Sabrina Ionescu, Liberty are peaking ahead of ‘statement game’
Before the Liberty took on the Wings on Tuesday in the first of two straight games in Dallas, head coach Sandy Brondello stressed the potential pitfalls that lay before her team.
“Another team that has nothing to lose. They’re out of the playoffs,” she said of the Wings. “They’re the most dangerous teams because they can just go out there and play freely.”
Dallas did that on Tuesday, falling behind early but hanging around and eventually putting up 91 points in a loss. It was the highest total the Liberty have allowed since mid-June.
On Thursday, the Liberty jumped out to a lead again and this time, did not let up, defeating the Wings, 98-67.
The Liberty’s performance was a momentum builder with their biggest remaining regular season game coming on Sunday.
That’s when the Minnesota Lynx — the only team to have defeated New York twice this year — come to town in a potential WNBA Finals preview between the league’s two best teams. A Liberty win would allow them to clinch the No. 1 seed in the WNBA playoffs and home-court advantage for however far they advance.
“The last two games really helped us get back to [our peak performance],” Brondello said. “Still, just playing the right way where the ball’s not sticking, we’re moving it through different hands, different people are scoring and being aggressive. That’s going to be critical for us.”
It’s even more than that. The Liberty and Lynx have played three times this year, including in the Commissioner’s Cup final. They have not faced each other, however, since July 2. The Liberty are not the same team they were two months ago.
“It’s going to be a statement game,” Sabrina Ionescu said. “Minnesota is not going to make it easy for us. They’re a great defensive team, offensively they execute so well. And I’m really excited to see the growth from the last time we faced them to now, in terms of seeing how much better we’ve gotten, because I think we have and they’re going to put us to the test.”
Sabrina Ionescu is turning the corner for the Liberty
Kirby Lee-Imagn Images
Some parts of Ionescu’s game never waver. She’s been a sure-handed distributor all year, leading the team in assists per game (6.1) and keeping the turnovers down. She has stayed aggressive on both ends and has been nearly automatic from the free throw line (90.4%).
But since returning from the Olympic break, she has struggled mightily from the field. Prior to the pair of games in Dallas, she was shooting under 27% from three-point range on nearly 10 attempts per game. Overall, she had not shot better than 46% from the field in any game since the break.
She was taking too many shots for someone who was not making enough of them.
Ionescu snapped out of it in Dallas. In the first game, she scored 14 points and dished out 11 assists. She shot 5-9 from the field and 4-6 from three.
“I thought she played brilliantly tonight, just how we wanted her to play,” Brondello said after that game. “You know, she’s just trying to get a rhythm back, probably pushing the needle a little bit. We just said, ‘let the game come to you.’ And to get 11 assists, that’s what she does. She’s a great facilitator, and then made some of her shots too.”
Two days later, she put up 20, including 16 points in the first quarter on four made threes.
exclamation point on Sabrina's first quarter, up to 16 points already on this highlight finish: pic.twitter.com/HTC1w4UR7X
— Lucas Kaplan (@LucasKaplan_) September 13, 2024
In the process, Ionescu notched her 60th consecutive game with at least one made three — the second-longest streak in WNBA history — and passed Crystal Robinson for fifth on the Liberty’s all-time scoring list.
As someone who the Liberty drafted No. 1 overall in 2020 when they were in the WNBA basement, Ionescu has been one of the keys to the franchise going from worst to first. She knows, however, that the games are about to get a whole lot more important. The Liberty are the only remaining original WNBA team without a championship. They came within two wins of getting it done last year, only to see the Las Vegas Aces win the title on their home court.
Ionescu remembers. She brought it up after the Liberty defeated the Aces at home last Sunday.
“The last time they were on this court, they won a championship,” Ionescu recalled. “We don’t want to feel that again.”
With three regular season games to go, she remains laser focused.
The post Sabrina Ionescu, Liberty are peaking ahead of ‘statement game’ appeared first on ClutchPoints.
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