August has been a particularly rough shooting month in an overall inefficient season for Sabrina Ionescu. While she’s still averaging 14.3 points per game for the month, she is shooting just 37.4% from the field and 23.2% from deep.
It was especially concerning in her last two games. She scored just seven points on 2-12 shooting from the field and 1-9 on 3-pointers in a costly 79-60 loss to the Golden State Valkyries and their stifling defense. The New York Liberty bounced back as a team, taking down the Chicago Sky 85-66, but Ionescu continued to struggle. She missed all ten of her shots and scored just two points.
The Liberty may be able to overcome that kind of shooting slump from Ionescu against the Sky, but they will need her to score better in the playoffs. Otherwise, they may have to endure another early postseason exit and some uncomfortable questions about the future of the team’s big three.
Since Ionescu did not make Team USA’s roster for the World Cup in Berlin, she will get a lengthy break to work her way out of her shooting struggles and rest before the final four regular-season games and the playoffs. She may still be dealing with some lasting effects of back and foot injuries that kept her out of games earlier in the season, so a break should be beneficial.
Sabrina Ionescu isn’t worried
Shooting slumps, even lengthy ones, happen, and Ionescu knows that. So, she was able to shrug off the 0-for-10 shooting performance against the Sky.
“We’re just kind of laughing about it,” Ionescu said after the game, per a video on the Liberty’s YouTube channel. “It’s not that big of a deal to me. I know who I am. I know what I’m able to do. Kind of felt like the ball was allergic to the rim there for me. It’s literally just toilet bowling out … They’re not bad misses. They’re just literally popping out. Sometimes, you just gotta laugh and shake it off. I’m not worried.”
Ionescu has never been the most efficient scorer, shooting just 40.5% from the field for her career, but her 29.5% from deep this season is a career low, and New York needs more from her to stand a chance in the playoffs.
The Liberty enter the playoffs with too many concerns
The Liberty could finish the regular season anywhere between fifth and eighth place depending the last few games. That’s not great for a team that kept the core that won a championship just two years ago mostly intact. The only starter from the championship roster that’s not with the team anymore is Betnijah Laney-Hamilton. So far, the team has done little to inspire confidence that it can win a first-round series against the Minnesota Lynx, Golden State Valkyries, or Las Vegas Aces, although NaLyssa Smith’s injury could level the playing field in the latter matchup a bit.
The Liberty have a lot working against them. For one, Satou Sabally is very unlikely to return from her injury at this point, and even if she did, she probably wouldn’t be in a position to be a game-changer. Moreover, one of their starting guards is a rookie, and Chris DeMarco has never coached in the WNBA playoffs before, while the top three teams they may face in the first round are coached by arguably the three best coaches in the league.
Most importantly, you never know which version of this Liberty team will show up. They could be firing on all cylinders in one game and completely fall apart on both ends of the floor in the next. That inconsistency does not win playoff series.
The possibility of another first-round exit, which would then prompt questions about whether the big three needs a shakeup, is very real, even if Ionescu shakes off her shooting struggles.
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