The New York Liberty aren't where they should be this year. The team, which was predicted by the majority of WNBA GMs to meet the Las Vegas Aces in the Finals in October, is currently only 7th in the standings, and before Monday, they were on a devastating eight game losing streak that seemed like it would never end. Much of these struggles can be attributed to injuries, as Satou Sabally, Leonie Fiebich, and now Marine Johannès have missed games recently, but the team has also picked up an ugly habit of simply not playing hard, as its own players will tell you.
Things have turned around a bit for the 2024 Champions going into the All-Star break, though, as the Liberty won their last two games against the Dallas Wings and Chicago Sky by one point each. Sabrina Ionescu, the franchise's 2020 No. 1 overall draft pick and star point guard, has played huge roles in closing out each of the hard-fought wins, once again proving that she, along the highly-regarded backcourt duo of Breanna Stewart and Jonquel Jones, is the spark plug that will enable the Liberty to reach the promised land.
Ionescu has the clutch gene
Coach Becky Hammon said it herself after the Liberty took down the Aces for the 2026 Commissioner's Cup: Sabrina Ionescu loves a big moment. She thrives in them, in fact. In the Liberty's game against the Wings, the point guard only scored 9 points on an abysmal 3-20 from the field in regulation, but turned it around completely to drop 12 points on 5-5 shooting in OT to clinch the first win in nine games for her struggling side.
Just two days later, Ionescu and the Liberty faced the Sky, and, despite keeping it close for three quarters, New York began to slip, and hope was starting to fizzle out in Barclays Center. Ionescu wasn't having that though––instead, she hit acrobatic 3 after acrobatic 3 to score 9 points in the last minute of the game, spoiling a truly special night from undrafted Chicago rookie Sydney Taylor.
"We believed," Ionescu said after the game. "We stuck together through the highs, the lows. They had a run there late, and obviously, we could have just said, all right, whatever, we'll just pick it up after the break…but instead, we kind of willed this win...There wasn't a moment where I really thought we were gonna lose."
Jones, who hit the game winning free throw to end the game, said she's never really surprised at Ionescu's knack for closing out games anymore, but she's always amazed. Hammon and other Aces players said similar things after the Commissioner's Cup: it's hard to be surprised at how good a player is when they prove it over and over again when it matters.
The Liberty can turn it around
Yes, New York hasn't looked great this year, but its roster speaks for itself. Breanna Stewart has, unfortunately, been tasked with singlehandedly carrying this team through its high points so far this season, but with games like these from Ionescu, there's no telling where this team goes. For a team that has spoken so extensively about effort, these are the moments that matter: grinding out the ugly wins even when your back is against the wall.
Ionescu has been doing that for her whole career, even looking back to her Oregon days. Coach Chris DeMarco and the rest of the Liberty organization need to remember these kinds of performances going forward if the Liberty want any chance at making a deep playoff run: when Ionescu has the ball in her hands, especially late in the game, special things happen.
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