Sabrina Ionescu Resurrects Old Mantra in New York Liberty WNBA Finals Comeback

After a classic New York Liberty effort in the face of WNBA Finals elimination, Sabrina Ionescu is bringing back a previous metropolitan battle cry.

NEW YORK-Sabrina Ionescu and Co. made sure that the New York Liberty didn't need a miraculous halfcourt heave for this WNBA Finals victory.

Behind a trove of triples, stifling defense, and further MVP-worthy antics from Jonquel Jones, the Liberty kept their championship hopes alive on Sunday afternoon with an 87-73 victory over the Las Vegas Aces in Game 3 of the best-of-five. The Liberty staved off championship elimination with 13 three-pointers and forcing Vegas' top guns into contested shots.

Though Vegas still leads the series 2-1 and remains one win away from its second consecutive WNBA title, momentum has inched toward a New York team playing to its established identity. The Aces ran wild on the Liberty over the first two games and cut down their passing lanes and space. New York neuralized both with strong transition and frequent movement to the delight of a Barclays Center packed to the gills with 17,143 in attendance, setting a new WNBA record.

"We had 2000 fans, I think, or 3000 fans (in attendance) in 2021. My parents could pick and choose where they wanted to sit and now people are fighting over tickets with 17,000 fans," Ionescu jokingly recalled. "To see that growth in just two years speaks a lot about this organization the belief that they've had in what we're trying to build here from the top down."

Game 4 will be staged on Wednesday night in Brooklyn (8 p.m. ET, ESPN).

Sunday's win was the Liberty's first in the Finals since newly-minted Chicago Sky head coach Teresa Weatherspoon set sail to the most famous shot in WNBA history, launching from beyond the mid-logo to extend the 1999 championship series against the Houston Comets. 

Weatherspoon, one of several Liberty Ring of Honor members in attendance, passed over one more Finals line with the Liberty in action: on her way out of Barclays Center, Weatherspoon broke through a media scrum to shake hands with Ionescu, who occupies her former seafoam-branded point guard spot. 

"We understand who paved the way," Ionescu said of the current Liberty's ability to respect its history. "A lot of them that were here today supporting us have been supporting us since I've been drafted here and every step of the way."

Heroics from halfcourt weren't necessary this time around, but Ionescu channeled another of Weatherspoon's passing abilities: with a team-best 11 helpers on Sunday, Ionescu became the third New Yorker to earn at least 40 assists in a single postseason. She's joined by teammate and active record-holder Courtney Vandersloot (57 and counting) and Weatherspoon, who did it on three occasions (1999-00, 2002). 

Ionescu (20) is greeted by Liberty teammates during a timeout in Game 3 action / Brandon Todd, NY Liberty

It's safe to say that the Liberty group as constructed hardly resembles Weatherspoon's original group from the summer of 1997, but that's true of countless organizations. But even a single year's difference has brought about dangerous yet exhilarating changes to the women of seafoam.

Of course, the additions of Jones, Vandersloot, and reigning WNBA MVP Breanna Stewart helped the Liberty double its regular season win total from 16 to 32 and put them back in the Finals for the first time since 2002. The change is best personified by the commemorative postseason towels the Brooklyn boosters receive upon their arrival.

When the Liberty partook in last year's postseason, such laundry bore Ionescu's rhetorical query "Why not us?," asked when the Liberty took the opener of a best-of-three set against Vandersloot's defending champion Sky. This time around, with the Liberty able to seal the first-round deal, they now read "Finals" in copper-colored script resembling the original aesthetic of the landmark the team is named after. 

Ionescu is demanding a re-stitching.

"We talked after (the first) two games," Ionescu recalled. "We had that belief of understanding that no team has ever done what we're trying to do now and why not us?"

Since the WNBA instituted a best-of-five championship series in 2005, no team has fully pulled themselves back from a 0-2 series deficit. Some will say that the Liberty picked up further momentum with the Aces confirmed to be losing starters Chelsea Gray and Kiah Stokes due to injuries (as well as the long-lost Candace Parker). 

But Ionescu, wishing Gray well after her late exit (Stokes' status was not revealed at the time), declared that only New York controls its destiny and will continue to do so no matter how long the Finals last.

"We believe in one another. We continue to put you know one foot in front of the other and understand it's all part of the process," she said. "We've got to come in, protect home court now on Wednesday. We did it (on Sunday). We could check that off the list. But our story's still being written and we're excited to continue to see another day."