ATLANTA — Satou Sabally heard a group of courtside fans’ playful chirps Thursday night. They told her she needed to relax on her shooting.
She told them she’d hit three more before the night ended.
When Sabally drained a 3-pointer midway through the fourth quarter, she turned back at them and they all laughed.
Sabally checked out later, falling short of her promise to drain three more.
But that didn’t matter.
What mattered is that Sabally continues to look more like herself with each passing day, her performance in Thursday’s 104-90 win against the Atlanta Dream being the latest example.
Sabally finished with a team-high-tying 19 points, going 5-for-6 from downtown. She also grabbed three rebounds. She did that while coming off the bench for the fifth straight game.
Sabally’s selflessness doesn’t go unnoticed. She deserves to be a starter, and she’s expected to get promoted to the opening five at some point.
A star of her magnitude could’ve demanded the Liberty give her her starting spot back when she returned from illness 2 ½ weeks ago.
But Sabally didn’t. She’s bought into the team’s mentality and the performance staff’s plans to ramp her up after she missed most of the offseason with lingering concussion symptoms and the start of this season with a cyst.
“We know what Satou can bring and that’s it,” Breanna Stewart said after the Liberty’s sixth straight win. “She’s really keeping the main thing the main thing and coming in and doing her job the same as she would any other place and hopefully she’s having fun while she’s doing it.
“I feel like you continue to just get more and more comfortable and having nights like tonight, like, nobody’s surprised that Satou had a night like tonight. We’re just really happy for her and we want to keep it going.”
Sabally keeps reiterating that the team’s biggest strength is its depth. She thought the Liberty’s 22-8 run to close out the third quarter — which included contributions from Sabally, Stewart, Leonie Fiebich, Jonquel Jones, Betnijah Laney-Hamilton, Rebekah Gardner, Raquel Carrera and Pauline Astier — was a prime example.
“Basketball is a game of runs,” Sabally said. “I think we just went on a run there and had some stops. … We had a lot of great things happening today but that particular stretch was also just fun.”
Gardner is one of the Liberty’s unsung role players.
She provides a jolt to the Liberty every time she steps on the court. She’s a smart slasher and solid defender.
The Liberty have outscored opponents by 27 points when Gardner is on the court — trailing only Laney-Hamilton for the best plus/minus among the team’s current reserves.
Is Gardner underrated?
“Well, not for me,” Marine Johannès said. “I don’t know. It’s a good question. I really have a lot of respect for her. She’s a great player.”
