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Sabrina Ionescu took another dribble, stepped back to her left, gathered the ball, and let it fly.
Her logo 3-pointer seemed to hang forever, the clock running down its final seconds, before it hit the bottom of the net, an unforgettable shot that gave the Liberty a 2-1 series lead in the WNBA Finals and likely altered the course of franchise history.
Ionescu’s tiebreaking 3 with just one second remaining decided the Liberty’s epic 80-77 win over the Lynx in Game 3 of the Finals on Wednesday night at Target Center in Minneapolis.
“I’m built for this moment,” an emotional Ionescu said on the court after the biggest shot of her career. Later, she said, “It’s a shot that I take often. I take in practice and I take before the game. It’s not like a Hail Mary, hope this goes in. Once I got it off, I was like, ‘Yeah, this is in.’”