The Guru’s WNBA Report: Ionescu’s Three-Pointer at the Finish Completing a Liberty Rally on Minnesota Puts New York Up 2-1 and a Win Away From Its First Title

By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsguru

Back in 1999 when Theresa Weatherspoon hit the 47-foot game-winner that to this day still stands as the longest in the closing seconds of a WNBA Finals, which enabled the New York Liberty to knot the best-of-three series 1-1 against the Houston Comets, the reality was the iconic moment, proven the next day, still left the squad a betting long shot to take the hardware out of Texas and back home.

But two-decades-plus later what is now the second best closing dagger as of Wednesday night when Oregon’s Sabrina Ionescu delivered a 28-foot three-ball with one second remaining  for an 80-77 victory over the Minnesota Lynx in Minneapolis has the New Yorkers one win away from their first title.

Unlike Game 1 when the Lynx chased the Liberty all night in Brooklyn to steal a triumph in overtime, New York did likewise Wednesday night erasing a 15-point deficit to go up 2-1.

The bad news is that the Liberty will have to do it right where they are when Game 4 tips at 8 p.m. on ESPN Friday night in the Target Center.

The good news is the win Wednesday provides insurance that if Minnesota recovers from the stunner and extends the series to a decisive Game 5 the action will resume Sunday night at 8 p.m. on ESPN back in the Barclays Center in Brooklyn.

After chasing the home team all night, the Liberty went up only to see the Lynx gain a quick tie with seconds remaining threatening a second overtime in the series as New York went into its huddle.

“In the timeout, (coach) Sandy (Brondello) was like, you’re going to shoot the shot,” Ionescu said.

That it came to her heroics was courtesy of the performance of Breanna Stewart, the former UConn great who won two of her three regular-season MVP awards and a pair of WNBA championships in Seattle before the Liberty brass hit the free-agent jackpot with her decision to return to her home state a year ago.

Stewart scored 30 points, including 22 of New York’s 45 in the second half, to go with 11 boards and four blocks in front of a Minnesota record crowd of 19,521.

“We know we’re one game away from winning the championship, and I think that they are going to give us their best shot,” Stewart said. “They are going to give everything they have got, and you know what, so are we. The turnaround is quick but we are going to be ready.”

The series has been icing in coming at the end of the WNBA’s greatest season ever in its 28-year history that has exploded in booming attendance figures and TV ratings on the strength of rookie Caitlin Clark out of Iowa with the Indiana Fever, the top pick last April, and Chicago Sky first-round pick Angel Reese out of LSU.

But there have also been several previous championships that have been memorable, especially the last decade when the Lynx won four titles and were twice runner-up over seven years.

Minnesota was one of four teams to rally and win two straight when the Lynx won their last title in 2017, which was also their last time in the finals. Phoenix is the only of the four to lose Games 2 and 3.

 Said Brondello of Ionescu’s winner, “It’s pretty special. It was never in doubt. Obviously, Stewie got us back in there, willed us in there, but I thought the right time, this is Sabrina. She just made a big shot. She’s a great shooter and she just needed a little bit of separation.”

The winner was a cloud in Ionescu’s mind. “I had to go look at the video really quickly to see like how far I was. I feel like I was able to get a little separation in range and get a really good shot to go in.”

But she also deferred to Stewart, her teammate on last summer’s USA gold medalists in Paris coached by Minnesota’s Cheryl Reeve, the La Salle grad from South Jersey outside Philadelphia.

“We don’t win this game without Stewie,” Ionescu praised. “There’s nothing I can say. That shot’s nice, but what she was able to do for us tonight willed us back in the game.”

A fifth title for Reeve would set a WNBA record snapping a tie with former Houston coach Van Chancellor, if Minnesota turns the tide back its way.

“There’s so many ups and downs and swings all around, and it takes special mental toughness and physical toughness to sort of weather those swings, and here we are,” Reeve said of the outcome. “We’re disappointed. We’re home. We played and just couldn’t come up with the win.’

From the other side of the winning play, Lynx guard and Notre Dame alum Kayla McBride said, “Great player made a good shot. I guarded her for 40 minutes.”

This is the sixth finals for New York, one of the eight original WNBA teams and also the top seed who now leads for the first time and returned after a long absence last season with a newly acquired “super team” identity off the winter signings. 

 However, they came up against an already established one in the Las Vegas Aces, who won their second straight crown winning the series in Brooklyn, 3-1.

That was the same outcome in the Liberty’s revenge in the semifinals dethroning the Aces in Vegas only to still have to face the Lynx, who had success on New York all season and in rising to the second seed earned coach and executive of the year honors for Reeve, who will be inducted into the Philadelphia Sports Hall of Fame on Nov. 7.

After Minnesota fell behind, Napheesa Collier, who teamed at Connecticut with Stewart on one of the NCAA champions, tied it on a pair of foul shots before Ionescu’s opportunity finishing with 22 points and setting a finals scoring record in the series. McBride scored 19.

“Our defense gave us a chance to win the game, period, and our offense is going to help our defense,” Reeve said. “If you told me that we would have the amount of stops that we did and we were playing off of that, and we wouldn’t have scored 80, that would be surprising to me.”

Stewart personally gave New York 13 points across the third and fourth quarters propelling the comeback tying the score 69-69 with 6:18 left in regulation.

Ionescu, Jonquel Jones, and rookie Leonie Fiebich out of Germany each scored 13 points for the Liberty.

Bridget Carleton scored 14 for the Lynx and Courtney Williams, the star of Game 1, scored 12.

“We got good shots. And we just didn’t convert and they did,” Williams said.

Earlier in the day Stewart and Collier, founders of the new Unrivaled league that will launch on Jan. 17 in Miami, announced a multi-year streaming deal with TNT and its sports platforms.

Both also made the all-WNBA first team, Collier and Las Vegas’ A’ja Wilson, this season’s MVP, being unanimous choices while Clark is the first rookie on the unit since Candace Parker in 2008. Sue Bird, Tamika Catchings, and Diana Taurasi are the other rookies in the past named to the squad, while the Connecticut Sun’s Alyssa Thomas out of Maryland from Harrisburg is also on the first team.

Philadelphia’s Kahleah Copper, who played for Rutgers and is with Phoenix, was on the second team with New York’s Jones and Ionescu, Seattle’s Nneka Ogwumike, and Dallas’ Arike Ogunbowale.