Breanna Stewart and Sabrina Ionescu show what freedom is made of in Game 3 Comeback

Breanna Stewart is a force of nature at her best, a tornado at one end of the field and a blizzard at the other, and on Wednesday night Stewart hit the Minnesota Lynx from every possible direction. She scored, she protected the rim, she seemed to protect an entire team by herself. Stewart looked like she was going to win Game 3 for the New York Liberty on her own, and maybe she would have, but why would she do that when Sabrina Ionescu is finishing the game for you?

All Ionescu did in the final minute was a three-pointer to give the Liberty a four-point lead and then a three-pointer against the Lynx in a decisive, final-changing, cold-blooded climax of all time 2.1 seconds left.

After Minnesota missed its final shot and New York celebrated, Ionescu left the field and saw Minnesota Vikings receiver Justin Jefferson heading to the locker room. She walked over, calmly shook his hand and said, “I’m a big fan of yours.” The feeling is certainly mutual – geographic loyalties be damned.

The Liberty defeated the Lynx 80-77 to take a 2-1 lead in the WNBA Finals. It wasn’t that big Comeback as Lynx’s in Game 1but in the history of the series it could be bigger.

This was the moment the Liberty envisioned and the rest of the WNBA feared when New York signed Stewart and traded for Jonquel Jones ahead of the 2023 season.

Basically, the alliance was obviously successful. The Liberty reached the Finals last year and are one win away from the franchise’s first championship. Stewart was named First-team All-WNBA again on Monday and Ionescu and Jones made the second team.

But even if success comes quickly, it doesn’t necessarily have to be smooth. The league is too competitive. The fit on the court is not perfect. Oversized expectations are constantly knocking on their heads, asking them to come in and stay a while.

Jones, like Stewart, is a former WNBA MVP, and at times she seems like a luxury the Liberty aren’t quite sure how to utilize. In her senior year at Connecticut, Jones shot 10 two-pointers per game. This year she shot six.

Ionescu, on the other hand, came into the league with the expectations of a generational talent and, at the age of 25, was suddenly the third-most decorated player on her own team.

Ionescu is a great player. But their greatest strength is shooting, and their only real weakness is sideline speed. On a team with two former MVPs, there are games where shots are difficult to get, but their weakness is always there. The result can be a distorted image of Ionescu: On this team, she sometimes seems like a lesser player than she actually is.

That’s what happened in this series. It even happened in this game. The Lynx remain a tough opponent for freedom.

But the cool thing about basketball superteams is that the game forces them to find the ingredients that no one mentioned when they came together. Toughness. Resilience. The ability to ignore the box score and just play. Either they find those ingredients or they end the season with a loss.

The Liberty found them. Ionescu said afterwards: “That was just a great performance by the entire WNBA secondary team. “That’s it.” But that was a funny answer to a specific question. She really didn’t play Game 3 like she was trying to prove she belonged on the first team. She didn’t force shots or over-dribble.

Ionescu admitted that “I obviously didn’t play my best tonight.” She scored seven points in the first 39 minutes and somehow committed two fouls with her right hip. But Ionescu didn’t seem to either Worries about whether she was doing her best. Ionescu didn’t fire the final shot as if she needed it to save her night. She shot as if she, not Stewart, had already scored 30 points. That’s the mentality of a champion.

Also: “This shot is beautiful, but it doesn’t contradict what I do.” [Stewart] what she was able to do for us tonight and how she was able to get us back into this game.”

Shower them all with credit. Stewart was dominant. Jones always plays hard and finds ways to make an impact. Ionescu was a real eye-catcher. And coach Sandy Brondello showed absolute perfection with this group at the crucial moment of the season: a timeout with the game tied and 16 seconds left. This shows us that Brondello has built up the necessary trust along the way.

“In the timeout, Sandy was like, ‘You’re going to shoot that shot,'” Ionescu said. “I was able to separate from distance … and kind of get the space I needed to be able to make that shot.”

Ionescu also said: “It’s not like a Hail Mary, I hope that goes in. Yes, that’s in there.” That’s what Ionescu accomplished at Oregon and what she can accomplish at the highest level of basketball.

“What I love about her is that she supports herself,” Brondello said. “Not everyone can take these big shots and produce them. She can.”

She did that. Stewart did most of the damage, but Ionescu eventually had the house torn down. That was the vision two years ago: Stewie & Sabrina & Jonquel pushing each other to the top of the league. They’re not there yet. But you can certainly see it from here.