Good, Bad and the Future on Display in Liberty's First-Round Exit

Despite Tuesday’s Game 3 defeat, New York’s season was anything but a loss.

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BROOKLYN, N.Y. — In the aftermath of the WNBA-record 38-point playoff loss to the Sky in Game 2, Liberty star guard Sabrina Ionescu received a text from one of her mentors. The message came from Nets coach Steve Nash, who, as both a player and coach, has had his fair share of playoff shortcomings. In it, Nash stressed to Ionescu the importance of not getting too down after an individual loss.

“It’s really about how you bounce back that’s important,” Ionescu said before Tuesday’s series-deciding game, reflecting on the Nets coach’s message.

Ionescu seemed poised to recover in Game 3, from a performance three days earlier which saw her score just seven points in 22 minutes. Veteran New York guard Sami Whitcomb said ahead of Tuesday’s tipoff she hadn’t seen Ionescu not respond to adversity, noting, “[Ionescu] lives for this moment. This is a really exciting opportunity for her and I expect her to be great.”

But against the defending champion Sky, Ionescu’s playoff coronation was put on hold, and New York’s season came to an abrupt end by way of a 90–72 loss. Not surprisingly, though, Ionescu still showed flashes of why she is one of the most electrifying, and prolific, players in the sport. She sank her first shot attempt of the night, much to the delight of a sellout crowd of 7,837 spectators, and her five-point furry to open the fourth quarter saw home fans wave their seafoam green rally towels—with a quote attributed to her printed on it—in excitement. She finished the game with 14 points, six rebounds and four assists.

The final margin of Tuesday’s Game 3 loss, while decisive, is also a tad misleading. New York trailed by only three points less than a minute into the fourth, before a 16–0 run by the experienced Sky blew the game open. “We pushed them, we tried, things didn’t go our way tonight,” Liberty coach Sandy Brondello said. Chicago had all five starters score in double-figures and shot 48% from the field in the win.

In many respects, despite Tuesday’s result, New York’s 2022 season can still be viewed as a success. Brondello said prior to Game 3 that hosting a home playoff game—the franchise’s first ever in Barclays Center—marked a step in the right direction, albeit one she was hopeful the team could build on “for years to come.” Forward Natasha Howard made her first All-Star team since 2019, and center Han Xu and guard Marine Johannes both produced stellar seasons that set them up to be key pieces for the team’s future.

For Ionescu, she entered the 2022 campaign fully healthy for the first time since the start of her debut season. After playing only three games in the league’s bubble due to a season-ending ankle injury, and dealing with lingering ankle issues throughout last year, she made her first All-Star appearance this past July. It’s also likely that she’ll make one of the league’s All-WNBA teams when the league announces them on Sept. 15.

She averaged 17.4 points, 7.1 rebounds and 6.3 assists per game, all career-highs.

“I didn’t miss a game this year and for me that was super important,” Ionescu said. “If you want me to be honest, I’m happy. I never thought I would be able to complete a full season. I was at my lowest point a year ago and so, obviously, I hate losing more than I love winning, but at the end of the day I just have to look big picture.”

A part of that future outlook is how she plans to take advantage of her first healthy offseason as a professional. She said Tuesday that she intends to improve her strength, shot release speed and ball-handling. She hopes to continue growing as a shot creator, and create more effectively without using a ball screen as well.

“I think there’s not one category that I’m not going to get better at and improve on,” she said.

Then, there are also her goals for the franchise. While Ionescu has led the Liberty to the playoffs in each of the two seasons in which she’s appeared in more than 30 games, she wants New York to be in contention for a top seed and not have to compete in early-round games with their “backs against the wall.” She also hopes to take the franchise back to the second round of the playoffs for the first time since 2017.

Throughout both Game 3, and in nearly the entire series more broadly, Chicago’s past successes loomed large. Sure, it squandered Game 1 at home, but it did so only after allowing an uncharacteristic 13-0 run, which spanned from the 3:20 mark of the fourth quarter until there were just 39 seconds remaining in the contest.

Then, in Game 2, the Sky recovered the way defending champions are expected to. They blitzed the Liberty in the first quarter, forcing nine steals, the most in an opening quarter of a WNBA playoff game since 2009, to grab a 31-10 lead that would only grow.

While it led by only five after the first quarter of Game 3, its advantage was 12 heading into the halftime locker room, a good omen considering it entered Game 3 20–3 when leading at the break.

In past seasons, Chicago wouldn’t have even needed to face New York in the first round of playoffs. (In the league’s prior format, it would have a double-bye into the league semi-finals.) But last November, the W unveiled an adapted playoff structure, which eliminated all byes and single-elimination series. In its place, it put in a best-of-three series, with the first two games coming at the home court of the higher seed. The series-deciding road game proved no difference, however.

With every push New York made in the final 20 minutes of Tuesday’s clincher, Chicago answered. And no response was more revealing of who the better team was than its late 16–0 run, which ballooned a three-point lead to 19.

“If we had the experience they had, I think we’d be in a good spot,” Ionescu said.

With another playoff series now complete, Ionescu hopes the Liberty learn from what took place on Tuesday night, and in the two games prior. She’s optimistic more fruitful days are to come.

“We’ll be back,” Ionescu said.

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