Why the Fifth Wheel in the New York Liberty’s Star-Studded Lineup Might Be Its Most Important
When do-everything wing Betnijah Laney plays well, N.Y. wins — especially during these WNBA Playoffs.
As is fitting for a matchup we’ve been waiting for all season long, the stars will be out for the Las Vegas Aces and New York Liberty in the WNBA Finals: 2023 and 2018 league MVP Breanna Stewart. 2022 and 2020 MVP A'ja Wilson. 2021 MVP Jonquel Jones. Future Hall of Fame point guard Courtney Vandersloot. 2023 All-Stars Sabrina Ionescu, Chelsea Gray, Jackie Young and Kelsey Plum. The sheer number of big names in this battle is astounding.
But one of the most important players in the series might be one that fans don’t think of in the same tier of stardom: Liberty wing Betnijah Laney, who scored 20 points in three consecutive semifinal games — all wins — to help New York stamp its first ticket to the Finals since 2002.
Laney has had a fine WNBA career since being drafted by the Chicago Sky in 2015, playing more than 200 games across eight seasons and earning the Most Improved Player award in 2020 and an All-Star nod in 2021. She bounced between five different franchises before joining New York two years ago and, eventually, producing the best season of her career in 2023 — as a starter that does a little bit of everything for one of the most successful teams in WNBA history.
Within that role, Laney was the glue that helped hold together the Liberty’s talented lineup, but she wasn’t a statistical focal point. She averaged 12.8 points per game during the regular season — a distant third on the team behind Stewart (23.0) and Ionescu (17.0) — while scoring 20 or more just four times all year. It wasn’t her job to outshine the big stars, but rather to knock down 3-pointers (she made a career-high 1.5 per game on 39.2% shooting), play tough defense and be efficient with her touches.
In the playoffs, though, Laney’s role has expanded. She has increased her scoring output to 17.0 points per game, second-best on the Liberty (behind only Stewart) and sixth-best in the entire league. She has already nearly matched her regular-season tally for 20-point outings with three in the postseason (plus a pair of 19-point games as well). And she’s not just putting points on the board; Laney has also upped her per-game averages for rebounds (from 3.3 to 5.2) and assists (from 2.4 to 3.0) in the playoffs versus the regular season.
If we add up those points, rebounds and assists, Laney has seen one of the biggest playoff improvements ever among players on a Finals team:
You’ll probably also notice Laney’s teammate, Jones, ranking even higher on the same list, speaking to her continued upward trajectory ever since fully recovering from a stress fracture in her foot. But Laney’s improvement hits a little different still, as Jones is a bona fide superstar and was named MVP of the Commissioner’s Cup in August, reminding everyone how much she can impact the game.
By contrast, Laney’s transformation into a statistical star was the one without much precedent — at least not within the context of a successful team. Laney’s scoring had sat in the 17 PPG range twice earlier in her career, with the 2020 Atlanta Dream and the 2021 Liberty, but both of those squads were substantially below .500. In the case of Laney’s postseason performance this year, however, the Liberty seem to actually need Laney to score in bunches to win.
It’s a limited sample, but New York’s lone loss of the playoffs came in Game 1 of the semifinals against Connecticut, when Laney was held to just 3 points in nearly 32 minutes of action, going 1-for-9 from the floor with a team-low -24 plus/minus. In the rest of New York’s games, the team is 5-0 with Laney scoring at least 19 in each contest, averaging 19.8 on 52.6% shooting with a +8.6 plus/minus. This is also largely in keeping with what happened during the regular season, when the Liberty went 17-3 (85% winning percentage) with a +11.3 PPG differential if Laney outscored her season average, and 15-5 (75%) with a +6.1 differential if she didn’t.
Certainly, the outcome of these Finals will hinge significantly on the superstar showdown of Stewart versus Wilson and the comparative play of the other big names in their orbit. Laney alone won’t be enough to carry the Liberty to the franchise’s long-awaited first championship. But if she keeps playing this well against the Aces, there’s a good chance she’ll help lift New York all the way to a title.
Filed under: WNBA