“We had a tough shooting night,” New York Liberty coach Sandy Brondello admitted after their 95-93 Game 1 loss against the Minnesota Lynx. Her comments were more than justified on a night when Sabrina Ionescu took 26 shots, but only made 8. Analyst Rebecca Lobo criticized her ‘inefficient’ shooting and Sheryl Swoopes felt a lot of the Liberty Guard’s shots were forced. But this one failure was enough for Ionescu to learn, grow, and change her mindset immediately.

In Game 2, she began the Liberty’s scoring by converting a steal into a layup. She then added two 3s and two jumpers to that list to score 12 points in the first quarter. Ionescu finished the game with 15 points, scoring 5-of-9 (55.6%) from the field – a massive improvement over Game 1’s 30.8%. She was a game-high +20 in her 36 minutes of play. Sandy Brondello’s faith in her star player paid off.

“What I know is that Sabrina’s a competitor and she’ll get ready for Game 2 and come back stronger,” was her prediction after the loss on Thursday night. Post-game, Ionescu explained how she was able to turn around her game so quickly.

“My goal was to take what the defense gives me and not forcing anything, but understanding I’m gonna be able to drive and kick,” she told reporters. “I don’t always need to be looking to score every single time I have the ball. Just continuing to make the right read and understanding what it is that provides our best offense as a team.”

It wasn’t just Ionescu who implemented the learning from the heartbreaking Game 1 OT loss. The Liberty, as a whole, switched their play style when the Lynx posed a similar threat in the second half of Game 2.

How Sabrina Ionescu’s assessment of Game 1 helped the New York Liberty

On Saturday, Sabrina Ionescu gave an honest explanation of their Game 1 loss. In her eyes, the Minnesota Lynx didn’t do anything special but capitalize on the Liberty’s under-confident strategy. Instead of desperately attempting to hug onto their 18-point lead, they needed to continue their first-half strategy.

“You know, I think we were up maybe 15 or 18 at one point, and we slowed the game down. You know way… way too much,” she told reporters during the Saturday practice session. “I think we just got to keep playing, and that’s the strength of ours. It’s how we got up so much is by playing our style of play, and I think it’ll be a good adjustment going into the next game.”

In Game 2, Minnesota presented a similar situation to the top-seeded Liberty. In the second half, they reduced a 17-point deficit to 2. However, this time around, Breanna Stewart & Co. doubled down on their combativeness instead of letting their rivals run away with the momentum. With the score 66-68 and over 3 minutes to go in regulation, the Liberty didn’t allow the Lynx to score a single point. Their supreme defense also drew forced errors from Minnesota, which they converted to 12 points to end the game 80-66.

This is what the New York fans were expecting from their best players. When it counted, they showed up to keep the city’s dream of winning their first basketball championship in 51 years alive.