Sabrina Ionescu has detailed throughout this season the changes she made in her game following a poor offensive showing in the Liberty’s loss to the Las Vegas Aces in the WNBA Finals one year ago.
But perhaps the biggest flaw the All-Star guard needed to eradicate after that failed performance had to do with her mindset.
Ionescu believes she is in a better headspace following that first-time experience entering the Liberty’s return trip to the championship round against the Minnesota Lynx beginning Thursday night at Barclays Center.
“Just having that experience under my belt, last year I felt like a deer in headlights, not knowing what it felt like to play in a finals,” Ionescu said after practice Wednesday in Brooklyn. “Everything was moving really fast for me, and in turn on the court it was moving really fast.
“Just to be able to slow down time, play at my own pace, and understanding what a finals series feels like, not getting too high or too low, all of those things really add up in the course of a game and in a series.”
Ionescu was held to just 9.8 points per game on 12-for-38 shooting (31.6 percent) in the Libs’ four-game loss to the Aces.
She has said her offseason focus was to improve her first step and her ability to beat defenders off the dribble in order to become less predictable offensively.
The former Oregon star has averaged 20.7 points and shot 48.9 percent from the floor in six playoff games this year against Atlanta and Las Vegas.
That includes bouncing back from a 4-point effort in a Game 3 loss to the Aces with 22 points in Sunday’s series clincher.
“When it’s your first finals, this is the biggest stage that you’ll ever be on in the WNBA,” said teammate Breanna Stewart, a two-time NBA champion earlier in her career with Seattle. “Everything is really high-end, and I think for Sab, her first finals trip was like her first Olympics, you kind of don’t know what to expect.
“And now she’s ready. She’s ready for the challenge, and we all kind of have that bad taste still in our mouth that we want to change.”
The 26-year-old Ionescu believes that, too, especially knowing the work she’s put in to compete again for the first league title of her career.
“I took some time after [last season ended],” she said. “I had to rehab a little bit. I was injured a little bit, so I took some time to just heal physically, mentally, understanding the offseason is long and not wanting to get ahead of myself, knowing what my body needed to be at full force.
“I put my last year behind me and was able to focus on what I needed to be better. … I think you’ve been able to see that through the last series, just continuing to find a way to get it done.”