NEW YORK (AP) — It was a roller coaster regular season for the New York Liberty, who finished as the eighth-seed in the playoffs.
That didn't matter to them as they knew that the playoffs were a whole new affair.
New York pulled off a historic upset, becoming the first No. 8 seed to eliminate a No. 1 seed in the league’s 30-year history by completing the two-game sweep of the Minnesota Lynx on Tuesday night with an 87-71 victory in Game 2 of the quarterfinals.
“We know we’re not a traditional eight seed. We understand once the playoffs come, it’s a new season,” said Sabrina Ionescu. "We have more to do.”
Next up for the Liberty is a semifinals matchup against either Atlanta or Washington. The Dream are up 1-0 with Game 2 of that series on Wednesday night.
The Liberty's Big 3 of Ionescu, Breanna Stewart and Jonquel Jones were dominant on Tuesday night. The trio combined to score or assist on 70 of the team's points — one less than the Lynx had in total.
Those same three stars helped lead New York to its first championship in franchise history two years ago. Now they are looking to try and do it again, from a much harder spot. They'll have to start the best-of-five semifinals on the road again.
“We have bigger goals we want to accomplish,” Ionescu said. “Tonight we took steps in the right direction. Our best basketball is yet to come. We know there’s so much better basketball to be played."
That's a scary thing for the rest of the league.
“It feels good, we understand who we are as a team,” Jones said. “We’re not listening to outside noise, we understand that we can do a lot of great things. We feel like we can play with anybody and beat anybody. That’s the mindset we have moving forward."
A year after losing in the first round to Phoenix after going up 1-0 in that series, New York was determined not to have that happen again. They had a rough regular season with a new coach in Chris DeMarco. But the team said they were learning from their mistakes and peaking at the right time.
“Tonight showed that we have been taking those steps in the right direction,” Jones said. “Good for those things to materialize in a game that matters so much.”
The Liberty were up five points after one quarter and led 40-35 with 2:39 left in the half. New York scored nine of the final 11 points in the second quarter to go up 49-37 at the break.
New York was up 52-39 with 6:26 left in the third when Stewart drove to the basket and was hit in the face by Olivia Miles as she tried to block the shot. Stewart was down for a minute as the officials reviewed the play and upgraded the play to a flagrant-1 foul.
As Stewart walked off the court, she raised her hands to the sellout crowd of 17,593, who serenaded her with “M-V-P!” chants. Stewart hit both free throws.
Minnesota couldn’t get closer than seven points the rest of the way.
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