WNBA Playoffs: Sabrina Ionescu makes her star turn as Liberty continues to prove they’re different this year

NEW YORK – Sabrina Ionescu pumped her fist fervently Tuesday night as she left the New York Liberty huddle, moments before Barclays Center erupted after a second overturned decision in favor of the home team.

Ionescu, with her Liberty team clinging to a one-possession lead, had redirected the short inbound pass so that Las Vegas Aces guard Kelsey Plum, draped by Leonie Fiebich, could not stop it. The officials initially called the ball to New York, giving the Aces another chance to tie the game with 10.5 seconds left, but Ionescu and Fiebich immediately twirled their fingers at the Liberty bench.

“When Leo tells me to challenge, I challenge,” Liberty head coach Sandy Brondello said. ‘Leo never lies.’

Ionescu secured Liberty’s inbound pass, drew a foul as she fell into Carmelo Anthony’s lap on the court and drained both free throws to push the game back to two possessions. They were the final points of a personal 7-0 run that gave the Liberty plenty of breathing room after a furious Aces comeback to win Game 2 of their semifinal series, 88-84, at Barclays Center.

She then remained equally poised and playful on the post-match podium, slamming her head coach for not listening to her calls for challenges as she delivered a coach-like opening statement to put her performance into perspective.

“It’s great to be 2-0 up, but we haven’t won anything,” Ionescu said. “I think everyone knows that. We did what we had to do, which was protect the home court (and) win two at home. But it’s not like we pat ourselves on the back and celebrate, talking about how happy we are. This is not what we came for.”

That New York is on its way to a big shot, a return to the WNBA Finals and a shot at the ultimate goal of the franchise’s first championship, rests on Ionescu’s shoulders. She led the Liberty all season as an MVP candidate and took over late in Game 2 to finish with 24 points on 50% shooting, nine rebounds and five assists, with the second-highest plus-minus of any player on the floor with plus-7. . Eleven of those points came in the fourth quarter and seven in the final (1:45).

“My teammates always keep coming at me,” Ionescu said. “And you know, they need me at that moment. They know I’m kind of built for it.”

Brondello passed to Ionescu after a timeout as reigning MVP A’ja Wilson cut the game to two with 5:23 to go. It was the closest the game had come since the final two minutes of the first half, when Ionescu capped another Liberty 9-0 run with ear-splitting three-pointers. New York turned a three-point deficit into a six-point lead at the half.

Ionescu delivered a hard drive to regain the momentum before the Aces tied the score at 77-76 with 2:36 on the clock. The Liberty offense stagnated and the shooters unnecessarily rushed to the transition buckets. Ionescu rejected the claim that the team was not always balanced, but they did stick together.

“It’s almost like we’ve already seen it, like we’ve been through this as a team,” Ionescu said. “Our group has been through all these highs and lows together, and so it’s like we understand what we have to do to get through it.”

She found Game 1 superstar Breanna Stewart on the baseline with a smooth pass, put in a floater on the next possession off a feed from Courtney Vandersloot and stopped for another bucket with an assist from Jonquel Jones.

“In the big moment, she just really steps up,” Jones said. “She doesn’t shy away from the moments, and just the confidence she has in herself and the confidence we have in her as teammates to go out there and make those big shots.”

Even when the Aces answered, as they did down the stretch, Ionescu fired back every time.

“Sabrina was disconnected,” Aces head coach Becky Hammon said. “We know that’s a no-no.”

Liberty’s super team started with Ionescu, the franchise’s first-ever No. 1 overall draft pick. She injured her ankle in her third game and missed the rest of her rookie season in 2020. She says she played through pain when she shouldn’t have in her second year. Add to that a hip injury and until this season, the fifth-year guard had never entered an offseason without rehab.

“I think you can see the product this year, just the growth that I’ve had by having a healthy offseason,” Ionescu said on the morning of Game 2.

She is averaging 22.5 points against the Aces this series, an increase from her season average (18.2) and a sharp increase from the 9.8 she averaged in the 2023 finals against the Aces. She was a defensive handicap then, but stood strong against the Aces trio of guards on Tuesday and added a block to her stat line.

Her improvement in the midrange and at the basket gave Liberty a 44-24 advantage in the paint, prompting Hammon to criticize her team for allowing New York to get an “obscene” number of layups — similar to a ” clinic’. The pick-and-roll game that Ionescu plays with Stewart and Jones was especially difficult.

“I think we can handle it better,” Hammon said. “That being said, are you going to cut her off completely? Probably not. But can we just hold it in? We should at least get it as a C-plus. Let’s get a C-plus to guard her.”

Teams that win the first two games in a best-of-five series are 18-0 in WNBA history. Ionescu’s point guard counterpart Chelsea Gray joked that she likes being in the history books, a reminder that there’s a first for everything.

Ionescu, Fiebich and Brondello prefer not to dispute that.

“We haven’t done anything yet,” Brondello said. ‘We did what we had to do. We have protected home court. Now we want to go to Vegas. You know, we play well on the road, and they play well at home. That’s already our focus right now, and we’re just going to get locked into it.”