Sabrina Ionescu’s reaction — the two fists raised as she turned onto the court — captured it all. So did the MVP chants that accompanied her final free throws of the night minutes later.

Leonie Fiebich had scored an and-one under the basket midway through the fourth quarter, with Ionescu, her ninth of the night, acting as the catalyst.

The Liberty, once on upset alert in Game 2 against the Atlanta Dream, jumped out to an eight-point lead after the free throw. They extended that lead to 11 — their largest of the game — when Fiebich sank a 3-pointer on the next possession.

But on a night when Atlanta adjusted to most of the mistakes it made in Game 1, and on a night when Liberty struggled to repeat most of the mistakes it made right, Ionescu took center stage.

The Liberty needed all 36 points they had scored in their 91-82 playoff win at the Barclays Center, a personal best, to beat the Dream and advance to the WNBA semifinals, where they could expect a rematch against the Las Vegas Aces.

Ionescu shot 12-of-23 field goals, 5-of-11 three-pointers and the player selected first overall in 2020 now has a chance to cement a potential return to the Finals.

Eleven of her 36 points came in the third quarter, when Ionescu wasted 3-point shots and just kept driving. She hit a layup. Then a mid-range jumper and another layup.

This allowed Liberty to keep up the pace after going into halftime trailing by five points, and eventually, in the fourth quarter, Ionescu gave them the lead.

But before then, Liberty struggled to match the example of Game 1.

The Dream jumped out to an early 11-3 lead, moving the ball in transition and operating efficiently on offense. Fiebich, the hero of Game 1 with a career-high 21 points, didn’t score until the second half and spent most of the game in foul trouble.

Allisha Gray led the Dream with 26 points, while Rhyne Howard and Tina Charles added 19 and 14, respectively, creating plenty of reaction as the Liberty fell back and threatened to pull away.

It took until the fourth quarter, when Ionescu took her final points, for that to happen.

For a while, though, after a franchise-record 32 regular-season wins set last year, a convincing Game 1 victory and a promising breakout from Fiebich, it looked as if the Liberty’s season — and the title hopes and aspirations that accompanied it from the start — would be whittled down to 40 minutes on Thursday, when the powerhouse team and the surprising Dream clashed for the final time in Atlanta.

Head coach Sandy Brondello had warned Liberty in advance.

She reminded them of what happened — or almost happened — last year in the first round of the playoffs, when the seventh-seeded Mystics took Game 2 to overtime before the Liberty escaped with a narrow victory.

Brondello even used a quote from Pat Riley to her players, highlighting the pitfalls you can face if you’re not prepared after a big win.

They were close, too close even, to a win-or-go-home scenario long before they wanted it to be.

“And that’s the biggest danger we have,” Brondello said before the match.

For the first quarter she was right. For the first half she was right. Then Ionescu took over.