New York gets back on track thanks to a pair of career-highs from Sabrina Ionescu

“It’s you versus you in everything that you do,” Liberty guard Sabrina Ionescu famously said back in 2020. Since then, the former Oregon standout has been injured, recovered, been the youngest player in WNBA history to record a triple-double, made the playoffs, landed a spot on Forbes’ 30-Under-30 list, and now she can add two more bullet points to her resume.

In a battle versus self, sometimes players’ struggles are out of their control, the basketball gods stepping in to challenge them with nagging injuries and surprise forced sabbaticals. For Ionescu, a tight hamstring from last Sunday’s loss could have benched her against the Dream, but that didn’t happen. In fact, she ended up with a career high 37 points, and a franchise record eight 3-pointers. In the first half she was four of six from deep, scoring 23 of her eventual 37. With this effort by Ionescu in Atlanta, the New York Liberty picked up their fifth win of the 2023 season, toppling the Dream 106-83. 

After a midweek cancellation at home due to the smoke from Canadian wildfires, the Liberty traveled south to pick up a win after their second loss of the season last Sunday. The squad was set to play the last-place Lynx on Wednesday, a win that would have propelled them forward to the weekend. A heartbreaking 86-82 loss at home to the Chicago Sky on Sunday saw them blow a 19-point lead. Collin Loring embodied the energy of the crowd the end of that game:

“. . . they serenaded themselves – and themselves alone – with chants of ‘Refs you suck! Refs you suck!’ This, mind you, in response to a game where the streaking Liberty blew multiple double-digit leads, committed 16 turnovers and allowed two different opponents to go inferno in the third and fourth quarters, scoring 17 and 10, respectively.”

The refs continued to be a nuisance for the superteam Liberty Friday at the Gateway Center Arena. There were a lot of whistles blown, and the Liberty were 18 of 19 from the line in the first half. When the refs may have interfered with game play, the Liberty were forced to find rhythm within themselves. Quoth Breanna Stewart: "I don't think we noticed it that much. We want to continue to put pressure on the rim because it'll open our three-point shooting." She noted the 21-21 foul count was even.

When you have a player notching career- and franchise-highs and key members of the roster stepping up consistently, the calls by those refs should not matter too much. As Ionescu noted, at a certain point it becomes a battle with the self: “It’s you versus you in everything that you do.” For a team with such tremendous talent, the squad has to challenge themselves to play at the highest caliber, no matter the opponent.

The Liberty came out firing on all cylinders, outscoring the Dream 26-17 in the first quarter and 35-22 in the second. The Dream were able to put up 21 to the Lib’s 16 in the third; coming out of the locker room, the Liberty are going to need to continue to gain momentum to close out games, which they did in the fourth,  outscoring the Dream 29–23. The Liberty will be back in action on Sunday, June 11, at Barclays for the Pride game against the Dallas Wings.