Welcome to the Basketball Hangover. I write about what’s happening in the WNBA daily as we try to heal from this pandemic.
Sabrina Ionescu made sure to tell us that she’s back.
(PHOTO CREDIT: Adam Hunger/AP.)
We got a rad opener to the WNBA season. Actually, a rad opening DAY but we’ll get to that in a bit.
WNBA provided us with a funky game between the Indiana Fever and New York Liberty. You wouldn’t know that these were the two worst teams in the league in the Wubble last summer. The Fever went 6-16 while the Liberty had a miserable 2-20 slate. Sabrina Ionescu was supposed to set the league on fire as a rookie last season but she was out after the third game with a severely sprained ankle. We had to wait until the next season to see her play again.
Well, she certainly didn’t disappoint!
The Liberty led for most of the second half before the Fever came back to tie it at 75. Then we had a nice back and forth between the two teams. The Fever nearly put it on ice after Kelsey Mitchell made a long J to give them an 86-82 lead with 47 seconds left.
Sabrina then made her run.
She made a three to cut the deficit to one. After Kelsey split her free throws, Sabrina tied the game with free throws of her own. Kelsey Mitchell shuffled her feet on a pump fake and the stage was set for Ionescu with five ticks left.
Sabrina got a little bit of daylight after running behind two picks and made a three with 0.4 remaining. It was an instant classic shot that we’ll remember from her. We expected big things from Sabrina but it’s still very cool to see her hit a game-winner on the WNBA’s OPENING GAME.
I didn’t pick the Liberty to go very far in the season; the league is just full of extremely talented women to the point that people think they need to expand. But with Sabrina (25-6-11 for the game) being there (as well as talented teammates like Most Improved Player Betnijah Laney, who had 30 points, and prized rookie Michaela Onyenwere, who went for 18), the Liberty should be an exciting team to watch.
They certainly gave an exciting start to the season.
Bullet Passes
And I feel like it set the tone because, following Ionescu, Diana Taurasi herself (you know, the GREATEST OF ALL-TIME IN THE WNBA) made a go-ahead three with one second left.
Yesterday the GMs in the league voted for the player they’d want to take the last shot.
They were right. 🐐 pic.twitter.com/CbQSTEGIVV
— Phoenix Mercury (@PhoenixMercury) May 15, 2021
The funny thing was that the clock had a malfunction and stopped at 6.8 seconds. They were able to fix that after replay but holy hell, Princess Diana is still getting it done after all these years.
So Seimone Augustus had retired on Friday and joined the coaching staff of the Sparks. What a career she had. There’s no doubt about Augustus becoming a member of the Basketball Hall of Fame.
Also, Sydney Wiese was traded to the Washington Mystics. That Sparks team isn’t the one your big sister knew. And it showed after the Dallas Wings waxed them.
In the remaining game, Jonquel Jones showed she’s back; she scored 26 points. The Sun still have all-world scorer DeWanna Bonner, who went for 21-7-5.
I didn’t realize the glut of guards the Dream have. They have Courtney Williams and Chennedy Carter as the incumbents but they had also signed Odyssey Sims last March. And remember that they drafted NCAA tourney darling Aari McDonald (who only scored a single point in 16 minutes). I feel like something has to be done with this jam.
WNBA Scoreboard
May 14, 2021
Watch This Play
So let’s see that Sabrina three again.
SABRINA FOR THE WIN. ICE COLD ❄️ pic.twitter.com/XEHFXemqGv
— ESPN (@espn) May 15, 2021
We had waited for this. But you know who waited for this more than us? Sabrina Ionescu did.
Everyone, please take care of yourselves during this pandemic. And that goes for everyone involved with the WNBA as well.
You can find Rey-Rey on Twitter at @TheNoLookPass.
You can also check out Rey-Rey’s podcast, Rey-Rey Is Fundamental, for more basketball content and, really, whatever else.
R.I.P. Nala.