Shameka Christon is averaging a career-high 16.2 points per game in her fifth season in the WNBA. Jesse D. Garrabrant/NBAE/Getty Images

During her first four seasons in the WNBA, Liberty guard Shameka Christon had shown flashes of the potential that made New York select her with the fifth overall pick in the 2004 WNBA Draft.

Her scoring average climbed during each of her first three seasons – 5.8 as a rookie, 9.1 as a sophomore and 12.6 in her third year – as she was used primarily as an outside shooting threat.

In 2007, prior to Christon’s fourth season, the Liberty made a bold move by trading away All-Star guard Becky Hammon on draft day for two first round picks. The trade not only made the Liberty the youngest team in the league, but it thrust Christon into unfamiliar territory as the primary offensive threat in New York.

And while Christon did lead the Liberty in scoring and equaled a career high with a 25-point game, she did not have the breakout season that many expected her to have. Her scoring average dropped for the first time in her career, from 12.6 to 11.2 points per game and she shot her lowest field goal percentage since her rookie year at .360.

On the bright side, she did post a career-high with 4.5 rebounds per game and remained among the league’s top 3-point shooters with .328 percentage from behind the arc. The Liberty also claimed the fourth and final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference and pushed Detroit to three tough games in the opening round of the playoffs.

This season, Christon has finally put it all together as she is in the middle of her finest season in the WNBA. She is scoring a career-best 16.2 points per game – a five point increase from a year ago – and has posted over 20 points six times. She recently had a nine-game stretch from June 24 to July 15 where she averaged over 21 points per game, including a career-high 28-point performance in a Liberty win over the Los Angeles Sparks.

Christon is now showing the consistency that head coach Pat Coyle and the Liberty organization had been looking for from her.

“She’s playing the way she’s capable of playing,” Coyle said. “We’re running some things for her and she’s been putting up some numbers. She’s been here five years and I think as she matures as a player and gets better, this is what you’re going to see from her.”

So what has been the catalyst that has taken her from a complimentary piece to a go-to player and primary scoring threat for a playoff team?

Christon said that it is not only the preparation that she’s done, putting in more hours in the gym, putting up more shots and all of the standard answers that players use when they have a breakout season. She said it has been a change in her attitude as well. She said that she has a closed-off personality and has tried to let her guard down this year around her teammates and coaches.

“I’m a really hard person to read,” Christon said. “A lot of people know when I’m upset, but at the same time they don’t know what causes me to be upset. So this year I’ve really kept an open line of communication with my teammates, with my coaches.

“That’s just the kind of person I am, I’m really closed. I can be bubbly, laughing and joking it up around people, but at the same time I am a very closed person. This year I really opened up and it shows and it carries onto the court with my teammates. They trust me and I think they have a better understanding of me so that helps.”

Christon’s new attitude has also allowed her to establish a great relationship with her coach.

“Right now I’d have to say it’s probably the best that it’s ever been,” Christon said. “A lot of that has to do with me because I just don’t open up and coach is the type of coach that likes to understand her players and get to know them and I think I was one of the toughest ones for her to read. This year I just decided, you know what, I’ve been here, I’m going to keep an open line of communication and let’s just try to make this thing as easy as possible. All of our goals are the same. We want to win, we want to win games and we want to win a championship. So to do that I’m going to do everything I possible can to help make that happen.”

Liberty point guard Loree Moore said that the change that she has seen is not only that Christon is more open to her teammates and has established better relationships with them, but she’s also seen that Christon has a better relationship with herself. She’s not as hard on herself as she once was.

“She’s the worst critic on herself, she doesn’t need anybody else to tell her what she’s doing wrong, she’s already pointing it out herself,” Moore said. “I think she kind of backed off on how hard she is on herself and allowing herself to make more mistakes and miss some shots. I think by her just taking the reigns off of herself it has allowed her to open up more and kind of flourish the way she is right now.”

As much as the personal growth has helped Christon to her breakout season, there have been some on-the-court developments that have contributed to her success as well.

Moore and Coyle both pointed out that they have seen Christon develop a more complete game and become a multi-dimensional player rather than the outside shooter that she was when she came to the Liberty from the University of Arkansas.

“What I’ve been impressed with most her is that if the outside shot is not going, she’s getting to the basket, she’s getting to the foul line … (Before) if her shot wasn’t dropping, that was the only thing she would do. Now if it’s not dropping she’s getting to the basket or she’s getting to the free throw line. I think that’s really where she’s started to mature. Her overall game has gotten better and gotten more consistent and she’s been more consistent. She’s not as up and down.”

In New York’s game against Washington on July 17, Christon could not get her shot going – she was 1-of-9 from the field and 0-4 from 3-point range – but she still managed to score 10 points because she was able to get to the free throw line nine times. She found a way to manufacture points and help her team to a win. She probably would have scored more that night, but with the Liberty cruising to a 21-point win, Christon played very little in the second half and only logged 22 minutes on the night.

However, the nights that she has struggled with her shot this season have been few and far between. And when she is on, there’s no telling where she will pull up from.

“When she’s hot, she’s hot,” said center Janel McCarville. “She’s been three or four feet behind the 3-point line and still knocking down shots with ease. When it’s going for her, we try to get it for her. On the court you can definitely see it. She just kind of has that look in her eye sometimes and when she’s got that, we go to her.”

“I don’t want to make my coaches mad, but a lot of times I just get in this zone and I really don’t think about where I’m shooting from,” Christon said. ”It doesn’t matter; it’s the same shot to me. I just shoot it with the confidence that it’s going in. I really don’t think about it, I don’t even look at where I’m at on the floor when I shoot. I joke with my teammates. They were like ‘Do you know how far back you were with that shot?’ and I’m like ‘Well they’re guarding me now at the 3-point line so I’ve got to scoot back.’”

As Christon has opened up more to her teammates and coaches and stepped up to the role of the veteran go-to player for the Liberty, she has enjoyed the best stretch of basketball she has played in the WNBA. Team success has followed as New York has won four of its last five games and currently sits in third place in the Eastern Conference with a 13-10 record and are only a game and a half behind Detroit for the top spot in the East.

“Right now my coaches and my teammates have a lot of confidence in me and they are really looking for me to do certain things and so I just go out there and do what they ask.” Christon said. “I want to help in any way that I possibly can. I think they are definitely going to me more, calling a lot of plays to get me going. I just want to help the best way I possibly can. A win is what I want, that’s all I want is a win.”