

Jewell Loyd scored 14 points and Sue Bird (Syosset) — who also missed 2019 because of a knee injury — added 11 points, hitting 3-for-5 from three-point range, and five assists for Seattle.

Ionescu, the No. 1 pick in April’s draft, was 4-for-17 shooting, including 0-for-8 from three-point range, and committed four turnovers.

If not for veteran guard Layshia Clarendon, who scored 20 points in her first game with the Liberty, the Storm would have had a much easier time with a scrappy Liberty team that consists of seven rookies and first-year coach Walt Hopkins.

The Liberty lost Kia Nurse to an apparent left ankle injury in the second quarter.

It appeared to be a sterile and sanitized environment where the WNBA will play all of its games. Players were socially distanced on the sideline and there were just a handful of courtside spectators. The game had an emotional start with Stewart standing on the court next to Clarendon, who delivered a speech about the WNBA’s seasonlong dedication to the Black Lives Matter movement and Breonna Taylor, a 26-year-old Black EMT who was shot and killed by Louisville police in her apartment on March 13.

Players left the court during the national anthem. Before the game, they stood in silence for 26 seconds in honor of Taylor and wore jerseys with her name on the back. Afterward, Storm players avoided questions about the game and talked about Taylor.

“Today and this season is about honoring Breonna Taylor’s life and it’s about bring awareness to the fact that her murderers have not been brought to justice,” Bird said. “We have no justice for her. They have not been arrested. That’s really all I’m going to talk about. “That’s why we’re here. Yes, we play a game of basketball, but right now we have a platform to bring awareness and that’s what we’re focused on.”