It unfolded in slow-motion. Trailing 68-64 with 1:50 left, Sabrina Ionescu dribbled to her right, off a ball-screen from Breanna Stewart at the top of the key. The New York Liberty had cleared out a side for the two to operate, and as soon as two Las Vegas Aces defenders staggered towards Ionescu, 17,000 fans at the Barclays Center braced, rather than jumped, for what was to follow.
Stewart won her second WNBA MVP award during her first season in New York, matching the two Finals MVPs already tethered to her name. Her victorious case was anchored by four forty-point games — tying the career-record for 40-burgers in just one season of hoops — and a whole host of other scoring outbursts.