Can I move laterally? Is this hit gonna hurt? What does sitting on a plane feel like?
The thoughts rushed through Sabrina Ionescu’s mind a mile a minute. On one hand, Ionescu — a highly-decorated four-time WNBA All-Star the Liberty selected No. 1 overall in the 2020 NBA Draft — wasn’t herself. Not after a flare-up of persistent back soreness spurred in a May 3 preseason matchup put her on the shelf for seven games over a two-and-a-half-week stretch.
But on the other hand? This is Sabrina freaking Ionescu, the cold-blooded basketball assassin who’s risen to many occasions for each team she’s played for at every basketball level. On Tuesday, in the WNBA Commissioner’s Cup against a Las Vegas Aces team without two-time MVP A’ja Wilson (ankle) raging towards a late-game comeback, the Liberty needed their star guard to rise to the occasion once more.
“You’re always trying to troubleshoot, and maybe be a little more tentative because you’re scared to go back into that [injured] place,” Ionescu said on Tuesday. “And I think there comes a time where you kinda get that nod from your body mentally, physically of ‘I’m good.’”
And there she was, with the ball in her hands 33 feet away from the rim. The Aces had come back from down 17 to make it a two-point game before Ionescu warded them off with a three. But Wilson or not, Las Vegas refused to die — until Ionescu buried them from near half court with 16.5 seconds left on the clock.
The ball’s final destination at the bottom of the net was never in question the second it left her hands.
“Her game never takes me by surprise,” said Aces head coach Becky Hammon. “She likes big moments and big shots.”
Ionescu couldn’t find the bottom of the rim in her first eight games back from injury, where she shot worse than 35% from the field and 27% from 3-point range, averaging just 9.5 points following the May 3 injury. The Liberty guard never scored more than 16 points over those first eight games. She scored 17 in the first half alone against the Aces and posted a team-high 26 points on 9-of-19 shooting from the field to lead the Liberty to a 93-85 victory and their second Commissioner’s Cup win over the past four seasons on Tuesday.
Breanna Stewart won Commissioner’s Cup MVP, but immediately said she felt it belonged to her star teammate.
“I’m really blessed,” said Ionescu, “but I continued to keep the faith and understood that the tables would turn at some point.
“And that [point] was tonight.”
It didn’t matter that Ionescu was 27-of-78 from the field and 10-of-37 from 3-point range walking into the biggest game of the season. When the moment calls, the Liberty guard answers. Even working through her back struggles in a June 17 Commissioner’s Cup matchup against the Chicago Sky, Ionescu made the go-ahead, game-winning layup in a 96-95 victory. On Tuesday, she added another eight points in just seven fourth-quarter minutes. The Liberty outscored the Aces by 10 in those crunch-time minutes Ionesco shared with Stewart.
“I think whenever she’s on the floor, she can shoot. No matter if she’s 0 for 4 over the last four games or five games, I don’t care,” said Aces forward Chelsea Gray. “We’re gonna play her as if she can shoot the basketball. … There were [just] some back-breaking moments: some layups, some 3s that were timely. We just needed two defensive solid possessions and the game would have felt different.”
The Aces didn’t get those stops. They were self-imposed over the handful of games Ionescu spent troubleshooting herself. On Tuesday, the Liberty star set herself free.
And Brooklyn’s got a second Commissioner’s Cup trophy because of it.
“It’s special. I’ve always continued to have that belief in myself because I know the work I’ve put in, and an injury is not gonna diminish my understanding of who I am and the work that I put in to get back to today,” said Ionescu. “It’s so special being able to win here and you understand the significance of wanting to be your best when the lights are shining the brightest, and that’s tonight.”
