It all comes down to this. With the championship series tied 2-2, the Minnesota Lynx and host New York Liberty will meet in a decisive winner-take-all Game 5 of the WNBA Finals on Sunday night.
After going down 2-1, the Lynx won Game 4 at home in Minneapolis on Friday night behind 19 points from Kayla McBride, who was one of five Minnesota players – all starters — to score in double figures.
Bridget Carleton scored 12 points and knocked down the game-winning free throws with two seconds to play. That came after the Lynx defense forced the Liberty into a shot-clock violation, and after Carleton corralled an offensive rebound after a missed shot by teammate Courtney Williams.
The 82-80 victory was sealed for the Lynx when Liberty guard Sabrina Ionescu failed to recreate her Game 3 heroics, missing the mark on a long-range 3-pointer at the buzzer. New York lost despite getting 21 points from Jonquel Jones and a double-double from Breanna Stewart (11 points, 11 rebounds).
Stewart shot just 5 of 21 for the game, a 23.8 percent clip — her worst shooting mark of the season. The All-WNBA first-team selection was often guarded by Napheesa Collier, the WNBA Defensive Player of the Year and Stewart’s former UConn teammate.
“Try to make it as hard as possible for them to get the shots they want,” Collier said. “They are good players. They are going to get shots off. But they can’t get easy ones. So that’s my goal, to make it as hard as I can.”
In the fourth quarter, Stewart went 1 of 8 from the floor with the game on the line. It was, simply put, one of Stewart’s roughest performances. But the star forward remains undeterred and determined.
“We’re going to win on our home court,” Stewart said. “I know the type of player that I am and the impact that I can have on the court. And whether things aren’t going my way now, I know that eventually, that they will. And for me, like basketball is probably 90 percent mental. If you believe it, it’s going to happen.”
The Lynx also forced the Liberty into 16 turnovers and scored 19 points off those extra possessions.
Should the Lynx win Sunday, it will be their fifth championship as a franchise and make Cheryl Reeve the coach with the most WNBA titles, adding to Minnesota’s crowns in 2011, 2013, 2015 and 2017. The Liberty are aiming for their first championship, and they’ll have a chance to capture it in front of their home fans.
Sunday’s game gets the primetime treatment, tipping off at 8 p.m. ET on ESPN.
Neither team reported any injuries heading into the final game of the season.
–Field Level Media
