{"id":107015,"date":"2025-07-31T07:49:12","date_gmt":"2025-07-31T07:49:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/107015\/"},"modified":"2025-07-31T07:49:12","modified_gmt":"2025-07-31T07:49:12","slug":"libertys-sabrina-ionescu-returns-to-spot-of-last-years-wnba-finals-heroics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/107015\/","title":{"rendered":"Liberty&#8217;s Sabrina Ionescu returns to spot of last year\u2019s WNBA Finals heroics"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>MINNEAPOLIS \u2014 After shootaround Wednesday morning, Liberty star Sabrina Ionescu went back to the spot where she made the biggest shot of her career.<\/p>\n<p>Ionescu found it on the court and then looked at the basket, which stood 28 feet from where she was.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI was just so far,\u201d she told The Post. \u201cI don\u2019t know why I shot that far.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>That shot \u2014 <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2024\/10\/16\/sports\/sabrina-ionescu-caps-thrilling-rally-with-game-winning-shot-to-put-liberty-on-brink-of-wnba-title\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">the game-winner that Ionescu drilled to claim Game 3<\/a> of the 2024 WNBA Finals in Minnesota \u2014 goes down as one of the greatest baskets in Liberty history.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s perhaps second to only Teresa Weatherspoon\u2019s 50-foot Hail Mary heave at the buzzer that saved New York from a sweep in the 1999 WNBA Finals.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt was an epic shot and a shot that we\u2019ve seen Sabrina do, but not in a game,\u201d Brondello said before the <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2025\/07\/30\/sports\/liberty-fall-to-lynx-in-wnba-finals-rematch-as-losing-streak-hit-three\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Liberty\u2019s 100-93 loss to the Lynx<\/a> in which Ionescu scored 31 points.<\/p>\n<p>It was hard in the immediate aftermath of that game to understand the gravity of the shot that put the Liberty up 2-1 in the best-of-five series.<\/p>\n<p>Even Ionescu didn\u2019t fully comprehend at that time \u201chow important that shot was.\u201d  <\/p>\n<p>But that shot may have saved the series for the Liberty.<\/p>\n<p><img style=\"aspect-ratio:1.38941655;display:block\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-modal-image=\"36696121\" width=\"820\" height=\"590\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Sabrina-Ionescu-3.jpg\" alt=\"Sabrina Ionescu, who scored 31 points, looks to make a move during the Liberty's 100-93 loss to the Lynx on July 30, 2025.\" class=\"wp-image-36696121\"  \/>Sabrina Ionescu, who scored 31 points, looks to make a move during the Liberty\u2019s 100-93 loss to the Lynx on July 30, 2025. Brad Rempel-Imagn Images<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen you look back on it, without that play, they may not be champions,\u201d Lynx coach Cheryl Reeve said. \u201cIt was that big.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Wednesday was the Liberty\u2019s first trip back to Target Center since Game 3 and 4 of the Finals, and Ionescu allowed herself a brief moment to relish in that memory. She also replicated her most iconic shot to finish off her morning shootaround.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019ve watched it so many times,\u201d she said. \u201cBut yeah, on to the next one.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><img style=\"aspect-ratio:1.49926794;display:block\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-modal-image=\"36696120\" width=\"885\" height=\"590\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Sabrina-Ionescu-2-1.jpg\" alt=\"Sabrina Ionescu drives on Alana Smith during the Liberty's loss to the Lynx.\" class=\"wp-image-36696120\"  \/>Sabrina Ionescu drives on Alana Smith during the Liberty\u2019s loss to the Lynx. Brad Rempel-Imagn Images<\/p>\n<p>This grueling stretch of the Liberty\u2019s season, where the team is playing six games in 10 days, caught up to Natasha Cloud.<\/p>\n<p>Cloud started to fall ill before the Liberty\u2019s game against the Wings Monday. <\/p>\n<p>She felt worse Tuesday as she dealt with cold sweats, fever, chills and head congestion.<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCovering the Liberty like never before\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p class=\"inline-module__cta\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSign up for Madeline Kenney&#8217;s Inside the Liberty, a weekly Sports+ newsletter.\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\tThank you\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>Cloud was downgraded to questionable Wednesday morning. She stayed in bed instead of going to shootaround, but Cloud knew she was going to play regardless of how she felt.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt was never not an option for me to play today, especially with this game and being down numbers,\u201d said Cloud, who had 12 points, seven assists, four rebounds and two steals in 32 minutes. \u201cThis was a good reset day for us. I know we didn\u2019t come out with a W in the win column, but behind the scenes, down three starters, without Emma, I\u2019ll take losing by eight to a team that I feel like gave their everything tonight.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>With the Liberty-Lynx game airing on ESPN, dozens of fans held up \u201cPay the Players\u201d signs to show their solidarity with the Women\u2019s National Basketball Players\u2019 Association as negotiations for a new collective bargaining agreement continue.<\/p>\n<p>\u201c[The fans] want us to be compensated for it and us as players, we\u2019re gonna continue to fight to get our fair share of the pie,\u201d Isabelle Harrison said. \u201cAnd that\u2019s a conversation that lasts even after All-Star [weekend].\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MINNEAPOLIS \u2014 After shootaround Wednesday morning, Liberty star Sabrina Ionescu went back to the spot where she made&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":107016,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[1519,1520,15534,62,67,132,68,232],"class_list":{"0":"post-107015","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wnba","8":"tag-minnesota-lynx","9":"tag-new-york-liberty","10":"tag-sabrina-ionescu","11":"tag-sports","12":"tag-united-states","13":"tag-unitedstates","14":"tag-us","15":"tag-wnba"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114946753494689167","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107015","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=107015"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107015\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/107016"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=107015"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=107015"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=107015"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}