All the Pieces Are Coming Together Just in Time for the Battle-Tested Liberty

Sabrina Ionescu’s nose was scrunched, making room for her upturned lip. She squinted, mean-mugging, as she glided back down the Barclays Center court during a decisive Game 2 in the opening round, her ponytail swinging triumphantly behind her. The Brooklyn crowd hadn’t seen this version of Ionescu yet in the 2026 season: cocky, swaggering, in a flow state. She’d just drained a deep contested three-pointer, stretching the Liberty’s lead over the Lynx to 14 points in the dwindling seconds of the third quarter. There was a whole frame left to play, but Ionescu’s intrepid heave from beyond the arc might as well have been a dagger, sealing Minnesota’s fate.

New York became the first No. 8 seed to knock off a No. 1 seed in WNBA postseason history, and it did so in convincing, devastating fashion. As Ionescu quickly pointed out, the Liberty aren’t your average No. 8 seed. This is the much-heralded superteam after all. And while their capes may have some rips and tatters from four seasons of heroics in Gotham, the Big Three of Ionescu, Jonquel Jones and Breanna Stewart can still summon their superpowers.

Ionescu started in 30 games during the Liberty’s 26–18 regular season. An early ankle injury, then lingering back soreness, kept the star guard sidelined in stretches throughout the campaign. Slowly working her way back to full fitness, Ionescu looked like an impeded interpretation of her champion self. It’s been a trying spell for the 28-year-old, as the 2024 Olympic gold medalist was not selected to represent Team USA at this year’s FIBA World Cup. Still, she kept her head down, shooting 27.4% from three and averaging 14.4 points per game after the All-Star break (lower than any of her regular-season averages since 2021). But despite all that baggage, a different Ionescu showed up to Barclays Center on Tuesday for Game 2. She drained four of her 10 attempted three-pointers, putting up 18 points and seven assists in the 87–71 win over the Lynx.

“This was a tough year for us, with injuries, with a lot of other stuff going on, and I feel like we’ve been trending in the right direction for a while now, and it doesn’t always show up in the wins and losses,” Liberty coach Chris DeMarco said after his side closed out the first-round series.

Amid the absences and injuries (including to Ionescu), the Liberty had their constant in Stewart. For all the talk about sacrifice and sharing the stage on a team littered with elite talent, Stewart is first on the call sheet. This is her team. As such, she set the tone on both ends of the floor, putting herself on the MVP shortlist (alongside favorites A’ja Wilson and Olivia Miles), averaging 20.8 points per game while shooting 47.4% from the field. She shapeshifted into a workhorse this year, playing 139 minutes across six games for Team USA during September’s FIBA World Cup and ranking fourth in the WNBA in minutes played per game this season (33). Then, she clocked 78 minutes across New York’s two playoff games against the Lynx. The extra mileage appeared worth it, with Stewart scoring 34 points and hauling in 12 rebounds in Game 1, delivering a portentous haymaker on Minnesota’s home court.

“For these moments, and her ability to lift her teammates, and what she does for us on the defensive end and late shot clocks, and just ability to rebound and go, we feel we need her on the floor, and it’s that time,” DeMarco said. “We manage it all season for this.”

Rounding out the Liberty’s tripod is, of course, Jones, who quietly is one of the most decorated players in the WNBA. She is the only player in league history to win regular season MVP, Finals MVP, Commissioner’s Cup MVP and All-Star MVP. While her trophy cabinet is ostentatious, Jones is not. She prefers to go about her business discreetly, putting opponents on the ropes before they realize they have been punched. Jones scored the Liberty’s first seven points in Game 2 and finished with 21 points and 13 rebounds, her 22nd career postseason double-double, which bodes well for New York. The Liberty hold a .706 winning percentage when Jones posts a double-double.

Jonquel Jones vs DeWanna Bonner — After closing out the regular season with back-to-back losses against the Dream, Jonquel Jones (right) and the Liberty will hope they can adjust against Atlanta in the semifinals. | Wendell Cruz/Imagn Images

Jones benefited from (and helped facilitate) the Liberty’s ball movement on Tuesday, which has, at times, eluded New York throughout an inconsistent regular season. The squad had yet to string together complete performances under first-year coach DeMarco, but the first-round series featured consecutive comprehensive, unwavering outings from the Liberty.

“I think we’ve learned how to control our emotions and control our expectations and understand it’s the WNBA,” Jones said after Game 2. “Every team that we play against are super talented, and they are going to be able to make runs, and it’s how we respond to those runs and how we claw back as a team.”

The WNBA Finals tend to benefit the battle-tested. Just look at last year’s champions, the Aces. Before their 16-game winning streak to finish out the season, Las Vegas held a .500 record and had just endured an embarrassing 53-point loss to the Lynx before turning things around. While this year’s Liberty don’t have that kind of late-season momentum on their résumé, like the 2025 Aces, they have a trio of stars accustomed to elevating under the sport’s brightest lights.

Yet another postseason lesson to glean from the dynastic Aces (one New York learned the hard way in 2023): chemistry matters. Las Vegas upstaged the new and improved Liberty in the Finals during Stewart and Jones’s first postseason in New York. Yes, the Liberty had assembled the equivalent of the WNBA Avengers, but the Aces had their own stars, and they were well acquainted and knew how to play together. That intimacy proved invaluable amid the relentlessness of postseason basketball.

Three seasons and one championship later, the Liberty now know of the alchemy that the Aces spoke of in 2023. Ionescu, Stewart and Jones have come painfully close and fallen short together, stood next to each other on the Canyon of Heroes under a shower of ticker tape and been with each other through injury and last year’s disappointing first-round playoff exit.

This history and rapport may be the Liberty’s most critical advantage over their semifinal opponent, the Dream. New York’s size and length edge against Minnesota might fade against Atlanta, but chemistry and veteran know-how could help lead the Liberty past a red-hot Dream side. Yes, Rhyne Howard and Allisha Gray have played four seasons together, but Angel Reese is new to Atlanta this year. Plus, their first-round defeat of the Mystics marked the Dream’s first playoff series win since 2013. The semifinals are uncharted territory for many on the Dream, not so for the Liberty. New York’s postseason experience very well could be the x-factor for the series–the Liberty will certainly hope so as they capped off the regular season with back-to-back losses to Atlanta.

But if the first round was any indication, regular-season Liberty and postseason Liberty are two different teams. The beauty of New York’s starlit roster is that a different player could take over a game on any given night. But to survive and advance, the Liberty will need Ionescu to make big shots, Jones to assert herself and Stewart to get it done on both ends, as the trio did against the Lynx.

“Our best basketball is yet to come,” Ionescu assured after Game 2. If that’s the case, then this superteam may have another high-flying act up its sleeve.

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