Sabrina Ionescu scored 29 points and lifted the Liberty and the Barclays Center crowd to a Game 1 win over Washington. Photo by Brandon Todd/New York Liberty
The New York Liberty are one win away from winning their first postseason series since 2015.
They’d like nothing better than to do it right here in Brooklyn Tuesday night.
Fresh off a convincing victory in their playoff opener, the Liberty will look to complete a sweep of their best-of-3, opening-round series with the Washington Mystics at Downtown’s Barclays Center.
“The crowd was so loud,” Liberty coach Sandy Brondello beamed as she could barely hear above the din during post-game television interviews.
“We want to protect our home court. We don’t want to go back to Washington (for Game 3 on Friday).”
They won’t have to if they play as well as they did in their first postseason home win since Game 1 of their 2015 clash with the Mystics when they still called Madison Square Garden their home.
New York (1-0) won that series in three games, but assured itself of at least one chance to close out Washington (0-1) here Tuesday.
“To win this first game at home is huge,” All-Star guard Sabrina Ionescu gushed after knocking down a franchise-record seven 3-pointers en route to a game-high 29 points in Game 1.
Though they fell behind, 29-23, after the first quarter, the Liberty held Washington to 18 points or fewer in each of the next three periods.
“Our defense is why we are where we are at this point,” noted Brondello as New York held the Mystics to a stone-cold 5-of-22 performance from 3-point range.
Ionescu spearheaded New York’s long-range attack as the Liberty drained a dozen 3s.
She also ended any hope of a Washington comeback by drilling back-to-back shots from beyond the arc to stretch a tenuous lead to 77-65…
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