PHOENIX \u2014 Sabrina Ionescu said she had \u201cno reaction\u201d after hearing two Mercury players threw shade at Liberty fans following Phoenix\u2019s Game 2 victory in Brooklyn.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In her eyes, it\u2019s a moot point to debate who has the best fans in the league.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI think everyone knows whose arena is louder,\u201d Ionescu said Friday ahead of a winner-takes-all Game 3. \u201cIt was a blowout game, so I\u2019m not sure what they would have been cheering for. Maybe Ellie, which is unfortunate for our fans but, I mean, it\u2019s not really even up for debate so I wouldn\u2019t even comment on it.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
In some ways, Ionescu said she understood why the Barclays Center crowd was not nearly as rowdy as it typically is.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cObviously, we didn\u2019t give our fans a lot to cheer for in a blowout game,\u201d Ionescu said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
After delivering a 26-point beating of the Liberty on Wednesday night, Mercury guard Kahleah Copper said she was \u201cshocked\u201d by how hushed the Barclays Center crowd appeared to be.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Sabrina Ionescu looks on during the Liberty-Mercury game on Sept. 17, 2025. Michelle Farsi\/New York Post<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think it was loud to start,\u201d Copper said. \u201cI was shocked. I was expecting us to have to deal with some crowd, some court-side people. Like, it was quiet.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Satou Sabally then was asked about playing a win-or-go-home Game 3 in front of their home fans, known as the \u201cX-factor.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Sabally, who rode on her sister Nyara\u2019s float during the Liberty\u2019s championship parade last October, said she expected PHX Arena to be \u201cloud, louder than here.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Kahleah Copper looks on during the Mercury-Liberty game on Sept. 17, 2025. NBAE via Getty Images<\/p>\n
Copper appeared to be almost taken aback by Sabally\u2019s quip as the microphone in front of her picked up on her muttering \u201coop.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Sabally doubled down and said Mercury fans wouldn\u2019t leave early like some did in Brooklyn, around the midway point of the fourth quarter.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThey will stay to the end of the game,\u201d Sabally said. \u201cThey\u2019re backing us up. \u2026 It\u2019s different.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Sabally also expected Friday\u2019s atmosphere to be \u201clit\u201d and said PHX Arena vibes are \u201cunmatched.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Asked about the Mercury\u2019s comments, Liberty star Breanna Stewart said she \u201ccan\u2019t wait to hear it.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Stewart also defended Liberty fans.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cOur fans support us through and through and we know we didn\u2019t do a good job for them,\u201d Stewart said. \u201cWe know that that game was tough for them to stay engaged in and on top of it, but they were still there and our New York fans aren\u2019t going to flip on us that easily.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCovering the Liberty like never before\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSign up for Madeline Kenney’s Inside the Liberty, a weekly Sports+ newsletter.\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\tThank you\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
Jonquel Jones passed on the opportunity to respond directly to Copper and Sabally\u2019s comments, saying she didn\u2019t have anything to say because \u201cI\u2019m focused on the game right now.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
But Jones slipped in a subtle foreshadowing at the end of her post-shootaround interview when talking about how playing in high-stakes moments, such as an elimination game, is what athletes live for.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is the stuff that you dream about. The big shots. The big moments. The opportunity to still chase the championship,\u201d Jones said. \u201cIt\u2019s because we\u2019re still in the playoffs and now we come into a hostile environment. And it\u2019s our time now to make their fans quiet.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Liberty fans cheer during the team\u2019s game against the Mercury on Sept. 17, 2025. NBAE via Getty Images<\/p>\n
The Liberty said they don\u2019t want Wednesday\u2019s loss to be the parting image Liberty fans have from the 2025 season.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Ionescu said the Liberty did a \u201cdisservice\u201d to their fans with how they were bullied on their home court. She said the team accepted \u201cownership\u201d for that shortcoming and acknowledged, \u201cThat\u2019s not what they should have paid to come watch.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Ionescu has a personal connection with the fan base considering how she helped build it over the past five seasons. She was there for the move to Barclays Center and values fans\u2019 support through thick and thin.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThat wasn\u2019t how we play, and I think we know that,\u201d Ionescu said. \u201cSo we got to come out and take care of business tonight just to be able to give our fans another opportunity to really help us in what it is we\u2019re trying to accomplish.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re not the type of team that doesn\u2019t care,\u201d she added. \u201cAnd on a personal level, I know I care. I care about the product that we put out on the floor for them to watch, like, put in a lot of work to be able to have that type of fan base and that type of support and hopefully we can be back there pretty soon.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PHOENIX \u2014 Sabrina Ionescu said she had \u201cno reaction\u201d after hearing two Mercury players threw shade at Liberty…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":240270,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[1520,1502,62,67,132,68,232,105313],"class_list":{"0":"post-240269","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wnba","8":"tag-new-york-liberty","9":"tag-phoenix-mercury","10":"tag-sports","11":"tag-united-states","12":"tag-unitedstates","13":"tag-us","14":"tag-wnba","15":"tag-wnba-playoffs"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115233997703881688","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240269","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=240269"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240269\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/240270"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=240269"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=240269"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=240269"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}