Throughout this season, Sabrina Ionescu has detailed the changes she made to her game after the poor offensive performance in the Liberty's loss to the Las Vegas Aces in the WNBA Finals a year ago.
But perhaps the biggest flaw the All-Star guard needed to eradicate after that botched performance had to do with her mindset.
Ionescu believes he's in a better frame of mind after his first experience aboard the Liberty's return trip to the championship round against the Minnesota Lynx, which begins Thursday night at Barclays Center.
“Just having that experience, I felt like a deer in the headlights last year. I didn't know what it was like to play in the finals,” Ionescu said Wednesday after practice in Brooklyn. . “Everything was going very fast for me and it was going very fast on the court.
“Slowing down the clock, playing at your own pace, understanding what a final series feels like, not getting too high, not getting too low, all of those things become really important over the course of a game and a series. Masu” “
Ionescu was held to just 9.8 points per game on 12-of-38 shooting (31.6 percent) in the Ribs' four-game losing streak to the Aces.
She said her focus in the offseason was to improve her first step and ability to beat defenders off the dribble to make attacks less predictable.
The former Oregon State star averaged 20.7 points and shot 48.9 percent from the floor in six playoff games against Atlanta and Las Vegas this year.
That includes bouncing back from a four-point loss in Game 3 to the Aces, who scored 22 points in Sunday's series decider.
“My first Finals is my biggest stage in the WNBA so far,” said teammate Brianna Stewart, a two-time NBA champion during her time in Seattle. “Everything was really high-end and I think for Sabu, making it to the finals for the first time was like the first Olympics, you never know what’s going to happen.
“And now she's ready. She's ready for the challenge, and we all still have a bad taste in our mouths and want to change that.”
Ionescu, 26, believes so too, especially knowing the effort he put in to fight for the first league title of his career again.
“It took a while after that. [last season ended]” she said. “I had to rehab a little bit. I had a little bit of an injury so I knew I had a long offseason and I knew I needed my body to be at full strength and I didn't want to rush ahead. I took some time to understand and recover physically and mentally.
“I was able to forget about last year and focus on what I needed to do to get better. …I think I figured it out through the last series, and I just kept looking for ways to get it done.” .”
