The No. 8 New York Liberty shockingly swept the No. 1 seed Minnesota Lynx in the first round best-of-three series on Tuesday. The Liberty became the first WNBA team in playoff history to sweep a No. 1 seed in the first round. One of New York's stars of the series was Sabrina Ionescu, who helped lead the team to its first and only WNBA title in 2024.
She posted 18 points, seven assists and four rebounds in the 87–71 Game 2 win. Although it surprised WNBA fans that the Liberty upset the Lynx that easily and quickly, Ionescu wasn't shocked at all. She knew her team had the capability of advancing in the playoffs despite their seeding.
"We know we're not a traditional eight seed," Ionescu said, via Yahoo! "We understand once the playoffs come, it's a new season and we got to do what we got to do. We got to come out, turn the page and be the best team that we can be.
And obviously this arena [Barclays Center] helped us tonight." Of course, the Liberty has their sights on winning a second championship now that they've advanced to the semifinals. Ionescu told reporters after the game on Tuesday night that the Liberty's "best basketball is yet to come." "To do whatever it takes to win, no matter what," Ionescu said. "We understood the job wasn't finished.
We had to finish this series. And now we got to go on to the next and do the exact same thing." If the Liberty want a real chance at winning the title, then they'll have to keep the same mindset they had coming into the Lynx series: focus on holding the stars to limited points. The Lynx's top scorer of the season was Olivia Miles (19.8 ppg), but the Liberty held her to 11 points and five points, respectively.
The Liberty will face the winner of the Atlanta Dream–Washington Mystics series. The biggest obstacle the Liberty will face against either one of these teams is their respective defenses. The Dream has Angel Reese, who led the league in rebounds (12.1 per game) and placed third with steals (1.8 per game) this season.
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