Liberty's Jones out 4-6 weeks with ankle sprain

New York Liberty halfway Jonquel Jones volition miss 4 to six weeks with a close ankle sprain, the squad announced connected Saturday night.

The wounded occurred astatine the 8:35 people of the 2nd 4th successful Thursday night's 89-81 nonaccomplishment to the Phoenix Mercury, the club's archetypal location nonaccomplishment of the season. Jones, 31, had antecedently sprained the ankle connected June 5, successful an 86-78 triumph implicit the Washington Mystics.

After further imaging and evaluation, Jonquel avoided semipermanent injury, the squad said successful a statement. But she's inactive facing a betterment that my instrumentality her WNBA All-Star weekend, which is July 18-19.

At the clip of the injury, Jones, the league MVP successful 2021 and Finals MVP successful 2024, ranked 2nd successful the WNBA with 9.6 rebounds per crippled and besides averaged 12.1 points and 2.3 assists for the reigning champions.

The Liberty uncharacteristically struggled against the Mercury pursuing Jones' departure. New York was outrebounded 42-32 and had 20 full turnovers.

"Obviously we're not blessed with the mode we played, we should person been a small spot much assertive successful that archetypal fractional and generated immoderate energy," New York manager Sandy Brondello said. "No excuses for the mode we played."

The Liberty volition statesman a four-game roadworthy travel connected Sunday against the Seattle Storm.