It is not how you start, but how you finish. The dynamic duo of Breanna Stewart and Sabrina Ionescu were not going to be denied.
After being on the short end of the stick for the majority of the night and falling into a 15-point hole at one point, Stewart caught fire in the second half before Ionescu buried a game-winner to leave the Target Center fans (a record high 19,521) in shambles and absolutely stunned. The Liberty, after Ionescu sank a shot from just inside the Lynx halfcourt logo with a little more than a second remaining on the clock, escaped with an 80-77 win in Game 3 of the WNBA Finals on Wednesday night.
“In the timeout, (coach) Sandy (Brondello) was like, ‘You’re going to shoot the shot,'” Ionescu said.
The Liberty led for a grand total of about two minutes out of 40 in Game 3 on Wednesday night, and they looked to be a step slow from the opening tip. The Lynx, on the other hand, came out of the locker room like there was no tomorrow and opened the game on a 21-7 surge and played stifling defense, forcing seven turnovers during that span before they built up a 15-point lead at its peak.
But finally, Stewart came to life in the second half. She led a quick 8-0 run to close the third quarter and trimmed the Lynx’s advantage to just a single point with a huge 3-point play in the final seconds. She put up 14 points in the third quarter alone.
Stewart continued right where she left off, scoring the first eight points of the final frame for the Liberty, and quickly tied the game on another and-1. That pushed her to 30 points, which marked her third 30-point night in a WNBA Finals game and matched Angel McCoughtry of the Atlanta Dream for the most in league history.
After a Stewart free throw with just over six minutes left in the game, the Liberty’s offense crawled to a snells pace. No one else put the ball in the hoop for New York over the next three minutes, which allowed the Lynx to stay a step ahead. Eventually, Jonquel Jones hit a 3-pointer and then followed it up with a bunny at the 90-second mark, which gave the Liberty their first lead, 74-73, since the opening sequence.
Embed from Getty ImagesThat, along with a triple from Ionescu just 30 seconds later, gave the Liberty a four-point lead. That was just Ionescu’s second made 3-pointer of the night.
“We know we’re one game away from winning the championship, and I think that they are going to give us their best shot,” said Stewart, who won two titles with the Seattle Storm. “They are going to give everything they have got, and you know what, so are we. The turnaround is quick but we are going to continue to be ready.
Ionescu said she had to watch video replay of her shot after the game to see exactly what happened.
“I didn’t even really remember it. I had to go look at the video really quickly to see like how far I was,” she said. “I feel like I was able to get a little separation in range and get a really good shot to go.”
The Lynx tied the game one last time, thanks to a Bridget Carleton layup and then a pair of free throws from Napheesa Collier, who had a historic night of her own. That, though, set up the game-winning shot from Ionescu and eventually the three-point win for the Liberty.
“Great player made a good shot,” Minnesota guard McBride said. “I guarded her for 40 minutes.”
Stewart finished with a double-double, with 30 points and 11 rebounds with four blocks, while shooting 9-of-20 from the field. Ionescu did a little bit of everything, contributing 13 points, dishing out six assists and five rebounds. She shot 3-of-8 from downtown.
“We don’t win this game without Stewie,” Ionescu said. “There’s nothing I can say. That shot’s nice, but what she was able to do for us tonight willed us back into the game.”
Collier led the Lynx with 22 points and nine rebounds. She surpassed Diana Taurasi’s single-season playoff points record also, with 249 total points. Taurasi dropped 245 points during the 2009 playoffs. McBride added 19 points while making five 3-pointers, and Carleton finished with 14 points.
“Our defense gave us a chance to win the game, period, and our offense is going to help our defense,” Minnesota coach Cheryl Reeve said. “If you told me that we would have got the amount of stops that we did and we were playing off that, and we wouldn’t have scored 80, that would be surprising to me.”
Game 4 of the series is scheduled for Friday night, 8:00 p.m. ET in Minneapolis. Even though they came up short in the WNBA Finals last season against the Las Vegas Aces, the Liberty now have a golden opportunity to take home the WNBA title for the first time.
