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An accurate shooter will find a way even in dire predicaments, as New York Liberty's Sabrina Ionescu professed while posting her impressive put-back shot on her knees from the floor. Ionescu commented on the clip posted on X, formerly Twitter, following the Liberty's 98-85 win versus the Seattle Storm.
“If you can shoot,” Ionescu said. “You can shoot.”
If you can shoot you can shoot 🤣🤣 https://t.co/tCa4pSntDX
— Sabrina Ionescu (@sabrina_i20) August 31, 2024
While leading 85-77 with 5:03 left in the fourth quarter, Ionescu's impressive put-back shot from her knees felt like a dagger to the heart of the Storm's eight-point deficit before the Liberty cruised to a 13-point win. Breanna Stewart led with a game-high 32 points, five rebounds and six assists, while Ionescu added 25 points on 7-of-16 attempts, including 3-for-8 from deep, eight rebounds, and eight assists in the Liberty's win.
“It was the most open I've been all night, so I decided to go for it,” Ionescu said after the game, per Athlon Sports. “To be honest, I didn't realize I was on the ground. I saw the basket, and it looked good… I'll take it. Shooters shoot.”
The Liberty are 8-2 in their last ten games and are in first place with a 3.5-game lead ahead of the Connecticut Sun.
The Liberty remains in first place toward the end of the regular season
With seven games left in the regular season, the Liberty sits comfortably in first place in the WNBA standings. After their recent 72-64 loss to the second-placed Connecticut Sun, the Liberty beat the Phoenix Mercury 84-70 before losing to the Los Angeles Sparks 94-88, to which Liberty head coach Sandy Brondello found a silver lining.
Thanks to Sabrina Ionescu's consistency and Breanna Stewart's string of dominant performances of late, including her 32-point performance against the Sparks before duplicating her scoring output in Friday's win. Stewart has scored a combined 64 points in back-to-back games.
“We've built a level of trust where we can dissect the harder things, talk it through, and nobody's going to take it personally,” Stewart said, per CT Insider. “That just translates to the court. We all are motivated to have team success and be better than we were last year.”
“Having more time under our belt, the moments that could get really tough and go the other way, we kind of embrace that a little bit more.”
In Stewart's second year with New York, she and the Liberty will look to return to the WNBA Finals in hopes of avenging their 3-1 loss in the best-of-seven series against the Las Vegas Aces in 2023.
