NEW YORK – Sabrina Ionescu received the ball on the left wing from teammate Breanna Stewart and hoisted the shot up. The three-pointer came in, giving the New York Liberty an 11 lead over the Las Vegas Aces early in the fourth quarter in Game 1 of the WNBA semifinals. As Ionescu defended herself, she pointed to New York icon Spike Lee. Wearing a signed Ionescu jersey, Lee shot up from his courtside seat and pointed back in her direction.

Ionescu wasn’t done yet.

Less than 90 seconds later, she received the ball from Leonie Fiebich well beyond the top of the arc and as three-time MVP A’ja Wilson closed in on her, she drained a 30-footer, sending the Barclays Center crowd of 14,000 into a tizzy and force a timeout in Las Vegas.

Shortly after New York’s 87-77 victory on Sunday, where Ionescu scored 21 points and added five assists, ESPN’s Holly Rowe interviewed Ionescu and Stewart at half court and asked Ionescu how it feels when she gets hot and the “band leader” ‘ is becoming. of the Barclays faithful. The crowd roared before Rowe could even finish the question, as Stewart mimicked the movements of a conductor.

“This is what it sounds like,” Ionescu said, holding her hands in the air before applauding the fans.

The Liberty are now two wins away from avenging last year’s WNBA Finals loss to the Aces and returning to the championship series. Of a chance to break the franchise’s postseason curse and win its first title. Of Ionescu getting a chance to secure what has eluded her in her legendary young career.

Ionescu, the team’s longest-tenured player, is living up to the potential New York saw when it drafted its No. 1 pick four years ago. She is the heartbeat of the Liberty, their offensive engine, “really kind of the engine on this team,” Aces coach Becky Hammon said Saturday. “Sabrina is the head of the snake.”

THE SCENE AND playing at Barclays on Sunday was a far cry from what Ionescu experienced at the start of her career.

After being drafted first overall in 2020, Ionescu was sidelined three games into the season with a serious ankle injury, and the Liberty limped to a 2–20 record, marking some of the franchise’s darkest days. Even when Ionescu returned in 2021, she was still not 100 percent. New York recorded records the next two seasons and reached the playoffs, but did not make it past the first round.

Ionescu started to find her feet in 2022, when she earned her first all-WNBA and All-Star nods. As the Liberty rose from an afterthought to a superteam in 2023, Ionescu established herself as a premier 3-point shooter, highlighted by her record-breaking performance in the WNBA 3-point contest and her 44.8% shooting clip deep into the season, third-best in the competition.

Ionescu’s 18.2 points per game in 2024 is a career high, but her growth into a more versatile player has made her season special. She has taken on more playing duties, especially with Courtney Vandersloot and Betnijah Laney-Hamilton in and out of the lineup, and has shown more commitment defensively. But Ionescu really shines in the arc, where she’s going downhill more than ever and has implemented a floater. Her 36-point outburst in New York’s first-round win over the Atlanta Dream was a prime example, as 21 of her points came from two-pointers or the free-throw line.

Ionescu’s full recovery from her ankle injury allowed her to build strength, work on a faster first step and regain her confidence in the offseason.

“I relied on my shot a lot because it came in last year, so I just kept going with it, but I think I can continue to get in the paint and figure out ways to attack angles, use my body, use my length to create opportunities to score was huge.” Ionescu said this on Sunday. “I put a lot of work in the offseason to get back to that. Obviously I did a lot of that in college, and when I got injured it derailed me a little bit, confidence-wise, because I could take hits and go away .on one leg and land on one leg in the paint. It’s nice to see the work I put in come to life now, especially in the playoffs.”

On a team with two MVPs in Stewart and Jonquel Jones, plus one of the best passers in league history in Vandersloot, Ionescu’s breakout year has helped elevate the Liberty into an even more potent offensive group. She was one of two players in the league (Caitlin Clark is the other) to average at least 16 points and 6 assists on the year. Along the way, she has cemented her status as a top player in the WNBA, finishing sixth in the MVP voting.

“It was incredible to see her make a big leap this year,” Vandersloot said. “There were a lot of games where she single-handedly won the game for us late. She carried a lot of the burden. She’s just been able to find different ways to be effective, and that’s one of the things I’m so happy about. am impressed with.”

Added Hammon: “She is what makes them go – with her pace, her ability to read, her ability to put defenses in different dilemmas and willingness to make the right play. Her presence and how she led this team to the best record in the league this year.”

FREEDOM NOT By shying away from acknowledging their loss to the Aces in the 2023 WNBA Finals, they left a “scar,” as Vandersloot said, and that they have “unfinished business” to deal with in 2024, Ionescu added.

But the motivation for Ionescu is multi-layered.

Vandersloot and Stewart, two of the team’s prized 2023 free agency acquisitions, have titles from previous WNBA stops, and Stewart won four straight in college. But Ionescu never had a chance to compete for a championship her season year at Oregon.

After leading the Ducks to their first Final Four appearance in 2019, Ionescu was eligible to leave for the WNBA after her junior season but returned to play alongside Satou Sabally and Ruthy Hebard. Her Ducks were coming off a Pac-12 Tournament crown and ranked No. 2 in the country when the NCAA Tournament was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“I’m still not really over it,” Ionescu told ESPN in June. “Knowing that I came back for that reason – to try to win a national championship – we were so close and I think we were the best team. We played really well, were so committed to each other and knew what our goal was. of the chance to at least try to win? It’s just sad.

“Every time I hear players talk about college and winning a national championship and what that means – especially because that’s never happened in Oregon – that’s one of the things I can’t claim. Hopefully now in New York just It feels like if we can win a championship here, it would be like giving back a part of something to the ‘me’ of the university that wasn’t able to compete for it.”

As the college game’s triple-double leader, Ionescu “has an argument as one of the greatest college players in history,” Oregon coach Kelly Graves told ESPN last October.

But Ionescu took time to bounce back from her injury, and frustration and disappointment were rampant during her first years in the WNBA. The team could have given up on the supposed franchise player because he wasn’t producing, she told ESPN in a May 2023 interview, but the Liberty had “this unwavering amount of support for me and stuck with me through that difficult time.”

“It will be more of a thank you if we can win this year,” Ionescu said at the time. “It would just be for all those people who stuck with me and believed in me through this journey.”

A championship proved elusive last season. But 2024 could have a different outcome for the Liberty, thanks in no small part to Ionescu.

“She has the mentality. You can come in with all the talent, but if you don’t have the mentality, you don’t know how to win,” Liberty coach Sandy Brondello said. “She holds herself to high levels, high standards. She’s competed in big competitions before, so we’re going to lean on that experience.”

ESPN’s Michael Voepel and Katie Barnes contributed to this report.