New York Liberty guard Sabrina Ionescu scored a playoff career-high 29 points behind a franchise postseason record seven 3s to catapult the Liberty to a 90-75 victory over the Washington Mystics in Game 1 of their best-of-three first-round playoff series.
Friday’s win marked the first home playoff win for New York since 2015; after eking into the postseason last year, the Liberty transformed their roster into a super team in the offseason and are hoping to bring home the franchise’s first championship next month.
Ionescu’s seven 3s are tied for the third most in any WNBA playoff game and were the most in a playoff opener in league history.
No. 2 seed New York’s win came five days after the No. 7 seed Mystics stunned the Liberty at Barclays Center in their regular-season finale off a Brittney Sykes buzzer-beater, after which Washington guard Natasha Cloud waved goodbye to the crowd.
“They waved us off our home court last game, and we had to show them what that…
