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MINNEAPOLIS — Sabrina Ionescu hit a tiebreaking 3-pointer with 1 second left and Breanna Stewart scored 30 points to help the New York Liberty beat the Minnesota Lynx 80-77 on Wednesday night, taking a 2-1 lead in the WNBA Finals.
With the game tied at 77, Ionescu had the ball and dribbled around before pulling up a few steps behind the arc and hitting from 28 feet to break the tie.
“I didn’t really remember it. I had to look at the video real quickly and see how far I was,” Ionescu said. “In the timeout Sandy (Brondello) was like, ‘You’re going to shoot the shot.’ I feel like I was able to get a little separation in range. Get a really good shot to go. I let the shot clock wind down and got the space.”
The Liberty erased a 15-point deficit — marking the third-largest comeback in WNBA Finals history, with the largest coming in Game 1 — to move one victory from winning their first title. Game 4 is Friday night in Minnesota, with a deciding fifth game in New York on Sunday if necessary.
Stewart scored 22 of their 45 points in the second half.
“We don’t win this game without Stewie,” Ionescu said. “There’s nothing I can say. That shot’s nice, but what (Stewart) was able to do for us tonight willed us back into the game.”
Minnesota didn’t get a real shot to tie at the buzzer.
“Great player made a good shot,” Minnesota guard Kayla McBride said. “I guarded her for 40 minutes.”
The Liberty have appeared in the finals five times before, including last season, and lost each one.
Trailing 73-69 with 2:26 left in the fourth quarter, the Liberty scored eight straight points, including the first five by Jonquel Jones. Ionescu, who had a relatively quiet game, then hit another 3-pointer after a Lynx miss to make it 77-73 with 55.5 left.
Bridget Carleton got the Lynx within 77-75 with a layup 21 seconds later. On New York’s next possession, Ionescu had a 3-pointer go halfway through the basket before popping out and Minnesota got the rebound. Napheesa Collier was then fouled with 16 seconds left and hit both free throws to tie it setting up the exciting finish.
The Liberty led for just 2 minutes and 19 seconds, the second-shortest amount of time leading in a Finals win in WNBA history. In Game 2 of the 1999 Finals, the Liberty led the Comets for just 2:15 before winning on Teresa Weatherspoon’s game-winning buzzer-beater.
Collier finished with 22 points and McBride 19 for Minnesota. Collier now has 249 points in the 2024 playoffs, passing Diana Taurasi (245) in 2009 for the most in a single postseason in WNBA history.
The Lynx flipped the script of the first two games, building a double-digit lead in the first half. Minnesota, which only led for just over three minutes in the first two contests, was up 60-50 with 2:28 left in the third quarter before the Liberty closed to 62-61 by the end of the period. Stewart scored the final five points, including a three-point play with 19 seconds left.
She then scored the first eight points for New York in the fourth quarter, tying the game at 69 with another three-point play with 6:18 left.
Carleton hit two free throws to break the tie 12 seconds later. Neither team would score again until Courtney Williams hit a baseline pullup with 2:26 left to give the Lynx a four-point advantage.
With her game-winning 3, Ionescu passed Crystal Robinson (62) for the most career 3-point makes in the playoffs in Liberty history. She also brought her total 3-point total this postseason up to 28, tying her franchise-record 28 in last year’s playoffs. That’s tied for the fifth most in a single postseason in WNBA playoff history.
ESPN Research and The Associated Press contributed to this report.