SAN FRANCISCO — Sunday night was the perfect opportunity for Sabrina Ionescu to rediscover her flow after a rocky two weeks.
She was playing in front of her hometown crowd, with dozens of friends and family members in attendance.
Thanks to her mother, she enjoyed Romanian cooking and had a fresh load of laundry.
On Friday, Ionescu celebrated having her high school gymnasium named after her.
She reveled in not needing GPS to navigate around town.
Man, it felt good to be home.
But all those good vibes didn’t carry over to on-court success for Ionescu in a 76-67 Liberty loss.
Ionescu went scoreless in the first half, going 0-for-5 from the field.
It was her fourth zero-point half this season in eight games.
She produced a short burst in the third quarter, draining a 3 and making a layup after which she clapped so loud it could be heard from Section 127.
But the Liberty waved the white flag midway through the fourth.
Ionescu checked out with 3:39 left in the game, finishing with nine points on 10 shots, three rebounds and two assists.
“I’ve never missed a month in a season unless it was my rookie season,” said Ionescu, who suffered a season-ending injury three games into her first WNBA campaign. “Obviously, it’s been a learning experience for me. I’ve never missed this much time, especially early on in the year, when you’re kind of trying to find your identity as a team and build chemistry with players you haven’t played with and obviously a new coach and new system, so all that is new. “Just trying to continue to give myself some grace but still get better every single time that I’m out there, getting more comfortable physically with what we’re trying to do. Just keep going game by game and understand I missed a month, I can’t really take that back. But all I can do is just look forward and know I will get better.”
Ionescu missed the first two weeks of the season with a left foot injury.
She played one game before being sidelined with back soreness.
Since returning to the rotation June 14, Ionescu has said she feels physically fine, but she doesn’t look like it.
In the past seven games, she’s averaging 9.3 points, 3.6 rebounds and 2.9 assists while shooting 36.5 percent from the field and 29 percent from deep.
The hardest part, Ionescu said, is starting her season while the rest of the league has already found a groove.
“It takes a little bit to just kind of get back out there, get in rhythm, figure out kind of where I fit in,” she said. “But it’s early for me in terms of how many games that I played, and I understand there’s obviously more games to be played ahead, and that’s kind of up to me how I can approach it mentally, knowing that I’m healthy now and back playing.”
