Michael Vaupel, ESPN Senior Writer
MINNEAPOLIS — Sabrina Ionescu had to watch the video of her game-winning 3-pointer in the locker room Wednesday night to know just how long it took. But she said as soon as it was released, she thought, “Oh, this is in.”
Ionescu’s 28-foot dagger — “without a doubt the biggest shot of my career” — with one second left in Game 3 of the WNBA Finals gives the New York Liberty an 80-77 come-from-behind victory over the Minnesota Lynx. brought about. . Liberty is one win away from winning the league for the first time in franchise history.
“I think you think about it a lot during offseason practice, the night before the game, the day of the game,” Ionescu said. “I’m always imagining different scenarios and putting myself in tough situations.Obviously, I didn’t play my best tonight, but I found a way to keep going…that’s a big thing for me. I feel like it was a matter of growth, whether the ball goes in or not.”
This was Liberty’s 10th 3-point shot of the game. Ionescu’s shot stunned the Lynx’s record crowd of 19,521, just as Minnesota did to the New York State crowd in Game 1, which the Lynx won 95-93 in overtime. I let it happen.
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Liberty lost an 18-point lead in that game. On Wednesday, the Lynx gave up a 15-point lead. In both cases, there were dramatic momentum changes and big plays, as you would expect in a heavyweight matchup when the top two seeds battle for the championship.
“The most difficult thing during the series is there are so many ups and downs and swings, and it takes a special kind of mental toughness and physical toughness to get through those swings,” Lynx coach Sheryl Reeve said. . We are.” I was disappointed. I’m back at home. We played well, but we couldn’t get the win.
“We’ve got to dust ourselves off and try again here at home. We’ll see what we can do on Friday.”
Both teams will return to Target Center, with the Lynx set to send the series back to New York in a decisive Game 5 on Sunday. Minnesota is struggling, but it’s been there before. Four other teams won the WNBA title after losing 2-1 in the Finals, including the 2017 Lynx.
Liberty hopes to conclude the series on Friday. They are one of three original WNBA teams still standing in the city where they were founded. The remaining two teams, the Los Angeles Sparks and Phoenix Mercury, each have three titles.
Team Year Player OPP Liberty 2024 Sabrina Iones Links Links 2015 Maya Moore Fever Sparks 2002 Nikki Teasley Liberty Liberty 1999 Teresa Weatherspoon Comets–Elias Sports Bureau
New York has appeared in the championship five times so far this year. One of the most dramatic of those series losses came in 1999, when the Liberty won Game 2 of a best-of-three game in Houston on Teresa Weatherspoon’s buzzer shot from outside half court. However, they lost the next day. To the comet.
Weatherspoon’s shot, often cited as the most famous in league history, was one of four by a WNBA player to make the game-winning 3-pointer with five seconds left in a game. The others were Minnesota’s Maya Moore in Game 3 against Indiana in 2015 and Los Angeles’ Nikki Teasley in Game 2 against New York in 2002.
Teasley’s shot won the deciding series, which at the time was still a best-of-three game. Moore and Minnesota lost Game 4 of the 2015 Finals, but won Game 5 to clinch the title.
So Ionescu becomes only the fourth player to accomplish this feat, and it happened in a game eerily similar to New York’s victory 25 years ago when Weatherspoon made the shot. Liberty led for just 2 minutes, 19 seconds on Wednesday, the second-shortest lead time for a Finals victory in WNBA history.
What’s the fastest time to lead in a Finals victory?As you can imagine, in Game 2 of the 1999 Finals, the Liberty led the Comets for just 2 minutes and 15 seconds before Weatherspoon’s buzzer beater.
Winning a long-awaited championship in New York since being drafted No. 1 in 2020, when the NCAA tournament for his senior season at the University of Oregon was canceled amid the COVID-19 pandemic. was in Ionescu’s mind.
Ionescu then suffered a season-ending ankle injury in his third game at Liberty. She left the WNBA’s COVID-19 bubble in Bradenton, Florida and returned to California for rehab. Ionescu said he didn’t feel like watching much Liberty games on TV for the rest of that season, as the team finished 2-20.
Then, before the 2023 season, they added free agents Brianna Stewart and Courtney Vandersloot, as well as trade acquisition Jonquel Jones. These players and Ionescu helped form the core of a team that appeared in its second straight WNBA Finals.
Last season, the Liberty lost 3-1 to the Las Vegas Aces, but the players said they learned a lot about themselves in the process. This season, New York has the best regular season record (32 wins, 8 losses) and is the No. 1 seed.
Liberty wasn’t what it looked like in the first quarter Wednesday. In contrast to the fast starts of the first two games of the finals, Liberty trailed 28-18 at the end of the first quarter. By halftime, the lead had narrowed to 43-35.
However, Stewart took over in the third quarter and scored 14 points to bring New York within 62-61. The Lynx defense was hampered somewhat by forward Alana Smith dealing with a back injury in the second quarter. She still played nearly 20 minutes, but was clearly in pain.
Stewart previously won WNBA titles in 2018 and 2020 with the Seattle Storm, the team that drafted him No. 1 in 2016. Stewart, currently playing for a team in his home state of New York, had a tough first game, missing a free throw at the end of regulation and a layup at the end of overtime.
But since then, Stewart has come back strong. In addition to scoring a game-high 30 points on Wednesday, he had 11 rebounds and four blocks.
“That was a great All-WNBA second team performance.”
Sabrina Ionescu named to All-WNBA second team early Wednesday
“We can’t win this game without Stewie,” Ionescu said.
Ionescu, Jones and Leonie Fievich each scored 13 points.
Ionescu was named to the All-WNBA second team earlier Wednesday. Some thought that she should have been in the first team.
“It was a great performance for a second-team All-WNBA,” Ionescu joked after the game.
New York coach Sandy Brondello said he never doubted for a moment that even though Ionescu had made 4 of 11 field goals before hitting the winning shot, she should have made it. .
“Obviously Stewie brought us back there and wanted us in there,” Brondello said. “But I thought, ‘(at) the right time, this is Sabrina.'” She’s a great marksman.
“What I like about her is that she stands up for herself. Not everyone can take a big chance and make it successful. She can do it.”
ESPN Research contributed to this report.
