Are the Liberty destined to make a WNBA Finals run this year?

If history is any indication, that might actually be the case.

The Liberty beat the Washington Mystics 86-64 Sunday to clinch the East’s spot in this year’s Commissioner’s Cup championship game June 30.

It’ll be New York’s third appearance in the Cup title game in four years. In each of the Liberty’s previous two trips, New York went to the WNBA Finals.

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The Liberty won the in-season tournament in 2023, but fell to the Las Vegas Aces in the Finals.

A year later, New York lost to the Minnesota Lynx in the Cup championship game, but beat Cheryl Reeve’s team in the Finals that season to capture New York’s first professional basketball championship in five decades.

Rebekah Gardner said she doesn’t believe in omens. But Sabrina Ionescu said the Liberty’s Cup championship game berth might be a sign of good things to come.

“It doesn’t mean anything, besides you’re putting yourself in a really good position to kind of build off of it and use it as a unique experience,” Ionescu said. “Gives you a sense of camaraderie if you win [the Cup]. If you don’t, you understand kind of that defeat or excitement and I think it prepares you well for the playoffs with the new group.”

Who the Liberty will face out of the West will be determined by Wednesday. The Aces, after defeating the Minnesota Lynx Saturday, currently sit at the top of their conference.

The Liberty look like a far different team than the one that played the Mystics in the second game of the season. Back then, New York was short-staffed, missing Ionescu, Leonie Fiebich and Satou Sabally, and had to sign two hardship players to field a full roster.

The Liberty were learning an entirely new offense, building trust with the new coaching staff and missing some of their best defenders.

Now, the Liberty have rattled off seven straight wins, the longest active winning streak in the league. They’re now 10-4, good for third place.

“Now, we’re just feeling a little bit more complete as far as having our full roster today,” Stewart said. “Now we’re starting to build, you know. Beginning of the season, we were trying to kind of work through some things and just get the win, do what we could, and now … this is like our day one.”

After Sunday, Sabally said championships are “expected.”

It’s the type of thing New Yorkers love to hear, especially after the Knicks’ dominant playoff run that culminated in the franchise’s first championship in 53 years on Saturday.

The Liberty have been following the Knicks’ journey this entire time.

The series-clinching Game 5 win made the 2024 WNBA champions crave the experience of champagne and beer showers paired with the sweet smell of cigar smoke all over again.

“We better have that fire to want to do that,” Ionescu said of returning to the WNBA Finals. “It’s exciting to see. There’s going to be a parade and it kind of brings you back to the memories of what it felt like to win here, and how special it is. And maybe for some of the players who weren’t here and a part of that team, they get to experience it a little bit through a different light. And knowing that’s how the city rallies behind us as well and if we keep playing the right way, and taking it one game at a time, we’re kind of in control of our own destiny.”

Stewart feels the same way.

“Our goal has always been a championship,” she said. “We know that we were short on that last year and wanted to do that as well, but yeah, the city would be crazy. Let’s talk about it in like October.”