WNBA playoffs: Sabrina Ionescu makes her star turn as Liberty continue to prove they are different this year

NEW YORK — Sabrina Ionescu fervently pumped her fist Tuesday night heading out of the New York Liberty huddle moments before Barclays Center erupted at a second overturned call in the home team’s favor.

Ionescu, with her Liberty team clinging to a one-possession lead, had redirected the short inbound bounce pass enough that Las Vegas Aces guard Kelsey Plum, draped by Leonie Fiebich, couldn’t corral it. Officials initially called the ball out on New York, giving the Aces another shot at tying the game with 10.5 seconds left, but Ionescu and Fiebich immediately twirled their fingers at the Liberty bench.

“When Leo tells me to challenge, I challenge,” Liberty head coach Sandy Brondello said. “Leo never lies.”

Ionescu secured the Liberty inbound pass, took a foul as she fell into the lap of a courtside Carmelo Anthony and drained both free throws to push the game back to two possessions. They were the final points of a personal 7-0 run that gave the Liberty enough breathing room from a furious Aces comeback to win Game 2 of their semifinal series, 88-84, at Barclays Center.

She remained as poised and playful on the postgame podium afterward, jabbing her head coach for not listening to her calls for challenges while delivering a coach-like opening statement to put her clutch performance into perspective.

“Being up 2-0 is great, but we haven’t won anything,” Ionescu said. “I think everybody knows that. We did what we were supposed to do, which was protect home court [and] win two at home. But it’s not like we’re patting ourselves on the back and celebrating, talking about how happy we are. This isn’t what we came to do.”

That New York is heading to a sweep opportunity, a return to the WNBA Finals and a chance at its ultimate goal of the franchise’s first championship is on Ionescu’s shoulders. She led the Liberty all season as an MVP candidate and took over late in Game 2 to finish with 24 points on 50% shooting, nine rebounds and five assists with the second-highest plus-minus of any player on the floor at plus-7. Eleven of those points came in the fourth quarter and seven in the final 1:45.

“My teammates are always continuing to just pour into me,” Ionescu said. “And, you know, they need me in that moment. They know that I’m kind of built for it.”

Brondello went to Ionescu out of a timeout when reigning MVP A’ja Wilson cut the game to two with 5:23 left. It was the closest the game had been since the final two minutes of the first half when, again, Ionescu bookended a Liberty 9-0 run with ear-splitting 3-pointers. New York turned a three-point deficit into a six-point lead at the half.

Ionescu delivered with a tough drive to regain momentum before the Aces got to 77-76, with 2:36 on the clock. The Liberty’s offense stagnated and shooters unnecessarily rushed transition buckets. Ionescu dismissed the claim the team wasn’t always poised, but they did stick together.

“It’s almost like we’ve seen it already, like we’ve endured this as a team,” Ionescu said. “Our group has gone through all these highs and lows together, and so it’s like we understand what we have to do to get through it.”

She found Game 1 superstar Breanna Stewart on the baseline with a slick pass, banked in a floater on the next possession off a Courtney Vandersloot feed and pulled up for yet another bucket off a Jonquel Jones assist.

“In the big moment, she just really steps up,” Jones said. “She doesn’t shy away from the moments, and just the confidence that she has in herself and the confidence that we have in her as teammates to go out there and make those big shots.”

Even when the Aces answered, as they did down the stretch, Ionescu shot back every time.

“We got disconnected from Sabrina,” Aces head coach Becky Hammon said. “We know, like, that’s a no-no.”

This Liberty’s superteam began with Ionescu, the franchise’s first ever No. 1 overall draft pick. She injured her ankle in her third game and missed the rest of her rookie season in 2020. She’s said she played through pain when she shouldn’t have in her second year. Add in a hip injury and, until this season, the fifth-year guard had never entered an offseason without rehab.

“I think you’re able to see the product this year, just the growth that I’ve had from just being able to have a healthy offseason,” Ionescu said the morning of Game 2.

She is averaging 22.5 points against the Aces this series, up from her season average (18.2) and a sharp increase from the 9.8 she averaged in the 2023 Finals against the Aces. She was a defensive liability then, but on Tuesday stood strong against the Aces trio of guards and added a block to her stat line.

Her improvement in the midrange and at the basket fueled a 44-24 Liberty edge in the paint that led Hammon to lambast her team for letting New York get an “obscene” amount of layups — akin to a “clinic.” The pick-and-roll game Ionescu runs with Stewart and Jones was particularly troublesome.

“I think we can handle it better,” Hammon said. “That being said, are you going to totally shut her down? Probably not. But like, can we just contain — we need to get it like a C-plus at least. Let’s get a C-plus in guarding her.”

Teams that win the first two games in a best-of-five series are 18-0 in WNBA history. Ionescu’s point guard counterpart Chelsea Gray quipped she loves to be in the history books, a reminder there’s a first for everything.

Ionescu, Fiebich and Brondello would rather not challenge that.

“We haven’t done anything yet,” Brondello said. “We’ve done what we’re supposed to do. We’ve protected home court. Now we want to go to Vegas. You know, we play well on the road, so do they play well at home. That’s all our focus now, and we’ll just get locked in.”