Sabrina Ionescu's bomb 3-pointer stuns Lynx in WNBA Finals thriller

Sabrina Ionescu's 28-foot 3-pointer with one second left on the clock silenced 19,521 fans — a record attendance for a Lynx game in Minneapolis — and put the New York Liberty one win shy of beating Minnesota in the WNBA Finals.

The Game 3 thriller in Minneapolis ended with Ionescu's stunning shot, giving the Liberty the 80-77 victory to take a 2-1 lead in the best-of-five championship series. Minnesota must win Game 4 Friday night in Minneapolis to force a decisive Game 5 Sunday night in Brooklyn.

The final 10 minutes was a heavyweight fight.

When Napheesa Collier beat the defense for a layup, Breanna Stewart came back down and buried a fadeaway. When Stewart drilled a 3 to tie the game 66-66 with 6:57 to play, Kayla McBride hit a deep 3 on the other end. But back came Stewart with an and-1 the next time down the court to again tie the game for New York.

Both sides kept throwing punches.

Courtney Williams hit a baseline jumper with 2:25 to play for a 73-69 lead, only to have Jonquel Jones hit a 3 on the other end to trim Minnesota's lead to 73-72. And with 1:31 to go, Jones scored at the rim for New York's first lead, 74-73, since it was 5-4 in the opening minutes.

With 55.5 seconds to play, Sabrina Ionescu drilled a 3-pointer to put the Liberty ahead 77-73. Bridget Carleton responded out of a Minnesota timeout by beating Stewart on a drive and scoring to make it 77-75 with 34.6 seconds to play.

Collier, who earlier in the day was voted a consensus First Team All-WNBA selection, hit a pair of three throws to tie the score at 77-77 with 16 seconds left on the clock.

That set the stage for Ionescu's 28-foot 3-pointer. Minnesota had one final chance but McBride's contested 3 at the buzzer never came close to going in.

Ionescu finished with 13 points while Stewart led the Liberty with 30 points, 11 rebounds and four blocks. Minnesota was led by Collier's 22 points, nine rebounds and five steals. McBride scored 19 and Williams finished with 12 points and eight assists.

Early-game notes:

The Liberty finished the first quarter on a 7-2 run to go from trailing by 15 points to down 10 at 28-18 entering the second quarter. The hot start for Minnesota was fueled by 10 points from Kayla McBride and 7 points from Bridget Carleton. They combined to knock down 7-of-11 shots, including a trio of 3-pointers.

Minnesota maintained an eight-point lead at the half, 43-35, and Kayla McBride's 3-pointer put the Lynx up 60-50 with 2:28 left in the third. New York called a timeout and that timeout sparked the Liberty to an 11-2 run to end the quarter, cutting the deficit to 62-61 entering the fourth.

Game 4 is back at Target Center in Minneapolis at 7 p.m. CT Friday.