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Alexa Philippou, ESPN
NEW YORK — Two-time Finals MVP Breanna Stewart missed a driving layup when the final buzzer sounded in overtime Thursday night, leaving the Barclays Center crowd of 17,732 in shock.
In one of the most thrilling WNBA playoff games in recent memory, No. The 2-seed Minnesota Lynx overcame the impossible, erasing an 18-point second quarter deficit — and a 15-point deficit with 5:20 to go — to take Game 1 of the Finals 95-93 in overtime.
Instead of New York seed No. judgment and shouted, “Two more.”
The Lynx’s 18-point comeback was tied for the most in Finals history, but before Thursday, WNBA teams were 0-183 in postseason games when trailing by 15 points or more in the final five minutes of regulation. When Betnijah Laney-Hamilton’s 3-pointer with 5:20 left gave New York an 81-66 edge, ESPN Analytics predicted the Liberty to have a 99.2% chance of winning.
“I was determined that our team was able to overcome the tough times,” Lynx coach Cheryl Reeve said of the comeback. “This is what we are talking about: You must be mentally tough and tenacious. You must look inside and not blame others, and give each other confidence. And we are that team. Glad that we can hang in there.”
Stewart, who hopes to lead Liberty to the franchise’s first championship, said they will take the loss “on the chin.”
“It’s a draw,” he said. “We wanted to really win, obviously, for the front court. But the beauty is, we have another game there and we will be ready.”
Minnesota improved to 4-1 against New York on the year and is two wins away from capturing its first championship since 2017 and fifth overall. And when they won on the road in dramatic fashion to open the championship series, the Lynx made their biggest statement, although few expected them to be in the Finals before the season, they certainly are now.
The game is defined by big momentum swings. New York rallied early, jumping ahead 32-19 after the first quarter and leading by as many as 18 in the second, marking Minnesota’s largest deficit of the postseason. The Lynx looked like themselves on both ends as the game wore on, closing the gap to 44-36 at the half.
“We know it’s a long series,” Reeve said. “We didn’t win the first quarter. It wasn’t the first quarter we were hoping for. What our narrative was in the timeout was that we just had to find our feet. Find our feet defensively, and we did that in the second quarter. We were held to 12 after giving up 32. We went into half-time well.”
Lynx star Napheesa Collier said facing an early deficit was nothing new for the team: “That’s when we really depended on our defense.”
“That’s what we’re talking about, stop three in a row, little by little,” he added. “Don’t think about the point difference, but think about the possessions you have to stop and score.
Minnesota pulled within two in the third before the Liberty answered up by 15 midway through the final frame. But the Lynx closed regulation with an 18-3 spurt, taking their first lead of the game with 5.5 seconds on the clock at 84-83, thanks to a four-point play by Williams after she sank a 3-pointer while fouled. New York Guard Sabrina Ionescu.
Stewart managed to draw a shooting foul with 0.8 seconds left, making his first free throw but missing his second, prompting five minutes of overtime.
“I just think we went away from the principles of playing,” Liberty coach Sandy Brondello said of her team’s collapse. “I thought we had a good first quarter, then they picked up the energy and beat us.”
“We can’t play to ‘not lose’ and I think we started playing a little bit (like that),” added Ionescu. “We were up a lot, and we were kind of looking at the clock, and it seems like we took our foot off the gas a little. And it ended up biting us in the ass last Friday.”
The Lynx usually control overtime. Collier hit what ended up being the game-winning shot — a turnaround fadeway jumper near the top of the key — with 8.8 seconds left, which was followed by Stewart’s missed layup.
“Listen, I want to take this picture,” Stewart said of his struggle. “I think knowing my teammates and everyone having confidence in me is important. It’s like the next one and still making sure I’m aggressive whenever I’m on the field. Obviously as a player, it’s very frustrating.”
The Lynx — whose dynasty ran with four championships in the 2010s led by WNBA legends Maya Moore, Seimone Augustus, Sylvia Fowles and Lindsay Whalen — saw three players score 20 points in a Finals game for the first time in franchise history.
Kayla McBride (22 points) kept the team throughout the big shots, including four 3-pointers. Collier scored 21 points and was omnipresent defensively with three steals, six blocks and a deflection that didn’t show up in the box score.
Williams was the star of the night for four games. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, it was the first time in a regular season or playoff WNBA game that there was a four-point play in the last 10 seconds and a free throw gave the team the lead.
But he did more outside of that period, scoring 15 points in the fourth quarter and overtime.
“This is just proof of how much we believe in each other,” Williams said about taking more of a scoring role there. “We have a lot of good 3-point shooters, and the fact that these girls are out here trying to shoot the ball, that means I can cry.
“It’s amazing. I love it. I say that all the time, and I don’t say that for fun. These people I’m around, we believe in each other very much. It’s crazy, people. I love being here.”
Liberty made 13 3-pointers and received a 24-point, 10-rebound double-double from Jonquel Jones. They boasted 19 more shot attempts from the Lynx (90-71) and came away with 20 offensive rebounds, securing a plus-12 edge on the glass.
But his good value wasn’t enough to outweigh the mistakes and the Lynx’s furious rally.
“We’re disappointed,” Brondello said. “We have to be better. We are a better team than we showed today.”
New York, known for its five Finals appearances without a championship, fell to 0-6 in the opening game of the Finals, the longest losing streak in Game 1 of a postseason series in league history.
“I think they took us out of what we wanted to open,” added Brondello. “They’re really aggressive. They’re blowing things up. We can’t get clear passes. We’re trying to get down and they’re going to stunt and come back, and we’re just a little stagnant. I think we’re slow. up, so you try to move the ball, but then we slow down in our speed, the speed of execution, and then it becomes easy for them.
Added Reeve: “We held them under 40% (shooting), which was monumental. A lot of them were obviously late. We got big stops when we needed them. Over and over again, whether the ball was going out of bounds or a 50/50 ball .the referees, whatever happens, the jump ball, the mistakes, all those things, we just have to stop to win, and that’s what I’m proud of.
The teams reconvene Sunday in Brooklyn for Game 2 (3 p.m. ET, ABC) before the best-of-five series moves to Minneapolis for Game 3 and, if necessary, Game 4.
