Liberty Take Game 3, One Win Away From WNBA Title

Breanna Stewart's historic outing and Sabrina Ionescu's heroics pushed the New York Liberty to the cusp of a WNBA championship.

Oct 16, 2024; Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA; Minnesota Lynx guard Kayla McBride (21) works towards the basket as New York Liberty guard Sabrina Ionescu (20) defends during the first half of game three of the 2024 NBA Finals at Target Center. Mandatory Credit: Matt Krohn-Imagn Images / Matt Krohn-Imagn Images

Teresa Weatherspoon was unable to reprise her role but Sabrina Ionescu and the New York Liberty penned a perfect sequel to "The Shot" on Wednesday night.

Ionescu's deep three-pointer served as the difference in Game 3 of the 2024 WNBA Finals, complementing a historic shooting output from Breanna Stewart to secure an 80-77 victory over the Minnesota Lynx. New York now leads Minnesota 2-1 in the best-of-five series with a chance to lock up the first postseason championship in franchise history on Friday night (8 p.m. ET, ESPN).

Stewart scored 30 points, her third with a triple-decade in her WNBA Finals career. That ties a Finals record that she'll share with Angel McCoughtry. New York trailed by as many as 15 on Wednesday but fought all the way back to secure the third-largest comeback in WNBA Finals history, two games after losing an 18-point advantage in the opener last Thursday.

Ionescu's late three almost perfectly rhymes with Weatherspoon's heroic heave at the end of the 1999 Finals' second game against the Houston Comets. That win likewise placed the Liberty within one game of an elusive title ... and Ionescu's group now has a chance to atone for the near-miss a quarter-century later.

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