Sabrina Ionescu’s reaction – her clenched fists as she turned to the court – made it all clear. And so did the MVP chants that accompanied her final free throws of the evening a few minutes later.
Leonie Fiebich had just completed an and-one under the basket in the middle of the fourth quarter, an assist from Ionescu, her ninth of the evening, had served as the trigger.
The Liberty, who were on alert once in Game 2 against the Atlanta Dream, took an eight-point lead after the free throw. They extended that lead to 11 points – their largest lead of the game – when Fiebich hit a three-pointer on the next possession.
But on a night when Atlanta had to adjust to most of the mistakes from the first game and the Liberty struggled to repeat most of the mistakes, Ionescu was at the center of the action.
The Liberty needed every one of their 36 points, their personal playoff high, in their 91-82 win at Barclays Center to sweep the Dream and advance to the WNBA semifinals, where they may face the Las Vegas Aces in the WNBA Finals.
Ionescu sank 12 of his 23 field goals and made 5 of his 11 three-pointers. The player selected No. 1 in 2020 now has a chance to anchor his potential path back to the Finals.
She scored 11 of her 36 points in the third quarter, when Ionescu gave up on three-point shots and just kept going. She hit a layup. Then a mid-range jump shot and another layup.
This helped the Liberty keep the pace after going into halftime trailing by five points, and Ionescu finally helped them pull away in the fourth quarter.
Previously, however, the Liberty had difficulty reproducing their template from Game 1.
The Dream built an early 11-3 lead, moving the ball in transition and being efficient on offense. Fiebich, the hero of Game 1 with a career-high 21 points, didn’t score until the second half and was in foul trouble for most of the game.
Allisha Gray led the Dream with 26 points, while Rhyne Howard and Tina Charles contributed 19 and 14 points, respectively, to generate enough of a reaction as the Liberty came back and threatened to pull away.
This only happened in the fourth quarter, when Ionescu scored her last points.
But after a 32-game regular-season win that tied a franchise record set last year, a convincing Game 1 victory and a promising breakout performance from Fiebich, it looked for a while like the Liberty’s season – and the title expectations and ambitions that had accompanied them from the start – would come down to 40 minutes on Thursday, when the superteam and the Dream, hoping to spring an upset, met one last time in Atlanta.
Head coach Sandy Brondello had warned the Liberty in advance.
She reminded them of what happened – or almost happened – in the first round of the playoffs last year, when the seventh-seeded Mystics took Game 2 into overtime before the Liberty escaped with a narrow win.
Brondello even used a Pat Riley quote to her players to emphasize the dangers of not being prepared after a big win.
They were close, even too close, to a make-or-break situation long before the desired time.
“And that is our biggest danger,” Brondello said before the game.
She was right in the first quarter. And in the first half too. Then Ionescu took over.
