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The New York Liberty and Sabrina Ionescu had revenge on their minds in these WNBA playoffs. On Sunday, Ionescu had a big game to help the Liberty close out the Las Vegas Aces in four games and avenge their loss in the WNBA Finals a year ago.
Ionescu had a team-high 22 points and seven rebounds in the 76-62 win, responding well after a brutal Game 3 in which she made just one basket. After the game, Ionescu made sure to let her teammates know that the job is not finished yet.
“WE’RE NOT DONE YET!”
— Sabrina Ionescu after closing out the Aces and advancing to the WNBA Finals 🗣️
— ClutchPoints (@ClutchPoints) October 6, 2024
The job may not be finished, but the Liberty got a whole lot closer to their end goal on Sunday by knocking out the two-time defending WNBA Champions.
New York put together a convincing win in Game 1, which they earned with the best regular season record in the league, and then squeaked out a back-and-forth nail biter in Game 2 to take a commanding 2-0 lead.
The Aces responded admirably in Game 3, as you would expect a championship team to do. They amped up the pressure on Ionescu and completely took her out of the game on defense, and used a monster third quarter run to secure their first victory of the series. The Liberty entered Game 4 trying to avoid becoming just the second team (out of 19) to lose Games 3 and 4 after winning Games 1 and 2 in a best-of-five series, and they played a great game on both ends to close things out.
Ionescu led the offense, but the Liberty had four starters score in double figures and also got eight points from Courtney Vandersloot off the bench. Defensively, they held the Aces to just under 33% shooting from the field. Las Vegas' 62 points are their lowest total of the season, regular season or playoffs.
Ionescu and the Liberty will now await their Finals opponent, which will be either the Connecticut Sun or the Minnesota Lynx. The series will begin on Thursday, Oct. 10.
