Liberty get promising Jonquel Jones injury update with fellow stars back to face Dream

Ahead of their penultimate game before the All-Star break, the Liberty received some promising injury developments for both the short-term (Natasha Cloud and Isabelle Harrison) and long-term (Jonquel Jones) future.

Cloud and Harrison, who both missed a game each, both practiced fully Saturday and are expected to play Sunday against the Dream despite dealing with hip and knee injuries, respectively.

And Jones, the 2024 WNBA Finals MVP who has been out since June 19, participated in five-on-five work for the first time since re-injuring her right ankle, head coach Sandy Brondello said.

“It was nice to put her in the five-on-five [Saturday] and just see the impact immediately that she has on our group,” Brondello said “We still need to just build her up now and get her stamina, but she’s worked really hard.”

Jones averaged 12.1 points and 9.6 rebounds per game before driving for a layup midway through the second quarter last month, drawing a foul, landing on the court awkwardly and rolling in pain.

It was just her second game back following the initial ankle sprain, and the re-injury forced her to leave the locker room in a boot postgame and get a recovery timeline of approximately four to six weeks.

The Liberty defense has struggled without her presence around the paint, and Jones’ ability to score both inside and outside the 3-point arc has removed one of the consistent scorers from their offense.

She has operated with caution during her latest return, trying to make sure “I’m as close to 100 percent as possible before I get back on the court,” she said last week. At first, that just meant some individual shots and work on the bike. Then, as of Saturday, a five-on-five cameo.

And in the meantime, as the Liberty wait for Jones and the moment when they can finally return to full strength, they’ll settle for getting Cloud — an All-Star snub averaging 10.1 points and 6.2 assists per game — and Harrison, a key piece off their bench with Jones out, back.

“Big-time,” Brondello said of Cloud and Harrison making their returns Sunday, “because Atlanta’s so physical. … So you just need to have a little bit more depth so we can show them different looks. That’s good for us.”

Brondello said the Liberty’s defense — a critical layer to their slide last month — has been “getting better,” with the Liberty collecting the No. 5 defensive rating (98.7) through the first two weeks of July after finishing with the seventh-ranked unit (102.1) in June.

The return of Leonie Fiebich from EuroBasket has helped, Brondello said, and when the Liberty eventually get Jones in the lineup again, that’ll provide a boost, too.

“We’ve just come off some days rest, so we should have energy,” Brondello said. “There’s no excuses now. And when you’re trying to survive with limited players, that’s hard. We had a really good session. It was short and sharp [Saturday], we did a lot of defense, and just really focused on that. Now we just gotta go out there and do it and push each other to be better.”