Liberty want WNBA Finals Game 3 to lead to a Game 4

Sandy Brondello had something to say. The players were looking at the Liberty coach and listening inside the locker room. WNBA fans from Brooklyn to California and all points in between were looking and listening via ESPN.

“We want to steal one game here,” Brondello told her team before Game 2 of the WNBA Finals on Wednesday night in Las Vegas.

But there would be no stealing. The Liberty lost by 28 points.

Now they’re in a hole so deep that no WNBA team has ever made it all the way out in 17 tries. They trail 2-0 in the best-of-five series, and this one is against a defending champion Aces superteam that is 7-0 in this postseason and has looked invincible a lot of the time against them.

So with that backdrop, can the Liberty pull off a three-game winning streak and claim the franchise’s first league championship?

First things first: Game 3 on Sunday afternoon at Barclays Center.

“It’s win or go home,” Sabrina Ionescu said after Friday’s practice. “I know that we’re all on the same page of wanting this to not be our last game of the season.”

If the Liberty can win Game 3, they’ll play Game 4 at home on Wednesday night.

“I challenged them probably more than anything, that we’re going back to our home court and we want to play well in front of our home fans,” Brondello said after Game 2. “So I challenged them to be better because I know we are better . . . It’s going to be a great crowd and we’ve played well at home.”

Becky Hammon has seen it. The Las Vegas coach isn’t automatically counting on adding to her ring collection just yet after watching the Aces stumble in August at Barclays, falling by scores of 99-61 and 94-85.

“So we’re going to come with the appropriate respect, the appropriate focus and emotion for the moment,” Hammon said.

The Liberty will need to take a huge step forward defensively after their 99-82 and 104-76 losses.

“I think things are just a little too easy for them, honestly,” said Jonquel Jones, who has a WNBA-record eight double-doubles this postseason. “I think we’ve got to dig deeper, be a little bit tougher, make things a little harder and come out with some more grit.”

Two-time MVP A’ja Wilson and guards Chelsea Gray, Kelsey Plum and Jackie Young have excelled for Las Vegas, totaling 91 points in Game 1 and 87 in Game 2.

Ionescu and Courtney Vandersloot, on the other hand, have been especially exploited in the backcourt and have totaled only 36 points.

“Sabrina and Slooty have had really good seasons for us,” Brondello said. “We know what they’re capable of. Now it’s just them coming in and seeing the ball go through the hole.”

A great season ends Sunday for the Liberty, or it doesn’t. It’s up to them.