Liberty star Sabrina Ionescu wins Eastern Conference Player of the Week

The New York Liberty are on fire, having won three games in a row and 11 of 12 to race out to the best record in the WNBA. Breanna Stewart and Jonquel Jones have been their usual terrific selves, but lately, it's been Sabrina Ionescu who's been the star of the show.

Not unlike her former 3-Point Contest competitor Steph Curry, Ionescu has been doing it all on offense, and she quite deservedly took home the WNBA Eastern Conference Player of the Week award for her performance this past week. In those three games, which the Liberty won by over 14 points per game, Ionescu averaged 27 points and 9.7 assists, and she knocked down a total of 14 threes while still shooting over 50% from the floor in each game.

Ionescu is currently sixth in the league in scoring and third in assists. No other player ranks top-six in both categories, with the closest being the Las Vegas Aces' Jackie Young, who sits at eighth and sixth, respectively.

Sabrina Ionescu's second Eastern Conference Player of the Week award this month should put the league on notice

This is Ionescu's fourth full season in the WNBA, and fifth total after she missed most of her rookie year with an ankle injury, but she's quickly becoming one of the most decorated players in the game. In college, she became the first player to ever record 2,000 points, 1,000 assists, and 1,000 rebounds, and she joined her now-teammate Stewart as the only player to ever win the Naismith Women's College Player of the Year award unanimously (they've since been joined on that list by Caitlin Clark), and since getting to the league, she's made the All-Star game twice and helped lead the Liberty to a Commissioner's Cup title and the WNBA Finals last year. She's been named to the All-WNBA Second Team the past two years, and with career highs in points and assists per game, there's a great chance that she can break through and make First Team this year.

This is the second time this month that Ionescu has taken home Eastern Conference Player of the Week honors, but there's no time to celebrate, because the biggest game of the season looms tonight as Ionescu and the Liberty will try to defend their Commissioner's Cup title against the equally red-hot Minnesota Lynx. Minnesota won the only meeting between the two teams so far this season, and the 84-67 loss they handed the Liberty exactly one month ago has been by far the biggest loss of the Liberty's 15-3 season.

Ionescu will need to continue her stellar play if the Liberty are to get revenge on fellow MVP contender Napheesa Collier and the Lynx tonight, and more importantly, she'll need to keep it up through the rest of the regular season and the playoffs in order to help the Liberty win their first-ever WNBA title. I'm sure Ionescu, who returned for her senior year at Oregon to try and cut down the nets, would trade all her individual accolades to finally lift a trophy on the biggest stage, the WNBA Finals.

This has been the most exciting WNBA season of all-time. The arrivals of rookies Caitlin Clark, Angel Reese and others have boosted interest, attendance, and viewership to record highs, and new fans have taken the opportunity to also see phenomenal players like Ionescu who have deserved the attention all along. Be sure to watch the Liberty take on the Lynx tonight on Amazon Prime Video at 8 p.m.