{"id":650986,"date":"2026-05-18T20:29:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-18T20:29:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/650986\/"},"modified":"2026-05-18T20:29:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-18T20:29:08","slug":"sabrina-ionescu-is-about-to-make-the-new-york-liberty-even-scarier","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/650986\/","title":{"rendered":"Sabrina Ionescu is about to make the New York Liberty even scarier"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Through four games without Sabrina Ionescu, the 2026 New York Liberty are averaging exactly 100 points per game.<\/p>\n<p>Now they&#8217;re set to welcome her back.<\/p>\n<p>The Liberty don&#8217;t play again until Thursday, when New York hosts the Golden State Valkyries at Barclays Center. When the 3-1 Liberty return to the hardwood, it likely will mark Ionescu&#8217;s season debut after a preseason foot injury.<\/p>\n<p>MORE:\u00a0<a target=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/www.sportingnews.com\/ca\/wnba\/new-york-liberty\/news\/liberty-make-wnba-history-without-sabrina-ionescu-satou-sabally\/16c4bc726f309f42866d480a\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Liberty make WNBA history without Sabrina Ionescu, Satou Sabally<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Ionescu practiced fully on Monday alongside star free agent acquisition Satou Sabally &#8212; who hasn&#8217;t played yet this season either as she recovers from a cyst.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Satou Sabally and Sabrina Ionescu were full participants in practice today.<\/p>\n<p>Betnijah Laney-Hamilton had a rest day, per Chris DeMarco.<\/p>\n<p>No official timeline for when Leonie Fiebich and Raquel Carrera will join the team.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Madeline Kenney (@madkenney) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/madkenney\/status\/2056427558158172315?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">May 18, 2026<\/a> <\/p>\n<p>Though the Liberty still won&#8217;t be whole &#8212; Leonie Fiebich is yet to return from overseas commitments &#8212; New York is about to become an even more frightening prospect for opposing defenses, as four-time All-Star Ionescu closes in on a return and Sabally nears her debut for the team.<\/p>\n<p>Despite one of the WNBA&#8217;s highest turnover rates through four games, the Liberty&#8217;s electric offense has taken another step forward under first-year head coach Chris DeMarco.<\/p>\n<p>Without Ionescu or Sabally, the Liberty rank first in 2-point field goal percentage and second in 3-point percentage. New York also ranks second in free-throw percentage and first in assists.<\/p>\n<p>Imagine adding Ionescu and Sabally to what is already a potent mix. Scary times for the rest of The W.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>More WNBA news:<\/p>\n<p>                            <script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Through four games without Sabrina Ionescu, the 2026 New York Liberty are averaging exactly 100 points per game.&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":650987,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[99,434],"class_list":["post-650986","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wnba","tag-sports","tag-wnba"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/650986","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=650986"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/650986\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/650987"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=650986"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=650986"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=650986"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}