Tonight proved why we need Sabrina. Marine johannes is terrible. You can be mad all you want but tonight showed. She sucks against real teams. Doesn’t do anything useful on the floor against competitive teams. Theres no reason why Rebekah Gardner shouldn’t have gotten more minutes than marine johannes who is a weak defender and cannot handle physicality. Needs to lift weights in the off season.
I was extremely frustrated after the loss too, especially that final rebound sequence. I even found myself questioning JJ in ways I normally defend her from. But after calming down and looking deeper into it, I honestly think people are overlooking how much Sabrina Ionescu impacts Jonquel Jones specifically.
StatMuse has JJ averaging roughly:
with Sabrina playing.
Without Sabrina, that drops to:
Sabrina organizes so much of the offense:
When Sabrina is out, JJ sometimes looks disconnected offensively and less aggressive physically. I don’t think that automatically means she’s lazy or washed. I think Sabrina genuinely helps unlock her rhythm and confidence during games. Does she deserve criticism sometimes? Absolutely. For someone with her size and talent, I think fans reasonably expect more dominance on the glass consistently. I think this loss showed how important Sabrina is to the entire Liberty ecosystem, especially for maximizing JJ.