How the legend of Sabrina Ionescu was made on a Tuesday night in Minneapolis

minneapolis — Sabrina Ionescu barely remembers even taking The Shot. As the Liberty-Lynx finals game was tied at 77 and the clock was ticking down, the New York Liberty guard outplayed Kayla McBride and hit a near-logo 3-pointer to sink an unlikely winner.

Ionescu smiled for a moment, but then his expression hardened as he realized that there was still one second left in the game. The Lynx were unable to get up at the buzzer, and Liberty came away with an 80-77 come-from-behind victory to advance to Game 3 of the WNBA Finals.

The home crowd was stunned.

Before jogging to the postgame presser, Ionescu watched the clip again while in the locker room waiting for Breanna Stewart to be ready to take the podium.

“I had to go and watch the video really quickly to see how far I was,” she told reporters.

The 28-foot shot was the deepest shot either team made all night. This was also Ionsek's second 3-point shot in the final minutes of Game 3. The shot also marked Liberty's second straight win after a heartbreaking Game 1 loss in which they went just 8-for-26 from shots.

It was a moment the 19,521 fans in a sold-out Target Center in Minneapolis will never forget, and one that cemented Ionescu's legacy as the greatest player of all time.

But luck had nothing to do with it.

This was Sabrina Ionescu at her best.

“This is a shot I often take,” she said. “I take it in practice and before games. It's not like, Hurrah, I hope this works. When I took it off, I thought, 'Oh, this is it.'

What is noteworthy is that she do not have She has the best scoring game of her life. Game 3 in Minneapolis was the furthest from that. With less than a minute left, Ionescu had scored just seven points, well below his season average of 18.2 points per game. She did not attempt a single field goal in the first 10 minutes of the game.

But with 55 seconds left, she confidently made a 3-pointer to give Liberty a four-point advantage. Her next attempt, with 23 seconds left and Liberty up by two points, fell halfway before the ball popped out, a rare miss that showed she was right on target.

The go-ahead three-point shot with one second left went right into the net.

“When the timeout comes, Sandy [Brondello] “I was like, 'You're going to take the shot,'” Ionescu explained, recalling the instructions he received from his head coach. “I felt like I was able to get some distance and hit some really good shots.”

Kayla McBride, who guarded Ionescu for most of the night, didn't say much about being on the other end after the game.

McBride, who scored 19 points in the loss, said, “A great player made a good shot.'' “I protected her for 40 minutes.”

The Liberty was thus one game away from the franchise's first championship. But they aren't planning on jumping into celebration.

“I’m happy to have won,” Brianna Stewart said. “But the work is not done yet.”

The two-time MVP was no slouch in this game either. In fact, Stewart was the main reason the Liberty team was in range in the first place after falling behind by double digits early on. She had 30 points and 11 rebounds, both game highs.

Afterwards, Ionescu made sure to give her flowers.

“You can't win that game without Stewie,” she said.

Sabrina Ionescu's shot is 'never in doubt' for those who know her best

“I remember watching it go up and thinking, 'Oh my god, she's going to hit this,'” Jonquel Jones said after the win. “And I was happy.”

Fittingly, University of Oregon women's basketball coach Kelly Graves, for whom Ionescu played for four seasons in college, was also in attendance for Game 3 in Minneapolis.

He posted the winner of the match on social media with the caption, “Was there any doubt?”

The presence of family, friends and supporters made the moment even more special for Ionescu.

“Him, Sandy and all the coaches I've ever coached, just their belief and what they put into me, whether it's making a shot or missing a shot, it's all for me. It means the world,” Ionescu said. “The fact that they trusted me to go out there and make big shots is why I love playing for this team.”

Sandy Brondello echoed Graves' unwavering faith in Ionescu.

“There was never any doubt about it,” Brondello said.

Brondello gave the ball to Ionescu on the final possession largely because he knew the 26-year-old star believed in himself.

“What I like about her is that she supports me, right?” Brondello said. “Not everyone can take a big shot and make it. She can.”

Ionescu's sunny night came shortly after he was named to the All-WNBA second team, but fell just one short of the coveted first-team honor.

She was asked if she was trying to prove something with her strong play in the final moments.

“It was a great performance for the All-WNBA second team,” Ionescu said with a wicked grin.

For Courtney Vandersloot, the joy of watching her backcourt teammates grow was a great moment in itself.

“I'm really happy for her. I'm really happy for her. She's working so hard,” Vandersloot said. “She trusts herself. We trust her. And that's a really big moment that I feel brings everyone really close.”

Basketball tradition becomes solid

Sabrina Ionescu has achieved a lot in her young career. The consensus was that she was widely considered one of the greatest college athletes of all time. National Best Player Award As a senior, he is Division I basketball's all-time leader in triple-doubles. She is an Olympic gold medalist and three-time All-Star. She owns record-breaking sneakers and broke the record for most three-pointers in an All-Star Game in 2023.

And now, she is also the person responsible for firing the winning shot in the final that silenced the home crowd, eager to witness a big victory. If the Liberty can do that in Friday night's Game 4, Ionescu's shot will surely rank among the best in the history of the sport.

About two hours after the final buzzer rang, longtime Lynx fans wearing Collier jerseys stood outside the arena in disbelief. She repeated the Ionescu triple over and over again.

“I still can’t believe it happened to us,” she said.

It's a shot that will last forever.