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MINNEAPOLIS — After shootaround Wednesday morning, Liberty star Sabrina Ionescu went back to the spot where she made the biggest shot of her career.
Ionescu found it on the court and then looked at the basket, which stood 28 feet from where she was.
“I was just so far,” she told The Post. “I don’t know why I shot that far.”
That shot — the game-winner that Ionescu drilled to claim Game 3 of the 2024 WNBA Finals in Minnesota — goes down as one of the greatest baskets in Liberty history.
It’s perhaps second to only Teresa Weatherspoon’s 50-foot Hail Mary heave at the buzzer that saved New York from a sweep in the 1999 WNBA Finals.
“It was an epic shot and a shot that we’ve seen Sabrina do, but not in a game,” Brondello said before the Liberty’s 100-93 loss to the Lynx in which Ionescu scored 31 points.
It was hard in the immediate aftermath of that game to understand the gravity of the shot that put the Liberty up 2-1 in the best-of-five series.
Even Ionescu didn’t fully comprehend at that time “how important that shot was.”
But that shot may have saved the series for the Liberty.
“When you look back on it, without that play, they may not be champions,” Lynx coach Cheryl Reeve said. “It was that big.”
Wednesday was the Liberty’s first trip back to Target Center since Game 3 and 4 of the Finals, and Ionescu allowed herself a brief moment to relish in that memory. She also replicated her most iconic shot to finish off her morning shootaround.
“I’ve watched it so many times,” she said. “But yeah, on to the next one.”
This grueling stretch of the Liberty’s season, where the team is playing six games in 10 days, caught up to Natasha Cloud.
Cloud started to fall ill before the Liberty’s game against the Wings Monday.
She felt worse Tuesday as she dealt with cold sweats, fever, chills and head congestion.
Cloud was downgraded to questionable Wednesday morning. She stayed in bed instead of going to shootaround, but Cloud knew she was going to play regardless of how she felt.
“It was never not an option for me to play today, especially with this game and being down numbers,” said Cloud, who had 12 points, seven assists, four rebounds and two steals in 32 minutes. “This was a good reset day for us. I know we didn’t come out with a W in the win column, but behind the scenes, down three starters, without Emma, I’ll take losing by eight to a team that I feel like gave their everything tonight.”
With the Liberty-Lynx game airing on ESPN, dozens of fans held up “Pay the Players” signs to show their solidarity with the Women’s National Basketball Players’ Association as negotiations for a new collective bargaining agreement continue.
“[The fans] want us to be compensated for it and us as players, we’re gonna continue to fight to get our fair share of the pie,” Isabelle Harrison said. “And that’s a conversation that lasts even after All-Star [weekend].”
