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The New York Liberty are one win away from their second consecutive WNBA Finals appearance, but Sabrina Ionescu knows there is still a ton of work to do.
Speaking to ESPN’s Michael Voepel after the Liberty beat the Las Vegas Aces 88-84 on Tuesday to take a 2-0 series lead in the WNBA semifinals, Ionescu said: “Being up 2-0 is great, but we haven’t won anything. We did what we were supposed to, which was protect home court.”
While no WNBA team has ever come back from an 0-2 series deficit to win a best-of-five playoff series, the Aces perhaps have a better chance to make it happen than any team in history.
Led by reigning WNBA MVP A’ja Wilson, the Aces have won back-to-back WNBA titles, including beating the Liberty 3-1 in last year’s WNBA Finals.
Wilson averaged a remarkable 26.9 points, 11.9 rebounds and 2.6 blocks per game during the regular season, meaning she is capable of taking over games and essentially pulling Vegas out of the doldrums on her own.
She is far from alone, though, as Kelsey Plum, Jackie Young and Chelsea Gray are also stars, and all of them helped Team USA win Olympic gold over the summer.
The Liberty are chock full of talent in their own right, led by two-time WNBA MVP and two-time WNBA Finals MVP Breanna Stewart, as well as Ionescu.
Although Stewart led the team in scoring during the regular season with 20.4 points per game, Ionescu has been New York’s go-to player during the playoffs thus far, averaging 24.5 points per contest.
That included a huge showing in Tuesday’s Game 2 win, as she went off for 24 points, nine rebounds and five assists.
However, as Ionescu alluded to, things figure to get tougher for the Liberty in Game 3 since the series will shift to Vegas in front of some of the most supportive and raucous fans in the WNBA.
The Liberty can take a big step toward their first-ever WNBA championship by finishing the job against the Aces, but with so much playoff and championship experience, the Aces are unlikely to go down without a fight.
