Can Liberty return to form in must-win Game 3 of WNBA Finals? - ESPN

NEW YORK — The last time a WNBA team won back-to-back titles, the New York Liberty were on the losing end of the WNBA Finals. Can they prevent history from repeating itself?

It will be an uphill climb, but at least the Liberty will have their home crowd to help. Down 2-0 in the best-of-five series, they host the Las Vegas Aces in Game 3 of the WNBA Finals on Sunday (3 p.m. ET, ABC) at Barclays Center.

«We believe in one another,» Liberty guard Sabrina Ionescu said. «We're on home court; we play really well at home with this fan base, and we understand what's at stake.

»We're not pointing fingers and blaming anyone else for our actions. That's something that we worked on all year long: just taking ownership. Vegas did what they were supposed to do, which was protect home court. Now it's our job to do what we're supposed to do."

It will be the first WNBA Finals game in the Big Apple since Aug. 29, 2002, when the Los Angeles Sparks beat New York 71-63. That was at Madison Square Garden, the Liberty's longtime home before being bought by Brooklyn Nets owner Joe Tsai in 2019, and the Finals were a best-of-three series then.

The Sparks won Game 2 in Los Angeles 69-66 on Aug. 31, 2002. Coupled with their 2001 Finals sweep of Charlotte, the Sparks followed the four-time champion Houston Comets as back-to-back winners. No one would have guessed then that more than two decades would pass without any other WNBA team repeating.

Since 2002, the Minnesota Lynx and Seattle Storm have each won four titles, the Phoenix Mercury and the Detroit Shock three apiece. But none of those came in consecutive years. If the Aces do it, it will spark «dynasty» talk, especially considering their core four of A'ja Wilson, Chelsea Gray, Kelsey Plum and