NEW YORK — Sabrina Ionescu’s closing go of the New York Liberty’s 91-82 Recreation 2 victory over the Atlanta Dream was to nobody particularly. The truth is, it was much less of a chest go, and extra of a celebratory spike — an emphatic bounce of the basketball round midcourt after a 36-point, nine-assist masterclass that lifted the top-seeded Liberty into the WNBA semifinals.
Ionescu opened Tuesday’s scoring with a 3-pointer on New York’s first possession and sealed the victory with the collection’ closing pair of free throws. She did a lot in between after saying the Liberty had no intentions of touring south for a deciding Recreation 3.
“We don’t wish to go to Atlanta,” Ionescu mentioned Tuesday morning. “That’s not one thing we wish to do.”
It took New York outscoring Atlanta 26-18 within the fourth quarter to prevail and sweep the Dream 2-0. Ionescu anticipated Tuesday’s contest to be harder than Sunday’s Recreation 1, through which the Liberty by no means trailed and cruised to a 14-point win. Her prediction proved right, because the Dream performed with a renewed sense of urgency.
“We acquired to throw some punches from the very very starting and allow them to know that it’s gonna be a canine combat,” Atlanta coach Tanisha Wright mentioned Tuesday morning.
Dream All-Star guard Allisha Grey made her first 5 photographs and with 2:18 remaining within the opening quarter had outscored New York herself, 14–13. Nonetheless, Atlanta’s nine-point first-quarter lead and five-point halftime cushion proved inadequate. Grey’s 26 factors and Rhyne Howard’s 19 had been finally for naught.
Sabrina Ionescu went OFF in opposition to Atlanta, dropping 36 factors to comb the Dream in two video games. pic.twitter.com/QCMzGEgwmx
— The Athletic (@TheAthletic) September 25, 2024
Ionescu made certain that New York wouldn’t must board a flight. Whereas she scored 13 factors and dished out seven assists within the first half, she ignited the Liberty’s second-half rally, recording 11 factors within the third. At one level, she scored 9 consecutive factors, flipping a three-point New York deficit right into a two-point Liberty lead. She celebrated by waving to the gang, pointing at teammates on assisted baskets and even high-fiving acclaimed director Spike Lee, who was sitting courtside throughout from the Liberty’s bench, earlier than one layup.
Even with Breanna Stewart going scoreless from the 6:17 mark of the second quarter to the 4:27 mark of the fourth quarter, New York’s offense remained harmful. Ionescu buried 3-pointer after 3-pointer. She hit 5 in all. Jones made eight of her 12 photographs and completed with a 20-point, 13-rebound double-double, her first time reaching double digits in each classes since Aug. 22.
On Tuesday morning, Brondello reminded these in her locker room how they eked out a win over the No. 7 Washington Mystics in Recreation 2 of final 12 months’s first spherical.
“I believe those that had been right here final 12 months it’s a reminiscence,” Brondello mentioned. “All the teachings that we discovered final 12 months carry over to this 12 months.”
She referred explicitly to their takeaways from that extra time victory over Washington. However Brondello would possibly as properly have been referring to what New York discovered from its Finals loss to the Las Vegas Aces. Certainly, these classes will come up once more quickly sufficient.
New York will face the Las Vegas Aces within the WNBA semifinals, which start Sunday.
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(Picture: Catalina Fragoso / Getty Photos)
