MINNEAPOLIS — Sabrina Ionescu was built for the moment. She was built for the way the Liberty beat the Lynx 80-77 in Game 3 of the WNBA Finals to move one win away from a championship.
She was prophetic when she told reporters the day before WNBA Finals Game 3 that she loves playing in pivotal games on the road. She adores silencing loud and rowdy opposing crowds. “Being able to come into an arena [with] everyone cheering against you, and just being able to go out there and silence them is a great feeling,” she said.
A bit over 24 hours later, that’s exactly what Ionescu did. She silenced the 19,521 fans in Target Center on Wednesday night with a game winning 3-point shot with one second left in the fourth quarter.
The score was tied at 77 apiece following a pair of Napheesa Collier free throws to tie the game with 16 seconds remaining. After a Kayla McBride foul on Ionescu to trim down the clock to 10.9 seconds left, Ionescu got the ball back in her hands. She baited McBride near the Lynx logo while Ionescu’s teammates made calculated movements to make sure Ionescu had enough space to fire. After a few stationary dribbles side to side and then a quick first step forward, the ball was in the air with three seconds left. Once she got the shot off, Ionescu knew it was going in.
“I’ve practiced that shot a thousand times in my head, on the court and I feel like that’s just something that as athletes, you put yourself in that position to want to be able to make a shot.”
Ionescu didn’t play her best throughout the majority of the game. McBride played effective defense on the Liberty sharpshooter holding her to two points on 1-for-4 shooting in the first half. McBride denied Ionescu the ball and often took away her space to be able to drive and create with ease.
But while Ionescu struggled in the first half, she stayed with it and scored 11 of her total 13 points in the second half, including two pivotal 3-pointers with a minute left of regulation. She called her Game 3 showing of 13 points, six assists and five rebounds a “great all-WNBA Second Team performance.” It was a reference to earning her third Second Team honor, rather than receiving her first First Team honor. The awards were announced by the WNBA earlier that day.
While Ionescu explained at shootaround on Wednesday that she was only concerned with helping her team win regardless of the caliber of award, there clearly was some extra motivation on Wednesday evening. Ioncesu’s clutch fourth quarter shots and timely pass to Jonquel Jones that resulted in a Jones score with 1:33 left in regulation, represented a more refined poise and mental fortitude. Ionescu has always had a knack for making big plays, but she’s now successfully making them on the greatest stage at the highest level.
“What I love about her is that she backs herself,” head coach Sandy Brondello said about Ionescu postgame. “Not everyone can take those big shots and make them. She can. So I trust her. She came through. We wanted her to take the last shot.”
Breanna Stewart’s second half takeover
Ionescu wasn’t the only Liberty player who has a knack for making shots of consequence. And when the Liberty’s lead guard was asked to take reporters through what she saw and was thinking leading to her game winner, Ionescu made it a point to acknowledge almost immediately how the Liberty were even in a position to win the game. She made it abundantly clear that New York didn’t beat the Minnesota Lynx on the road without the 30-point 11-rebound double-double from the two-time MVP in Breanna Stewart.
“That shot’s nice but that doesn’t go against what she’s been able to do for us tonight and how she was able to just will us back into that game,” Ionescu said of Stewart.
Like Ionescu, Stewart began the game passive and less efficient. The Lynx’s swarming nail-oriented defense rattled Stewart and her team. She scored eight points on 3-for-8 from the field in the first half, and committed three of the Liberty’s 11 first half turnovers.
Her decision making wasn’t sharp either to begin Game 3. She rushed shots and opted to go one-on-one instead of finding scoring opportunities in space and on the catch. She also picked up two fouls early in the first quarter which led to early and impressive minutes from Nyara Sabally who finished with four points, a steal, a block and a rebound.
But there was a shift in Stewart when she returned to the floor following halftime. She told reporters postgame that she was “mad” with her first half performance and frustrated the Liberty were down as many as 15 in the first half. She played with juice in the second half.
Stewart scored 22 of her 30 points in the second half on 6-of-12 shooting along with seven rebounds and three blocks in the second half. The Liberty were intentional about finding Stewart when she had smaller players on her and when she was in space. She made multiple 3-pointers when closeouts were late and she completed two separate three-point and-one plays when she was being guarded by Courtney Williams and Alanna Smith.
Stewart’s leadership, and the way she mixes leading by example and through her voice, were on full display on Wednesday night. She was making high-level shots and flying around on defense. You’d be hard pressed to find a moment during Game 3 when she was standing around. She was everywhere.
There was a moment when the ESPN broadcast caught her vocal leadership during a timeout on the bench. While the broadcast didn’t actually mic her up, everyone watching knew exactly what she said to her team.
“We can’t fucking lose this game,” she said empathically to her teammates.
Stewart wasn’t sure exactly when this moment was, but she thought that it might have been during that three-minute period in fourth quarter when the score was held at 71-69. Both teams struggled to score, and the Liberty were still down by two.
“They were up, and their shots weren’t falling,” Stewart said. “We were getting good looks, and it’s like, if we are going to be this close, we are not leaving here without this win. It’s tough to play in this arena, but the way that we continued to stay together is something that I’m not shocked at but I am really proud of.”
Stewart’s message transferred to her teammates, so much so that when Leonie Fiebich, who scored 13 points on 5-for-9 shooting, was asked about how the team was able to complete its comeback after trailing for the majority of the game, she pointed toward this German phrase that she couldn’t quite remember.
“We have a saying in German. It’s like, ‘Keep going, keep going.’ You can never stop. Every position counts, just kind of that mindset, and not really having an eye on the scoreboard, but not really giving it too much importance.”
While Fiebich was trying to think of the saying in German, assistant coach Olaf Lange, who is also German, heard her answer and popped his head in to remind her. “Mach weiter, mach weiter,” he said.
Jonquel Jones changed the momentum of the game
Minnesota Lynx head coach Cheryl Reeve commented multiple times postgame that what changed the momentum for the Liberty late in that fourth quarter was when Jonquel Jones hit a wide open 3-pointer followed by Ionescu finding her wide open on a roll to the basket.
Jones didn’t have the offensive game Stewart did, but her impact on the Liberty’s win cannot be overstated. She had 15 points on 5-for-10 shooting, five rebounds, four assists and two huge blocks in Game 3.
“JJ was huge for us,” Ionescu said. The way that she protected the rim, hit a huge 3, hit that layup, like just continue to go chip away, and it was a total team effort.”
Jones has dealt with the Lynx’s pressure and physicality much better in these finals than during the regular season. Even when there were three Minnesota players around her making it close to impossible for Jones to get on the glass, she didn’t overthink but rather stayed confident in herself and in her team.
“I never felt that we were going to lose,” Jones told a group of reporters postgame. “I just felt like we put ourselves in a tough situation to be able to win. But no, I never doubted that we were going to be able to pull out the win. But, I think Sabrina getting hot at the end was definitely a good thing to see, too.”
Game 4 will be even harder
When the final buzzer sounded on Wednesday night, Kayla Thornton came into the team huddle putting up the number one with her finger. Jones put her index finger up, too. Thornton screamed in the huddle when the team all put their hands in: “It’s just one more, it’s just one more.”
While the Liberty can almost taste what they’ve wanted so badly, it’s going to be a very tough road ahead on Friday evening.
Courtney Vandersloot didn’t shy away from saying that New York didn’t play close to their best. She praised how the Liberty kept fighting, but as someone who has played in a close out Game 4 before, she acknowledged that she and her team are going to have to play much better than they did on Wednesday night.
“We got to be even better,” she told reporters. “I mean, it’s not enough. What we did tonight is not enough to win a championship. We have to be more.”
And the Liberty want more. They still haven’t won anything yet.
Ionescu publicly admitted postgame that her game-winning trey was the “biggest shot” of her career. But it might also have been the most important shot in the history of the New York Liberty. Play-by-play commentator Ryan Ruocco boldly proclaimed that as such once the ball went through the net.
There are questions about if that was an overreaction. When there is thought about a signature shot or moment in Liberty history, all eyes and historians point to Teresa Weatherspoon’s gutsy and clutch half-court Hail Mary during the 1999 WNBA Finals. While that moment in Liberty history was extraordinary, it didn’t lead to a championship victory.
If the New York Liberty win Game 4 on Friday night and earn their first WNBA championship in franchise history, Ionescu’s 28-foot step-back to seal Game 3 will simply mean more. Ruocco’s proclamation might not have been so bold after all.
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