Sabrina Ionescu matched a season high with 34 points and the New York Liberty rallied from 17 points down to beat the visiting Atlanta Dream 86-81 Tuesday night.
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Ionescu has scored 34 points in each of the last two games for the Liberty . It is the first time she’s had back-to-back 30-point games in her WNBA career. She was 12-for-20 shooting from the floor Tuesday and 4-for-8 from 3-point range.
It was the final game of the Commissioner’s Cup for both teams. The Liberty finished 4-1 in Commissioner’s Cup play, but lost the spot in the championship game to the Indiana Fever based on the Fever’s win over the Liberty on Saturday.
The Dream led 64-47 with 3:56 left in the third quarter, the biggest deficit the Liberty have faced all season, but New York upped the defensive pressure and Ionescu and Breanna Stewart led a comeback.
Stewart put the Liberty ahead 81-79 with 1:56 left in the fourth quarter on a left-handed layup and then followed with a swooping drive to the basket for two more points.
Down 84-81, Atlanta had a shot to tie it with 6.8 seconds left but Rhyne Howard’s step-back three was off target. Ionescu made two free throws with 2.2 seconds left to seal it.
Ionescu helped the Liberty take a small lead at the end of the first quarter, single-handedly going on a 7-0 run in the final 1:25 of the first to put New York ahead 24-20.
Atlanta entered the game taking 31 3-pointers per game, the most in the WNBA, and the long-distance shots started dropping in the second quarter. Rookie Te-Hina Paopao made 4 of 5 threes and tied a career high with 16 points in the first half. She did not score in the second.
Atlanta led 37-31 after two free throws by Howard with 3:58 left, but seconds later Dream leading scorer Allisha Gray went to the bench with three fouls and the Dream’s offensive flow suffered.
New York closed the first half with a spurt capped by five straight points from Stewart to pull within 43-40 at halftime. Ionescu had 20 points in the first half.
Gray finished with 14 points and Howard and Brionna Jones scored 13 apiece for Atlanta.
New York has won eight of the last nine meetings over the Dream.
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