Laura Juškaitė contributed 14 points to the Toronto Tempo’s win over the Seattle Storm on Saturday. Quite a good performance, many would say. But for Juškaitė, it is more of a responsibility to her teammates. And perhaps especially to Marina Mabrey, who herself led the team with 18 points in the game.

Juskaitė’s 14 points were fueled by a career-high four three-pointers. Even more impressive, she made them on just five attempts, giving her an 80% shooting clip from beyond the arc.

In the postgame press conference, a video of which ESPNW shared on its Instagram page, Juškaitė jokingly credited her shooting performance to a rather unconventional motivation from teammate Marina Mabrey. “I have to be ready to shoot because Marina might punch me if I don’t,” she said. The comment immediately sparked a round of laughter from Marina Mabrey, head coach Sandy Brondello, and Juškaitė herself.

Leading up to this game against Seattle, Laura Juškaitė was fine, if not great, with her three-point shooting. In the eight games before the Storm matchup, she shot 36.8% from beyond the arc, making 7 of her 19 attempts, including a game against the Lynx where she went 1-6 from long range.

Her explosive 4-of-5 outing in this game has now raised her season average to an outstanding 45.8%.

“Coaches asked me to shoot from day one,” Juškaitė said. “So it was more about me and my head, that little doubt in my mind. I hope I don’t have it anymore, and I will keep shooting. I need to do it for myself, for my team, and for our game plan.”

The way Juškaitė sees it, her teammates do all that she needs to actually sink those shots. All she has to do is execute. “Actually, my teammates create basically all the shots for me,” she said. “I just need to be in the right space at the right time. If I get the ball, I need to shoot that.”

As she suggested, if she does not, it obviously gets her teammates upset, perhaps Marina Mabrey in particular. Although, as coach Brondello pointed out, there was and will be no punching. Mabrey herself also chimed in amid the laughter to say, “I don’t do stuff like that. She just made me sound crazy.”

The point here, as coach Brondello pointed out, is that the team, and perhaps Marina Mabrey in particular, encourages Juškaitė to shoot those three-pointers whenever the opportunity presents itself.

Brondello added, “She’s encouraged. If she doesn’t shoot it, you get mad. So do I. So, shoot the open ones when you’re open.” And the way Mabrey sees it, “three points is better than two.”

Marina Mabrey Moves Into Top 25 on WNBA All-Time Three-Pointers List

Marina Mabrey finished the Seattle Storm game with a team-high 18 points, 4 assists, and 3 rebounds to spearhead the Toronto Tempo’s 93-72 blowout win on Saturday. And of the 18 points she scored, six came from beyond the arc through a pair of three-pointers. With those makes, Mabrey officially broke into the WNBA’s top 25 all-time three-pointers made list, bringing her career total to 463.

Reacting to the milestone when she was congratulated during the postgame press conference, Mabrey did not spend much time celebrating the achievement. Instead, she jokingly shifted the conversation toward the game’s plus-minus numbers.

Mabrey said, “I was just trying to figure out how it was only plus six, but it’s okay. That lineup we had was really good. I was just making a joke.”

And it has actually been quite a week of milestones for Mabrey. This is because in her immediate previous game against the Chicago Sky, she also eclipsed 3,000 career points. And of course, Toronto won that game as well, with Mabrey finishing with 24 points in total.

They face the New York Liberty in their next game. Hopefully, they can get another win. That would take them to three consecutive victories and improve their season record to 5-5.