Sabrina Ionescu's reaction — fists clenched as she walked down the court — said it all, as did the MVP chants that accompanied her final free throw of the day a few minutes later.
Leonie Fiebic had just converted an and-one under the basket midway through the fourth quarter, but an assist from Ionescu — her ninth of the night — sparked it.
The Liberty was on the brink of an upset in Game 2 against the Atlanta Dream when they took an eight-point lead after a free throw, and then a 3-pointer from Fiebic on the next try extended the lead to 11, their largest lead of the game.
But on a night when Atlanta adapted to most of what went wrong in Game 1, and the Liberty struggled to replicate most of what went right, Ionescu was at the center of it all.
She scored all 36 of her playoff career-high points in a 91-82 win at Barclays Center to help the Liberty sweep the Dream and advance to the WNBA semifinals, where a rematch of the WNBA Finals with the Las Vegas Aces awaits.
Ionescu made 12 of 23 field goals and 5 of 11 3-pointers as the 2020 No. 1 overall pick earned a chance to reach the Finals again.
Eleven of her 36 points came in the third quarter, when Ionescu gave up a 3-pointer to drive, hit a layup, then a mid-range jumper and another layup.
That helped the Liberty keep pace after trailing by five at halftime and eventually rally behind Ionescu in the fourth quarter.
But up until that point, the Liberty had struggled to replicate the Game 1 blueprint.
The Dream jumped out to an early 11-3 lead, moving the ball in transition and playing efficiently on offense. Fiebic, the hero of Game 1 with a career-high 21 points, didn't score until the second half and was in foul trouble for much of the game.
Alisha Gray led the Dream with 26 points, while Rhyne Howard and Tina Charles added 19 and 14 points, respectively, helping Liberty mount a well-deserved comeback as they tried to pull away and keep their lead.
That didn't come until the fourth quarter, when Ionescu scored the final points of the game.
But after last year's franchise-record 32 wins in the regular season, a dominating Game 1 victory and a promising breakout from Fiebic, for a while it seemed like the Liberty's season, and the title hopes and ambitions that have accompanied it from the start, would be boiled down to 40 minutes on Thursday night, when the superteam and the upset-chasing Dream would clash in Atlanta for the final time.
Head coach Sandy Brondello had warned the Liberty beforehand.
She reminded them of what happened, or nearly happened, in the first round of last year's playoffs, when the seventh-seeded Mystics took Game 2 to overtime before the Liberty narrowly won.
Brondello quoted Pat Riley to his players, emphasizing the pitfalls of not preparing after a big win.
They got too close to a win-or-lose scenario much earlier than they would have liked.
“And that's the biggest danger we have,” Coach Brondello said before the game.
Her prediction was correct in the first quarter. Her prediction was correct in the first half. After that, Ionescu took control.
