Jonquel Jones’ WNBA Finals MVP performance saves Ice-cold Ionescu and Stewart Sabrina Ionescu’s initial stroke hit the backboard. Another one soon after struck nothing at all. After hitting one of the most legendary shots in WNBA history to win Game 3, the All-Star guard transformed into Ice-cold Ionescu for the rest of the game.
On Sunday, Ionescu went 1 for 19 from the field, and Breanna Stewart didn’t fare much better, but Jonquel Jones delivered an MVP effort to help her teammates. Jones earned the WNBA Finals honor after scoring 17 points and grabbing six rebounds in the Liberty’s 67-62 overtime victory over the Minnesota Lynx on Sunday night.
“Her dominance in the paint, on the boards, help-side defense, everything that we needed, she was there,” Stewart told the media. “She had to wait a long time to get to the finals and win a championship. “But the wait was worthwhile.” Ionescu finished with five points but had eight assists and seven rebounds. Stewart shot 4 for 15, finishing with 13 points and 15 rebounds.
“Just did whatever it took to win,” Ionescu remarked during the prize ceremony. “I believed in my colleagues and the entire company. It requires everyone. You don’t do this alone; we did it in New York.”
The Liberty assembled what they believed would be their version of a championship-winning superteam by bringing in Stewart from Seattle, where she was a two-time WNBA Finals MVP, and Jones from Connecticut, where she lost in the 2019 finals, to join Ionescu, their No. 1 choice in the 2020 draft. They led the Liberty to the WNBA Finals last year and the league’s best record this season, but it looked like they would fall short of a championship as Ionescu and Stewart continued to struggle. Ionescu began the game by missing her first 13 shots, giving her 15 consecutive misses dating back to Game 4, until ultimately connecting for the only time all night on a 3-pointer with 3:10 left to provide the Liberty with a 56-52 lead. New York had hoped to avoid Game 5 entirely after Ionescu’s 28-footer gave the Liberty an 80-77 victory in Game 3. However, she scored 5 for 16 in Game 4, missing all five three-pointers, while Stewart scored 5 for 20 for 11 points.
But Jones, who went 6-for-6, was the Liberty’s workhorse, averaging 18 points and eight rebounds throughout the series. That included 10 points in the first half Sunday to keep the Liberty near while Ionescu and Stewart combined for just five.”What makes her difficult is you’re spending a lot of time guarding Sabrina and Stewie in some of those schemes that created mismatches,” Cheryl Reeve, the Lynx coach, claimed. “But we’re going to live with some of that.”
