The Minnesota Lynx, owners of the WNBA’s best regular-season record, will be eliminated from the playoffs unless they can win Game 2 Tuesday night at the New York Liberty.
New York leads the best-of-three series 1-0, which puts the Liberty in position to become the first eighth seed to win a series since the league went to its current format in 2022.
The Liberty defeated the Lynx in the 2024 WNBA Finals thanks in part to a controversial foul call, and a New York win on Tuesday would only add to Minnesota’s pain.
On Sunday, New York defeated host Minnesota, 91-75. The Lynx were called for 23 fouls as opposed to 20 for New York. While that foul disparity doesn’t seem like much, the Lynx seemed bothered.
“We were physical and disruptive,” Liberty forward Leonie Fiebich said. “(Lynx players) were complaining about contact.
“That’s when you know you got into somebody’s head.”
Indeed, two Lynx starters — Napheesa Collier and Natasha Howard – picked up their fourth fouls less than two minutes into the second half, which cut into their playing time and level of aggressiveness.
They both fouled out midway through the fourth quarter while Olivia Miles picked up her fourth foul with 8:19 to go.
“We’ve been through this before,” Lynx shooting guard Kayla McBride said. “I don’t want to blame the officials.”
Minnesota has other issues, too.
Miles, who was announced Monday as the unanimous choice for the league’s Rookie of the Year Award, admitted she was nervous for her first playoff game. She was also harassed by Liberty guards Pauline Astier and Rebekah Gardner. And when Miles got past the guards, she had to deal with New York’s towering frontline that included the 6-foot-4 Fiebich (one block), 6-6 Jonquel Jones (one), 6-4 Breanna Stewart (two) and 6-11 Han Xu (two).
“That’s a tall task — literally,” McBride said of New York’s height.
All of that combined to hold Miles to 11 points on 3-for-12 shooting with just one assist and four turnovers. During the regular season, Miles averaged 19.8 points, 6.0 assists and 3.1 turnovers while shooting 49.2% from the field.
The other big issue for Minnesota is that Collier, a five-time All-Star, still isn’t 100% following offseason surgery on both her ankles. She has said she’s at about 80%, and that was reflected in her mediocre performance on Sunday (12 points, five rebounds, three turnovers).
She was badly outplayed by Stewart, who had 34 points, 12 rebounds, six assists and two steals.
The Liberty shot 13 of 25 from 3-point range on Sunday. If they get that hot again on Tuesday, the series likely will end.
But Liberty players also remember last year, when they won the opener at Phoenix and still lost the series.
“Until we close the series out,” Jones cautioned, “history still isn’t made.”
Stewart said New York “got smoked at home” last year by Phoenix, and she doesn’t want a repeat of that 26-point Game 2 loss.
“This (win) doesn’t mean relax,” Stewart said. “This (Lynx) is obviously really exceptionally talented, and they’re going to throw everything they got at us on Tuesday, and we’ll be ready for it.”
–Field Level Media
