On a night when WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert announced that the Finals will change to a best-of-seven format next season, this year’s championship opener turned out to be one of the most exciting games in playoff history.
The Minnesota Lynx made a remarkable comeback to defeat the New York Liberty 95-93 in overtime on Thursday night in Game 1 of the best-of-five series.
The last few seconds of regulation were filled with action. Courtney Williams made a four-point play with 5.5 seconds left, giving Minnesota its first lead. Shortly after, Breanna Stewart went to the free-throw line for New York, but she missed her second shot, which could have secured the win.
In overtime, Minnesota managed just enough to become the first team in WNBA playoff history to win after being down by 15 points with less than 5 minutes remaining.
“It was the craziest thing I’ve ever been a part of,” said New York guard Courtney Vandersloot, who was also in the last overtime game in the Finals in 2021 when she played for Chicago. “We had chances, they had chances, of course we wish we just executed better, wish the ball rolled a little bit differently.
That happens. I think this is a great learning experience for us. You know, this is hard. I’m not gonna lie to you guys. This is hard.”
Game 2 is on Sunday, giving New York a couple of days to recover from the painful loss.
“I think it’s all about controlling our emotions,” Vandersloot said. “This is an emotional time. It’s stressful. I keep saying that the lights are bright and these are the kind of things that you don’t want to shift a series. Because it’s difficult, and I think that the best way we can go about this is realizing that it’s OK to feel the way we feel.
“It’s hard. It wasn’t fun to lose that way. But, you know, moving on and moving forward, this is just part of our journey. This is just part of the story. And this is something that we can talk about one of two ways at the end.”
The game seemed like it might have a different outcome in the first 10 minutes. New York came out strong against Minnesota, scoring 32 points in the first quarter. The Liberty built an 18-point lead in the first half and were ahead by 15 with under 5 minutes to go in regulation before Minnesota made their comeback.
“We are the first team in WNBA playoff history to be down 15 and come back and win the game. So that ranks really high,” said Minnesota coach Cheryl Reeve, who has won four WNBA championships with the Lynx. “I think it defines our team in terms of being able to get through difficult times. … You have to be mentally tough and resilient.
You have to look inward and not blame other people, and give each other confidence. And we were that team. You know, thrilled that we could hang in there.”
The Lynx took their first lead thanks to Williams’ historic shot. According to Elias, it was the first four-point play in WNBA history in either the regular season or playoffs in the last 10 seconds of a game that gave that team the lead.
“The basketball gods were on our side tonight,” said Williams, who scored 23 points.
New York could have been finished, but Stewart was fouled just before the buzzer. After a long review by the officials to confirm the foul happened before the clock ran out, they gave her two free throws.
The two-time MVP, who has an 84% success rate from the foul line, made the first shot, but the second one bounced off the rim, and the game went to overtime.
The extra period started slowly, but Minnesota built an 88-84 lead while New York missed its first six shots. Jonquel Jones finally got the Liberty on the scoreboard with a corner 3-pointer with 1:38 left.
Williams quickly responded with her own 3-pointer, and the teams exchanged baskets in the next minute. Sabrina Ionescu’s steal and layup brought New York to 93-91 with 32.9 seconds remaining.
Then Jonquel Jones stole the ball at midcourt and scored to tie the game just four seconds later. Minnesota ran down the clock before Napheesa Collier hit a turnaround shot in the lane with 8.8 seconds left, giving the Lynx a lead they would not give up, while Stewart missed a layup at the buzzer.
