Liberty's Sabrina Ionescu Selected for AP All-WNBA

The AP has some high praise for SI of the New York Liberty.

Liberty point guard Sabrina Ionescu was one of 10 women named to the Associated Press' All-WNBA teams, earning second-team honors alongside Paige Bueckers (Dallas), Nneka Ogwumike (Seattle), Kelsey Plum (Los Angeles) and Jackie Young (Las Vegas).

Ionescu is part of the Liberty's famed "big three" alongside Jonquel Jones and Breanna Stewart and is set to embark on the knockout portion of New York's championship defense, which gets underway on Sunday late afternoon against the Phoenix Mercury (5 p.m. ET, ESPN).

The top pick of the 2020 draft set her full-season career-best in scoring for the season consecutive tour at 18.2 tallies per game while also putting up 5.7 assists and 4.9 rebounds. She also partook in her fourth WNBA All-Star Game just about 24 hours after she became the second two-time winner of the Association's Three-Point Contest.

Ionescu recently returned from a four-game medically-induced absence due to a toe injury and helped the Liberty end the regular season on a high note: over her last two games, Ionescu put up a combined 17 points to go with 20 assists and only two turnovers. She had a serendipitous 11-point/assist double-double in the Liberty's 86-81 win over the Chicago Sky in the finale on Thursday.

"We know she's a great scorer and shooter, but her ability to get other players open, facilitating, [is huge]," Liberty head coach Sandy Brondello on Thursday. "I'm sure Stewie will say how much it makes her job a little easier, because they have such great chemistry that they've build up over these years."

"Sabrina, she loves the moment. The bigger the game, the better she is," Brondello continued. "For her to not have any turnovers, she's really affected these last few games back, obviously, dishing out assist. It was good for her tonight, just to get a little bit more aggressive."

Future New York postseason opponent Alyssa Thomas appears on the AP's first team, joined by fellow playoff participants Napheesa Collier (Minnesota), Allisha Gray (Atlanta), Kelsey Mitchell (Indiana) and A'ja Wilson (Las Vegas).