MINNEAPOLIS — It was a shot Sabrina Ionescu had always envisioned.
Her game-winning 3-pointer to clinch an 80-77 win in Game 3 of the WNBA Finals sets the Liberty up with a chance to close the best-of-five series for their first title Friday.
It couldn’t have gone better for New York, though the play didn’t go as initially planned.
With 16 seconds left and the score tied 77-77, the Liberty called a full timeout.
During the huddle, head coach Sandy Brondello made it clear to Ionescu that the ball would be in her hands and she would be trusted to make reads off the defense for the final shot.
Ionescu received the inbounds pass on the right side of the court, which was what the Liberty wanted — for their ball handler to bring the ball to her left side towards the center.
Nevertheless, the Lynx fouled her, forcing the play to switch sides.
Inbounding again with nine seconds remaining, the Liberty kept the plan the same.
Ionescu got the ball and dribbled to the middle of the court near the Lynx logo as Jonquel Jones ran up to Ionescu for an awkward pick movement, but then ran toward Breanna Stewart to draw attention toward the two-time MVP.
As the commotion below drew some of the Lynx’s attention, Ionescu crossed to her left hand and stepped back for a sliver of separation to nail the 28-foot dagger with only one second remaining.
“I was looking at her like, ‘I don’t think you’re supposed to be on that side,’ ” Jones said Thursday. “You saw me run up there and ghost out. It was crazy, I was just happy she made something out of it.”
“We wanted to get her on her left hand so that’s why it was a little bit clunky, but the result was good in the end,” Brondello added.
The misstep was no issue for Ionescu, who said Thursday she practices the deep shots to prepare for tight-game moments.
The three-time All-Star, who is not a rim watcher, followed the ball with her eyes and even quarter turned her body to the opposite side of the court, backing away before it swished.
“As soon as I saw the trajectory of the ball, I was like ‘This is in,’ ” she said.
The last time Ionescu took shots from that deep was in the offseason — alone in a gym with no cameras. It was just her and the imaginary clock and defender in her mind, visualizing the moment to come.
“I’m not taking those types of shots now. But, in the offseason when I’m training, it’s more competitive than a game, to be honest …” Ionescu said. “Like [if] I miss it, I’m mad because in my head I’m counting down the time. I’m visualizing a defender in front of me and visualizing that high-pressure situation because that’s just who I am and I want to be in that situation. So, when I get to it in a game, it doesn’t feel new to me. It feels like I’ve kind of been there.”
As the stakes of a season get higher, the 2020 No. 1 overall pick thinks more about these game-changing, franchise-stamping shots. It’s a constant image and scene in her head.
She admitted she doesn’t have many hobbies outside of basketball, especially during a finals run.
“I’m also just always thinking about basketball,” she said. “So, it’s kind of inevitable, no matter what time of day or night. It keeps me up. Kind of think of every scenario.”
Since the aftermath of the Game 3 thriller, Ionescu’s shot has been compared to others in New York history.
Fans have recalled Teresa Weatherspoon’s half-court shot for the Liberty to win Game 2 of the 1999 WNBA Finals against the Comets as well as Allan Houston’s game-winning floater for the Knicks to upset the Heat in a decisive Game 5 to go to the 1999 NBA Finals.
If the Liberty go on to win their first WNBA title in either Friday’s Game 4 or Sunday’s Game 5 back at Barclays Center, her shot could be tagged as the best in the franchise’s history, if it isn’t already by some.
“I think when you start putting things into perspective a little bit, it’s amazing to ever be considered in that category, on that side of history,” Ionescu said. “The shot doesn’t mean anything if we don’t win, so the goal is to make that shot worth it.”