Caitlin Clark was named to the All-WNBA First Team, Sabrina Ionescu declined

MINNEAPOLIS – Being one of the key cogs on the WNBA’s best team during the regular season is quite an accomplishment.

In the case of a Liberty star, earning a spot on the All-WNBA First Team simply isn’t enough.

Sabrina Ionescu received 15 first team votes and 43 second team votes from the media and leads the second team with 204 points, missing the top team by 52 points.

This was despite a season in which she finished in the top 10 in goals scored per game, was in the top 12 in field goals made, ranked fourth in 3-pointers made and fifth in assists per game game occupied.

The league announced the results Wednesday afternoon before the Liberty faced the Lynx in Game 3 of the WNBA Finals, with the series ending in a 1-1 tie. It is the third year in a row that Ionescu has been relegated to the second team.

Teammate Breanna Stewart, a two-time MVP, received her sixth First Team Award. She was joined by Lynx star and 2024 Defensive Player of the Year Napheesa Collier, 2024 MVP A’ja Wilson of the Aces, Rookie of the Year Caitlin Clark of the Fever and five-time All-Star Alyssa Thomas of the Suns. Liberty teammate Jonquel Jones joined Ionescu on the second team.

Players receive five points for first team votes and three points for second team votes.

Clark received 52 of a possible 67 first-team votes and 302 total points. She was the first rookie to make the first team since Candace Parker in 2008.

“Of course all the awards are great for our players. “It’s great to see the three of them there,” head coach Sandy Brondello said before the game. “Kind of surprised that Stewie got two votes for the second team. I won’t go into it, but Sabrina, I thought she had a really good year. Could have gone into the first team but I think their first half of the year was wonderful. Assuming there was a bit of a low point when she had to miss a few games and couldn’t find a rhythm, then maybe that slowed her down a bit. But overall she had a great year and is a young player who is only getting better.”

Ionescu improved on her impressive season in the playoffs.

She averaged 18.2 points per game in the regular season, but increased that to 19.8 in the playoffs. Her rebounds have increased from 4.4 to 5.0, her steals from 1.0 to 1.9 and she has improved her shooting – 39.4 to 45.5 from the field, 33.3 to 43.9 from 3 -Point shots and 89.8 to 91.3 at the free throw line.

But it’s not their snub in the first team that has fueled the extra production.

“No, I just found out yesterday,” Ionescu said Wednesday at the Liberty shootaround at Target Center when asked if her snub was playoff motivation. “To be honest, I don’t really care about awards like that. I just want to do the best I can and help my team win, regardless of the first team, the second team or whatever.

“I think I understand what I bring to this team and obviously to this league. Regardless, I just want to do my best every night. So of course I am grateful and honored for the award I received. But of course I want to be the best and perform like that every night.”

Ionescu reacted to the news with some disappointment given her strong season.

The 2020 No. 1 overall pick ranked ninth in the league in points per game (18.2) and fifth in assists per game (6.2) this season.

She was more dominant in the first half of the season before winning her first gold medal during the month-long Olympic break, which may have hurt her in the voting.

In July, she averaged 23.2 points and shot 42 percent.

She added a perimeter threat to her game and scored more goals from inside than from outside, something the 5-foot-11 defender emphasized during the offseason to avoid being what she described as “one-dimensional.”

In September, during the regular season, her scoring numbers dropped to just 12.3 points per game and she shot 30 percent both overall and from distance.

However, things quickly took a turn in the playoffs, particularly when she scored a playoff career-high 36 points in Game 2 against the Dream in the first round.

Twenty-one of these points also came from inside the paint.

The three-time All-Star is averaging 19.8 points on 45 percent shooting in the playoffs – a significant jump from the Liberty’s playoff run to the Finals in 2023, in which Ionescu shot just 39 percent from the field and averaged 13 points.

In the four games it took the Aces to defeat the Liberty in the WNBA Finals a year ago, they averaged just 9.8 points and were overwhelmed by the Aces’ backfield of Kelsey Plum, Chelsea Gray and Jackie Young.

This year she has found her spots and is competing with Courtney Williams and Kayla McBride of the Lynx.

Ionescu is currently averaging 17 points, four assists and three steals against the Lynx in the best-of-five series, which ends in a 1-1 tie.