It was always going to be difficult for Breanna Stewart to replicate her first year with the Liberty.
There hasn’t been a back-to-back MVP in the WNBA since the league’s first two seasons. And by this point in 2023, Stewart had already topped 20 points six times.
The MVP award — the second of her career — arrived months later. Liberty records shifted to include Stewart’s name.
But through the early stages of 2024, Stewart has encountered a shooting slump. Her 3-point percentage (18.2) was nearly half of last year’s clip entering the Liberty’s 104-68 win over the Indiana Fever at Barclays Center. She has reached 20 points just three times.
Stewart has insisted that she’s not worried. She’s still averaging nearly a double-double and added 13 points Sunday.
She said she’ll continue shooting, continue taking those 3s and trust that — at some point — they’ll start falling and end the rocky stretch.
“I mean, I think that yeah, I would like the ball to go in the basket, especially from 3,” Stewart told The Post. “But … just being confident in who I am and understanding that it’s gonna come — the threat that I am. All I need to do is just go out and be myself, and that’s really it.
“And not thinking about what happened last year, but focused on this year and one game at a time.”
At multiple points this season, Liberty coach Sandy Brondello hinted that she overused Stewart in 2023.
Her minutes per game spiked to its highest mark since her 2016 rookie season. Stewart’s 17 attempts per game marked a career-high, too. Not that Stewart necessarily minded the usage.
The Liberty were in the early stages of their superteam, attempting to assemble a roster with three new starters — Stewart, Courtney Vandersloot and Jonquel Jones — and needed time to build cohesion.
If they were in a close game, Stewart said, “we’re gonna be out there.” The Liberty were trying to win, Stewart was trying to win and it’d be difficult for the former to happen without the latter on the court.
Stewart, who made her first 3 since May 25 on Sunday (1-for-4), has tried to make sure her hips are loaded and her shots are operating as “one fluid motion” — with the ball remaining close to her throughout.
There have been points when everything worked for Stewart this season — when she collected 31 points against the Fever on May 16 or when she made two 3s two days later in their home opener.
But there have also been times when the spacing and movement that worked for the Liberty in 2023 disappeared and the offense — as well as Stewart — failed to click.
Everything should be in sync, in Stewart’s eyes, by game No. 10. The growing pains will eventually subside. And her emergence will remain a critical part of that, too.
“We know she will,” Brondello said Sunday. “She’s the MVP. So, it’s quickly gonna change.”