Source: David Berding / Getty
but the heavily favored
New York Liberty have found their stride.
Game 3 of the Finals as the Liberty take on the
Minnesota Lynx went down last night in the Twin Cities as both teams fought to uneven the series in front of a franchise record 19,521 fans.
And the one who put on a real show was
Breanna Stewart, redeeming herself after a Game 2 performance that saw her miss two key layups that would have won the game in regulation and another slip-up as time dwindled in overtime. Her confidence was at an all-time high this contest, though, as she began to fire on all cylinders in the second quarter. She dropped six points, which put the Liberty within eight points of the Lynx.
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Her momentum continued in the third and fourth quarters, including when she hit a groove and scored 13 straight points, a WNBA Finals record.
She ended the game with 30 points and 11 rebounds, and while she was the most impactful and efficient player, she wasn’t the Liberty player who came up clutch in the final seconds.
After the tough battle, the teams were tied at 77, with eight seconds left, as the ball was tossed to
Sabrina Ionescu after the inbounds and made a near-logo three. It left just one second on the clock for the Lynx to respond but to no avail.
In a post-game interview with ESPN’s Holly Rowe, she proclaimed that she was built for moments like this but hyped up her teammate Stewart’s performance.
“We don’t win this game without Stewie,” Ionescu
told ESPN. “What she was able to do, just continued to chip away … that [game-winning] shot’s nice, but that doesn’t go against what she’s been able to do for us tonight and how she was able to just will us back into that game.”
The Liberty are now just one win away from their first franchise championship and New York’s first in 50 years, as the Lynx fight back from a one-game deficit to continue the team’s storied history, which already includes four rings.
See how fans –including Steph Curry and Kevin Durant– reacted to the game below.
