Liberty's impact on WNBA's All-Star weekend: Breanna Stewart, Sabrina Ionescu, Sandy Brondello for starters

It will be Breanna Stewart vs. Sabrina Ionescu. They will be taking a timeout from playing for the same cause.

These Liberty teammates are set to start on opposite sides in the WNBA All-Star Game Saturday night at Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis.

“Full-court press on Sab in the All-Star Game,” Stewart said, joking Wednesday night when her on-court interview was piped to the crowd after the Liberty beat the Fever at Barclays Center.

Minnesota’s Napheesa Collier and Indiana’s Caitlin Clark received the most fan votes, so they were the captains who got to draft their All-Star rosters. Stewart will play for Team Collier and Ionescu will play for Team Clark.

“It’ll be weird,” Ionescu said. “Maybe we’ll just allow each other to trade off baskets and shoot. But, no, the All-Star Game is always fun. It’s not that competitive.”

Ionescu won the 3-Point Contest and Liberty teammate Natasha Cloud was the Skills Challenge champion at All-Star Friday night. Ionescu, who won the title in 2023 with a record performance, had a strong final round, scoring 30 points.

The captains also made a trade after the draft, dealing their coaches from last year’s WNBA Finals. So Lynx coach Cheryl Reeve will be running Team Collier and the Liberty’s Sandy Brondello will be coaching Ionescu as usual — and coaching against Stewart.

“I’ve created history,” Brondello said after she heard the trade news. “This is awesome. I got traded as a coach. But, look, I get to coach with Sabrina.”

Ionescu is sure happy about it.

“Obviously, I’m super comfortable with being able to go there with a coach that loves me,” she said. “I’m really excited to be able to just kind of share that together. I think it’s obviously an honor to be able to go with my teammate, but also the coaching staff.

“It’s a time to celebrate our accomplishments, but hers as well.”

Brondello used to coach Phoenix and Stewart used to play for Seattle.

“Me against Sandy,” Stewart said. “Just like old times.”

Brondello will be getting help from Clark. The point guard had to withdraw from the 3-point contest and from playing in the game because of a right groin injury she suffered Tuesday night.

So she’s more like Coach Clark now.

Clark said in a statement released by the Fever that she’s “looking forward to helping Sandy coach our team to a win.”

Liberty point guard Natasha Cloud was also in Indy, taking part in the Skills Challenge Friday night.

Her two teammates are regulars when it comes to the All-Star experience. This marked Ionescu’s fourth straight time as an All-Star and Stewart’s fifth straight and seventh overall.

Their team got off to a franchise-record 9-0 start. It pulled into the break at 15-6, second in the league behind the 20-4 Lynx.

The Liberty had to cope with the loss of the 2024 WNBA Finals MVP.

Jonquel Jones, who’s expected back for Tuesday night’s rematch against Indiana in Brooklyn, has missed 12 games, including the last nine, with a sprained right ankle.

But Stewart and Ionescu turned in strong first halves for the defending champs.

Stewart is fourth in the league in scoring, averaging 19.7 points. The 6-4 forward is also averaging 6.9 rebounds and 3.9 assists, and she’s fifth in blocks at 1.4.

Ionescu is seventh in the league in scoring, averaging 18.7. The 5-11 guard is also averaging 5.5 assists and 4.4 rebounds, and she’s fifth in the league with 50 makes from beyond the arc.

“Sabrina has flourished …” said Rebecca Lobo, the ESPN/ABC analyst and Hall of Famer who played on the Liberty’s inaugural team in 1997 and in three other seasons for them. “She’s kind of gone back and forth from being the primary ball handler to secondary.

“And then Stewie is once again just having a great year, in a weird way. Stewie is sort of flying under the radar because of all the conversation in terms of MVP with (Collier) and (Alyssa Thomas).

“But both of them are performing really well for a New York Liberty team that I think is going to be super dangerous and especially once they get (Jones) back will kind of be on the ascent again.”