Sabrina Ionescu’s struggles in Sport 5 of the WNBA Finals have been well-chronicled; the All-Star guard shot simply 1-19 from the sphere and 1-10 from the sphere within the New York Liberty’s 67-62 win over the Minnesota Lynx. That got here after a Sport 4 loss that noticed her shoot 5-15 from the sphere.
Now, we’d simply have a minimum of a partial clarification for why the sharpshooter struggled a lot within the last two video games of the postseason. In accordance with ESPN’s Alexa Philippou, Ionescu suffered a “high-grade UCL tear” on her proper taking pictures hand throughout Sport 4. The ulnar collateral ligament is a robust band of tissue the place the thumb meets the palm, serving to maintain the thumb steady, and will have simply disrupted her taking pictures movement.
Ionescu’s harm is an effective reminder of what number of accidents go unreported throughout playoff basketball — the WNBA is especially identified for underreporting accidents — whereas additionally serving to clarify her uncharacteristic struggles.
Previous to her harm, Ionescu hit what’s going to go completed as one of many greatest pictures in WNBA historical past — a go-ahead three-pointer with a second to play in Sport 3. That shot sealed the victory over the Lynx and gave the Liberty a 2-1 lead within the WNBA Finals.
Throughout the WNBA playoffs, Ionescu averaged 16.9 factors on 39.6% taking pictures, alongside 5.3 rebounds and 5.3 assists en path to the franchises’s first-ever WNBA title. That adopted a Second Staff All-WNBA season by which she averaged 18.2 factors, 6.2 assists, and 4.4 rebounds, serving to lead New York to a 32-8 report.
There’s been numerous high-profile instances of basketball gamers struggling UCL accidents of their hand. In April of 2023, for instance, New Orleans Pelicans guard CJ McCollum had surgical procedure to restore a torn UCL. Ionescu’s harm isn’t anticipated to require harm, nevertheless.
Earlier this week, Ionescu was noticed courtside with Jonquel Jones at a Brooklyn Nets sport with a sleeve on her hand the place the harm came about, fueling some hypothesis that she might have suffered an harm.