Liberty Star Keeps Changing Championship Narrative

Sabrina Ionescu and the New York Liberty are one win away from an undeniable championship.

Brandon Todd, NY Liberty

Facing a situation that could change the course of New York Liberty basketball in Minnesota, head coach Sandy Brondello had but one message for Sabrina Ionescu.

You're darn shootin'.

"It was never in doubt," Brondello said of Ionescu's heroic heave that gave the Liberty an 80-77 victory in Game 3 of the 2024 WNBA Finals on Wednesday and a 2-1 lead in the best-of-five championship set against the Minnesota Lynx. "This is Sabrina. She just made a big shot. She's a great shooter and she just needed a little bit of separation."

"What I love about her is that she backs herself. 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 and happy that we didn't have to go to overtime."

Brandon Todd, NY Liberty

By the time the Liberty tip off at Target Center for a fateful fourth game on Friday (8 p.m. ET, ESPN), both they and their supporters will no doubt have hit "replay" on videos of Ionescu's shot, sunk with just about a second remaining, hundreds, maybe thousands, of times. Debate has already surfaced over whether it's the most consequential shot in the illustrious history of New York basketball and the point guard and her compatriots can help solidify the case in its favor with one more win.

Ionescu obviously wouldn't have it any other way.

"(It's) definitely the biggest shot of my career and hopefully not the last," Ionescu said. "Sandy, all the coaches that I've had, just their continued belief and pouring into me means the world to me whether I make or miss that shot. Like the fact that they kind of trusted me to go out there and make big shots, that's why I love playing for this team and continue to pour my all."

Ionescu continues to take full advantage of a championship opportunity long denied. The burden that she and her teammates have shouldered over the past year ... that of dropping a four-game Finals set to the Las Vegas Aces last fall ... is well-documented, but the potential title might mean just a little more to Ionescu, who has had to face rivals both on and off the floor.

This is a shooter, after all, that has been the face of the Liberty's "hybrid rebuild," the headliner of respectable playoff efforts that nonetheless ended in defeat. Her WNBA debut was basically a gap year, as her endeavor in the Bradenton bubble was cut short after just two-plus games due to an injury. That was just months after her most realistic shot at a championship ... the 2020 NCAA Women's Basketball Tournament ... was wiped out by pandemic restrictions.

"My ability to lead has definitely helped through the highs and lows," Ionescu said at the onset of the Finals. "I think being able to have the experience of going through what we went through last year, it's just better equipped me to be able to understand how to get through it in this moment. In college, and that year that got taken away from us, it's a tough one. It's something that you never really heal from."

"But I feel like if we're going to be able to get it done this year, for me personally, it's all kind of part of the journey and I feel like a little piece of me will kind of be given back to the University of Oregon because I wouldn't be here without what that university has meant to me and how it supported me throughout my career, and not being able to get it done that year kind of has hurt, but it's just motivated me to want to feel that again."

"I'm just this close to feeling that again."

Brandon Todd, NY Liberty

Appropriately, Oregon head coach Kelly Graves and assistant Jodie Berry were among the witnesses to Ionescu's tremendous triple, having taken seats at Target Center to watch the point guard and fellow former Duck Nyara Sabally. Their view of the shot was among the most popular on social media and they posed with their victorious former proteges after the game.

With the title clearly in her sights, Ionescu's making sure that she's not letting it slip away. She's trying 15 shots per postseason game after putting up 16 in the regular season, nearly four more from the year before, the first collaboration with the assembly of All-Stars gathered in Brooklyn. While her trademark triple remains her calling card, she has also employed a strong floater, one displayed prominently when the Liberty cut a 15-point deficit to a single digit by halftime.

After a 13-point flurry from Breanna Stewart headlined the Liberty comeback, the Sabrina sealer locked things up. It came shortly after a would-be dagger, perhaps put up a little quickly considering the relatively ample time on the shot clock went in and out and indirectly set up Naphessa Collier's equalizing free throws on the other end.

Even with the aforementioned miss, there was no doubt who was getting the ball for the final trip.

"In the timeout, Sandy kind of was just like, you're going to shoot this shot," Ionescu said. "You know, I feel like I was able to get a little separation in range and get a really good shot to go. Obviously wanting to let the shot clock wind down and I got the space that I needed to get my feet under me and felt comfortable taking that shot.

"Sometimes it goes in and sometimes it doesn't. 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."

Make sure you bookmark All Knicks for the latest news, exclusive interviews, film breakdowns and so much more!

• Knicks Coach, DiVincenzo End Reportedly End Feud
• Towns Ditches Eilish For Wolves
• Knicks' Mr. Irrelevant Making Roster Case
• OKC's Hartenstien Out 5-6 Weeks
• Shamet Posts Hopeful Injury Update