Sabrina Ionescu and the Liberty hope to raise the roof at Barclays Center Sunday for Game 1 of the WNBA semifinals vs. Connecticut. Photo by Brandon Todd/New York Liberty
The Connecticut Sun have been here time and again.
The New York Liberty haven’t.
That won’t mean much Sunday afternoon at Downtown’s Barclays Center when the second-seeded Liberty host the No. 3 seed Sun in Game 1 of the best-of-five WNBA semifinals.
The Sun (2-1) needed a 90-75 win in Minnesota Wednesday night to advance to their fifth consecutive appearance in the semis just one night after the Liberty (2-0) completed their hard-fought sweep of Washington here to advance to the league’s Final Four for the first time since 2015.
Connecticut, which lost the WNBA Finals to Las Vegas last year, will arrive on the corner of Atlantic and Flatbush this weekend boasting the league’s all-time leader in triple-doubles, Alyssa Thomas, and star forward DeWanna Bonner, who has amassed 1,000 career playoff points.
Thomas put up a career high-tying 28 points to go with 12 assists and six rebounds and Bonner added 25 points and 10 boards Wednesday as the Sun proved once again that they are among the WNBA elite.
“I think that we’re a group that knows that we have really good pieces, a good core, an experienced core, who has won a lot of games, been to championships as well,” said WNBA Coach of the Year Stephanie White.
The Liberty, tabbed the league’s newly formed “Super Team” and a favorite to reach the WNBA Finals for the first time in 21 years since the offseason, are still relishing their first series win together following a thrilling 90-85 overtime victory against the Mystics here Tuesday.
“It feels really good that it felt like a real team win,” said New York point guard Courtney Vandersloot after draining two big shots to put her team in front for good during the extra session.
“Those feel different, and it can start a run,” she added. “It can start momentum. But…
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