Liberty on verge of their first WNBA title as Sabrina Ionescu seals Game 3 win over Lynx with deep three in closing seconds
Liberty guard Sabrina Ionescu celebrates after making a 3-point basket at the end of Game 3 of a WNBA basketball final playoff series against the Minnesota Lynx, Wednesday, Oct. 16, 2024, in Minneapolis. Credit: AP/Abbie Parr
MINNEAPOLIS — For a good chunk of Wednesday, nothing seemed to be going right for Sabrina Ionescu.
First, despite having arguably the best season of her career, she was once again left off the WNBA’s first team. Then, for three quarters of one of the most important games of her life, she was pretty much left off the scoresheet. Her offensive game was almost nonexistent.
None of that mattered at the end of the day, however, as Ionescu came up with one of the biggest shots in Liberty playoff history, drilling a three-pointer from just beyond the Lynx logo with one second remaining to give the Liberty an 80-77 win in Game 3 of the WNBA Finals.
The shot left the raucous record-sized crowd at Target Center stunned. It also left the Liberty just one win away from the franchise’s first championship as they lead the best-of-five series, 2-1.
“I’ve practiced that shot 1,000 times in my head and on the court,” Ionescu said. “It’s definitely the biggest shot of my career. I didn’t play my best tonight, but I found a way to stick with it.”
Ionescu laughed when she was asked if she was motivated to make a big shot by being left off the All-WNBA first team.
“That was just a great all- WNBA second-team performance,” she said, tongue in cheek.
Ionescu scored just two points in the first half. She was 0-for-3 from three-point range and 1-for-4 overall. She was not alone in her struggles as the Liberty trailed by as many as 15 points in the first quarter before slowly chipping away to make it a tight game in the fourth.
Liberty coach Sandy Brondello knew that her guard could make the shot that saved the game at the end.
“It was pretty special. I was never in doubt,” Brondello said. “I felt this is Sabrina. She makes big shots. We wanted her to take that last shot.”
Ionescu finished the game with 13 points, which included hitting two three-pointers in the final 55 seconds. She was far from the only Liberty player to come up huge at the end of the game. Breanna Stewart, who scored 30 points and grabbed 11 rebounds, scored 11 straight points in the second half as the Liberty started to close the gap.
Jonquel Jones, who had missed several three-pointers from the corner, hit one when her team needed it most with two minutes left to pull the Liberty within one point. Several possessions later she made a layup to give the Liberty a one-point lead.
Heading into the night, the Liberty had very little experience playing from behind. Minnesota held the lead for just over three minutes in the first two games of the series but was able to eke out a win in Game 1 in overtime.
Minnesota coach Cheryl Reeve said at her team’s morning shootaround that she was tired of spotting the Liberty a big lead in the first half. Her team apparently took those comments to heart as they stunned the Liberty with a defense so smothering, so aggressive that the Liberty looked sloppy and lost.
In what had to be their worst quarter of the postseason, the Liberty committed eight turnovers leading to 14 Minnesota points. They trailed by as many as 15 points just 10 minutes into the game.
It was a period so sloppy, so frustrating that the Liberty had to feel lucky that they were only behind 28-18 going into the second quarter.
“They punched us in the face first, but we just kept at it,” Brondello said. “We just continued to keep at it.”
The Liberty have been to the WNBA Finals five times and never won it. That includes losing to the Las Vegas Aces in four games last year. This year, the team has played as if they are on a mission, finishing with the best record in the WNBA.
Game 4 is Friday at Target Center, and as much as the Liberty would love to see their fans again in Brooklyn, they’d rather see them at a victory parade than in a winner-take-all game.
“We want to get this done,” Stewart said. “We want to get it done here.”
Barbara Barker is an award-winning columnist and features writer in the sports department at Newsday. She has covered sports in New York for more than 20 years.