Sabrina Ionescu credit Spike Lee for historic evening

Ionescu’s huge second half noticed her pour in 21 factors, together with two momentum-swinging threes within the fourth quarter and 4 clutch free throws to ice the sport. 

So, what precisely propelled Ionescu to her historic evening? In her post-game information convention , Ionescu revealed {that a} “excessive 5” from Spike Lee within the third quarter gave her superwoman-esque powers. 

“Spike Lee gave me a excessive 5 as I used to be going to take the ball out of bounds, and I felt like New York was simply injected into my veins,” Ionescu stated. “At that second, I used to be like, ‘We’re successful this.’ It was simply injected and got here all through [my arms].”

Ionescu revealed Lee saved egging her on all through the sport, however a excessive 5 from him throughout a essential juncture in an in depth contest gave her the last word motivation to energy the staff to a win.

With the win, Liberty arrange a second-round conflict towards the defending champion Aces, the staff they misplaced to within the 2023 WNBA Finals. Because the rematch will get underway later this week, many analysts really feel Ionescu’s red-hot type could possibly be the X issue that tilts the collection in favor of New York. 

Ionescu can be a much-improved participant from final yr’s Finals when she tried simply 9.5 pictures per recreation within the four-game collection versus the Aces. This season, she has the last word inexperienced mild from coach Sandy Brondello, as evidenced by her making an attempt a whopping 18 threes in two video games of the primary spherical.