Connecticut
NY Liberty vs. Connecticut Sun preview: Saturday Showdown in Uncasville
Taking care of business. The New York Liberty continued their Commissioner’s Cup road trip in Atlanta vs. the Dream on Thursday night. It wasn’t the smoothest affair on offense, but the Liberty did more than enough to come away with another double digit victory. They are 3-0 in Cup play and have won their last five games.
The opponent today is the best in the WNBA thus far in 2024. The Connecticut Sun are 9-0 and have gotten off to the best start in franchise history. They’ve been off since Tuesday after beating the Washington Mystics, 76-59.
Where to follow the game
ABC is the place to be. Tip after 1:00 p.m. ET.
Injuries
Courtney Vandersloot missed Thursday’s game due to personal reasons. She’s officially listed as doubtful for today. Nyara Sabally will miss this game as she continues to recover from a back injury.
Moriah Jefferson is questionable with an ankle injury.
The game
Safe to say, the winner of this game will be representing the Eastern Conference in the Commissioner’s Cup championship game on June 25. These two teams engaged in hand-to-hand combat in last year’s playoff semifinals and figure to see each other in the playoffs once again.
The atmosphere for this one promises to be electric. NetsDaily will be on the scene covering this one and we’ll have plenty of sights and sounds to share. Also, keep an eye out for Liberty fans making the bus trip up to Uncasville to cheer on the home team.
Even when you’re undefeated, there’s still room to get better. On Wednesday, the Sun added some guard depth when they signed Veronica Burton to a rest-of-season contract
To create room, they waived Queen Egbo. With Jefferson’s status up in the air, having another guard will help keep things moving along.
The battle at center will be a fascinating one. Brionna Jones is still working her way back from the Achilles tear she suffered last year. She’s on a minutes restriction, but she’s made the most out of her time on the court. Bri is good for 13 points and five rebounds in 23 minutes a night thus far, and as the season progresses, we’ll see how Stephanie White utilizes her All Star big the further away she is from the injury. Bri will have her hands full against Jonquel Jones this afternoon. The counting stats of 10/8/2/3 don’t tell the full story of how Jones made life difficult on the Dream on the inside. When the Liberty win, it’s when Jones is avoiding foul trouble and wreaking havoc on both sides of the court.
Who will Dijonai Carrington guard this afternoon? The Sun guard has been magnificent this season and has taken on the challenge of guarding the opponent’s best perimeter player. Chances are, she’ll start with Sabrina Ionescu. It was a quiet night at the office for Sab, but she still managed to find her way to the basket. That ability to find her way to the basket will lead to plenty of scoring opportunities for herself and her teammates throughout the day.
On the other side, Betnijah Laney-Hamilton will get the DeWanna Bonner assignment. DB has been her customary excellent self and is ninth in the W in scoring at 19.1 points per game. Bonner is the player the Sun can turn to late for key baskets when the game is on the line. For Laney-Hamilton, she’ll be tasked with forcing Bonner into tough shots.
This game might come down to 3-point shooting. The Sun are last in the WNBA in three point shooting at 29.8%. However, the Libs aren’t that much better at 31.6%. You wonder if today will be the day New York starts to look like themselves from three point range. It would be the perfect time for a renaissance.
Player to watch: Alyssa Thomas
The Engine is back and better than ever. She’s playing at an MVP level and is once again averaging close to a triple double every night she’s on the court. She’s “only” seventh in the WNBA in minutes per game this season, which is a relief considering how much she had to shoulder last season. With healthier teammates around her, Thomas can get some more rest in this congested regular season. However, we all know that she can give you a full 40 minutes when the time calls for it.
Breanna Stewart is starting to heat up a bit. She’s scored 58 points in her last two games and been the focal point of the Liberty attack. The three point shooting still isn’t there for her, but the Liberty have made up for it by finding her on the move and getting her shot attempts close to the rim. In what promises to be a physical game, her patience and off-ball movement will be immensely valuable.
From the Vault
Kaytranada is back with a new album, so let’s throw it back to one of his greatest mixes
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MERIDEN, Conn. (WTNH) — For decades, police have been arresting drunk drivers and measuring their blood alcohol levels.
But in October, the Connecticut Forensic Lab started testing all impaired drivers for drugs, and even the experts were shocked by what they found.
“It’s not simply alcohol combined with one drug combined with alcohol,” Dr. Jessica Gleba, the director of Forensic Lab Operations, said. “We are seeing multiple drugs used together and often combined with alcohol.”
Fentanyl and carfentanyl use are on the rise and the data shows people are combining multiple drugs at an alarming rate.
“The data revealed, in 2025, 14% of cases analyzed had 10 or more drugs present, an increase compared to 2022, when the number was 6%,” Gleba said.
Approximately 50% of cases in 2025 had five or more drugs detected, according to the Connecticut Forensic Lab.
Not only is the state lab finding more and more combinations of drugs in impaired drivers, Connecticut is also seeing more fatal accidents caused by impaired drivers.
Across the country, around 30% of fatal crashes are caused by impaired drivers. Joe Cristalli, Jr., the CTDOT Highway Safety Office director, said Connecticut is well above that.
“The impaired rate is 40% – between 37% and 40% – and we’re one of the highest in the country,” Cristalli said.
It is the season for holiday parties, but it is also cold and flu season, and over the counter medicine can impair your driving, especially combined with alcohol.
The message from law enforcement is clear.
“If you are caught, you will be arrested, you will be presented for prosecution, which means you’re going to have to appear before a judge in the State of Connecticut,” commissioner Ronnell Higgins of the Deptartment of Emergency Services & Public Protection said. “I don’t know how clearer I can be.”
In other words, don’t drink or use drugs and get behind the wheel.
Three hours and nine minutes. That’s how long the average Connecticut resident spends in the emergency department at any one visit. With cuts in Medicaid, that time will only get longer.
On July 4, 2025, President Donald Trump passed the Big Beautiful Bill, which includes major cuts to Medicaid funding. Out of nearly 926,700 CT residents who receive Medicaid, these cuts could remove coverage for up to 170,000 people, many of whom are children, seniors, people with disabilities, and working families already living paycheck-to-paycheck.
This is not a small policy change, but rather a shift with life-altering consequences.
When people lose their only form of health insurance, they don’t stop needing medical care. They simply delay it. They wait until the infection spreads, the chest pain worsens, or the depression deepens. This is not out of choice, but because their immediate needs come first. Preventable conditions worsen, and what could have been treated quickly and affordably in a primary care office becomes an emergency medical crisis.
That crisis typically lands in the emergency department: the single part of the healthcare system that is legally required to treat everyone, insured or not. However, ER care is the most expensive, least efficient form of healthcare. More ER use means longer wait times, more hospital crowding, and more delayed care for everyone. No one, not even those who can afford private insurance, is insulated from the consequence.
Not only are individual people impacted, but hospitals too. Medicaid provides significant reimbursements to hospitals and health systems like Yale New Haven and Hartford Healthcare, as well as smaller hospitals that serve rural and low-income regions. Connecticut’s hospitals are already strained and cuts will further threaten their operating budget, potentially leading to cuts in staffing, services, or both.
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Vicky WangWhen there’s fewer staff in already short-staffed departments and fewer services, care becomes less available to those who need it the most.
This trend is not hypothetical. It is already happening. This past summer, when I had to schedule an appointment with my primary care practitioner, I was told that the earliest availability was in three months. When I called on September 5 for a specialty appointment at Yale New Haven, the first available date was September 9, 2026. If this is the system before thc cuts, what will it look like after?
The burden will fall heaviest on communities that already face obstacles to care: low-income residents, rural towns with limited providers, and Black and Latino families who are disproportionately insured through Medicaid. These cuts will deepen, not close, Connecticut’s health disparities.
This is not just a public health issue, but also an economic one. Preventative care is significantly cheaper than emergency care. When residents cannot access affordable healthcare, the long-term costs shift to hospitals, taxpayers, and private insurance premiums. The country and state may “save” money in the short term, but we will all pay more later.
It is imperative that Connecticut takes proactive steps to protect its residents. The clearest path forward is for the state to expand and strengthen community health centers (CHCs), which provide affordable primary care and prevent emergency room overcrowding.
Currently, the state supports 17 federally qualified CHCs, serving more than 440,000 Connecticut residents, which is about 1 in 8 people statewide. These centers operate hundreds of sites in urban, suburban, and rural areas, including school-based clinics, mobile units, and service-delivery points in medically underserved towns. About 60% of CHC patients in Connecticut are on Medicaid, while a significant portion are uninsured or underinsured, which are populations often shut out of private practices.
Strengthening CHCs would have far-reaching impacts on both access and system stability. These clinics provide consistent, high-quality outpatient and preventive care, including primary care, prenatal services, chronic disease management, mental health treatment, dental care, and substance-use services. This reduces the likelihood that patients delay treatment until their condition becomes an emergency. CHCs also serve large numbers of uninsured and underinsured residents through sliding-fee scales, ensuring that people can still receive care even if they lose Medicaid coverage.
By investing in community health centers, Connecticut can keep its citizens healthy, reduce long waits, and ensure timely care even as federal cuts take effect.
Access to healthcare should not depend on ZIP code, income level, or politics. It is the foundation of community well-being and a prerequisite for a functioning healthcare system.
The clock is ticking. The waiting room is filling. Connecticut must choose to care for its residents before the wait becomes even longer.
Vicky Wang is a junior at Sacred Heart University, majoring in Health Science with a Public Health Concentration. She is planning to pursue a master’s in physician assistant studies.
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