WNBA Finals: Inside Sabrina Ionescu's game-winning shot for the ages: 'There was never a doubt'

MINNEAPOLIS — Sabrina Ionescu smirked, smiled, dropped her face into her hand and brushed her hand over her signature ponytail. The timeline was still lighting up with reactions to one of the most clutch shots in WNBA Finals history and of a heavyweight series already packed to the brim with them.

“I mean, that was just a great All-WNBA second-team performance,” Ionescu said coyly, avoiding any further discussion of potential motivation from the award snub.

New York’s three All-WNBA selections — two more than any other team — lifted the Liberty to an 80-77 comeback victory in Game 3 at Target Center on Wednesday. None came up more clutch than Ionescu.

She started the day as the most notable snub on the All-WNBA first team, falling behind a logjam of standout frontcourt players, including teammate Breanna Stewart, that monopolize league awards. She ended it with “definitely the biggest shot of my career,” a final-second 28-foot 3-pointer from near the logo to draw the Liberty one win from the franchise’s first WNBA championship.

“I really didn’t realize how far out I was,” Ionescu said.

Ionescu juked Kayla McBride, stepped to her left and heaved a deep shot steps from the center-court Lynx logo to quiet the sold-out franchise-record crowd of 19,521 fans. Dub it retribution for the stunned silence the Lynx threw Barclays Center into to end Game 1.

“Great player made a good shot,” McBride said. “I guarded her for 40 minutes.”

The attempt was perfectly in motion, a shot she’s practiced hundreds of times and a reminder to anyone who didn’t know, or maybe forgot, she drained these shots in this league years before Caitlin Clark made it a national obsession.

Ionescu, too, was a highly regarded, sought-after No. 1 overall pick the Liberty were ecstatic to win the rights to draft in 2020 with their first-ever top selection. It was franchise-changing, a luck-of-the-lottery dynamic that led to a superteam and potentially to uncharted territory. Leading them to their first title, which eluded them in four trips prior to her arrival — New York is the only original franchise without a trophy — was always in the plan.

Ionescu didn’t start Game 3 well. The guard didn’t attempt a shot and went scoreless in a sloppy first quarter the Lynx finally won, 28-18, after two games of falling into deep early holes. The Liberty found their footing in the second quarter, but their head of the snake still had only a bucket next to her name. She was empty on three 3-point attempts as New York came within eight to start the second half after being behind by as many as 15.

“I think we were all just waiting for our moment, waiting for the script to flip a little bit,” Stewart said. “They talked about the first five minutes, gonna come out punching. They punched us in the face in the first quarter. And we continued to wear them down.”

Ionescu's first 3 in the final minute of the third drew the Liberty back within six. Jonquel Jones, a second-team All-WNBA selection, blocked Napheesa Collier, and Stewart drew contact at the other end. Stewart went on a five-point run to get the Liberty within one, 62-61.

Stewart tied the game twice in the first four minutes as New York’s guiding light while Ionescu and Jones remained dormant. Jones, the player who has consistently struggled against Minnesota this year but whom the Liberty need, had eight points and four assists through three quarters. Ionescu had seven points with four assists. The only double-digit scorer outside of Stewart’s 22 (en route to game highs of 30 and 11 rebounds) was Leonie Fiebich with 13.

“That shot’s nice,” Ionescu said of her game-winner. “But that doesn’t go against what [Stewart's] been able to do for us tonight and how she was able to just will us back into that game.”

Defense and sloppy offense filled nearly four minutes in the middle of the fourth by the time the Lynx went up by four with 2:25 remaining. Jones answered on a corner 3 off crisp ball movement and drove in on a Ionescu assist for the lead, 74-73. Ionescu hit only her second 3 of the game to give New York a four-point cushion.

“Between Sab, J.J. and myself, we know when it's our time to step up and to make an impact,” Stewart said.

Minnesota answered to tie it for a fifth time with 16 seconds on the clock, drawing flashbacks of Game 1 and potential overtime. New York persevered for a second straight game and head coach Sandy Brondello kept true to the 2024 Liberty way.

She put the ball in Ionescu's and Stewart’s hands.

“Stewie got us back in there [and] willed us in there,” Brondello said. “I just thought [it] was the right time. This is Sabrina. … Not everyone can take those big shots and make them. She can.”

Ionescu finished with a modest 13 points on 5-of-12 shooting, going 3-of-8 from 3. She added six assists, five rebounds, one steal and one block. It was her second-lowest scoring total of the postseason, a stat line that could have doomed New York against as high caliber of a team as Minnesota.

But the last three points will live in Liberty lore.

Jones began to set a screen for Ionescu and fled out toward the paint to give her room. As Jones turned her back to the basket on the left block, Ionescu let go with three seconds still to tick off the clock. Jones thought to herself, "Oh my goodness, she’s about to hit this."

“Ballsy, but also that’s the type of player that she is,” Jones said. “She steps up in big moments and happily takes those shots. We need it.”

“Pumped. Excited. Impressed,” reserve point guard Courtney Vandersloot said of the game-winner. “Because that’s not an easy thing to do. Obviously, the shot is difficult. But at that time. Everything. What’s on the line.”

Ionescu kept poised at mid-court, with one second remaining until the Liberty could secure the win. She chest-bumped Stewart and flashed a quick beaming smile before resorting back to the face of the Liberty’s latest postseason hero.

“I'm always visualizing different scenarios and putting myself in tough situations,” Ionescu said. “Obviously I didn’t play my best tonight, but finding a way to continue to stick with it, and I feel like that’s been a big growth for me, whether the ball’s going in or not.”

While it’s the biggest shot of her career, it’s not without competition. She built an illustrious legacy at Oregon, becoming the first player in NCAA history, man or woman, with 2,000 career points, 1,000 career rebounds and 1,000 career assists. Her 26 triple-doubles aren’t likely to be touched by anyone on either side anytime soon. She was the school’s third No. 1 overall pick in any sport and first since the 1970s.

Hours prior, Ionescu laced up her Nike Sabrina 1 colorway in honor of the Ducks for a second straight game. A few green Oregon jerseys dotted the whited-out Target Center, as they do back home in New York. Oregon head coach Kelly Graves flew out after practice to see former players Nyara Sabally, whose efforts on both ends filled in for Stewart’s early foul trouble; Vandersloot, whom he coached at Gonzaga; and Ionescu, who hit the shot to put New York 40 minutes away from history.

The coach who spent four years watching Ionescu practice for this moment shared video from his viewpoint, writing on social media, “was there ever a doubt?!?!” Before Ionescu joined family outside the Liberty locker room and turned her focus to closing out what will be a desperate Lynx team in Game 4, the three-time second-team All-WNBA superstar hugged her collegiate head coach.

“He kind of told me the same thing,” Ionescu said. “There was never a doubt.”