On a dismal East Coast night, perhaps Golden State’s biggest highlight occurred before the 95-67 rout at the hands of the defending champion New York Liberty.

Onetime New York stalwart Kayla Thornton was surrounded by her former teammates as she received her championship ring in a pregame ceremony.

After scoring a team-high 13 points, Thornton told media that she enjoyed spending a few moments with her former teammates, and said she shed many tears during an “emotional” few days during her return trip to New York.

“I’m glad I got that out of the way now, so I don’t have to worry about that and I can just relax and breathe,” Thornton said. “It’s been an emotional roller coaster these past two days for me.”

To scrimmage, or not to scrimmage

After Tuesday’s debacle, Valkyries coach Natalie Nakase admitted she should have gone with her gut. As the team traveled from Los Angeles to New York with three days between games, she decided to give her players rest days at the expense of scrimmaging.

The Valkyries certainly looked like a team that had not played competitive basketball for half a week, shooting just 2 of 16 in the first quarter while allowing the Liberty to shoot 10 of 20.

“I chose rest over rhythm, and that’s what I get,” Nakase said. “I told them that’s on me, and I’ll manage it better on our off days to make sure that they have rhythm.”

Nakase’s Valkyries won’t have much of a chance to be rusty for their next game on Thursday, which is, once again, against the LIberty in New York.

Sabrina Ionescu shines against hometown team

As a teenager in the Bay Area, Sabrina Ionescu routinely put up gaudy stats for Miramonte High in Orinda. The Bay Area News Group’s high school girls basketball player of the decade averaged 25.3 points, 8.8 assists, 7.6 rebounds, 4.5 steals and 1.3 blocks as a senior during the 2015-16 season.

Almost a decade later, Ionescu faced the Bay Area’s new WNBA team for the first time, and had a relatively discreet eight-point, six-assist, five-rebound night, numbers that severely underrate her impact.

The defending champion and Olympic gold medalist was masterful at point guard, dictating tempo and powering a transition attack that rolled up 21 fast-break points.

“Our offense is rolling,” Ionescu told the New York Post. “Our ability to understand how we want to get each and every one of us involved and the ability to kind of use the gravity that we have to get other people open, and you’re able to just see unselfish basketball.”

Ionescu, who remains involved in Bay Area high school basketball and hosts the annual SI20 showcase each winter, will be a free agent at the end of the season.

Double bigs give Valkyries huge trouble

The Valkyries have attempted to craft an identity as a scrappy, dogged defensive unit that plays above their talent level. That has been somewhat successful during a 2-2 start to the season that saw the team win back-to-back games against Washington and Los Angeles.

But determination and hard work only go so far when faced with overwhelming talent, something the Liberty had in abundance. Jonquel Jones (6-foot-6) and Breanna Stewart (6-4) combined for 37 points, routinely obliterating Valkyries forwards such as Janelle Salaun.

Veteran big Temi Fagbenle was 5 of 5 for 11 points, but Golden State was otherwise overwhelmed inside, where the team was outscored in the paint 40 to 16.

Though few teams can boast the Hall of Fame talent the Liberty do on the interior, Las Vegas is one of those few. Their dominance could be a sign of things to come when Golden State has to face A’ja Wilson and the Aces in early June.

Kate Martin gets going

It has been a rough start to the season for Kate Martin, who carved out a role on the dominant Aces last year as a second-round rookie out of Iowa.

She was 2 of 10 in the first three games combined, making her first two baskets in the third matchup against Los Angeles.

Though not the most efficient night (3 of 9), Martin’s 10-point outing had to be encouraging for a Tiffany Hayes-less squad that was looking for offense. It was only her third double-digit scoring night of her career.