WNBA: Liberty under pressure to even Finals series against Lynx

The 2024 WNBA Finals continues this Sunday, Oct. 13, when the No. 1-seed New York Liberty host the No. 2-seed Minnesota Lynx in Game 2 of the series. Tip off is scheduled for 3 p.m. ET, and the game will be broadcast nationally on ABC.

If Game 2 of the Finals is anything like the series opener, fans can expect another extremely close contest between the WNBA’s top two playoff seeds. While the Liberty were in control for the majority of Game 1, getting off to a hot start and withstanding several Lynx runs to maintain a double-digit lead late into the fourth quarter, Minnesota turned up its defensive intensity and made several clutch shots down the stretch to tie things up and eventually win in overtime.

The Lynx’s 18-point comeback in Game 1 tied the largest in WNBA postseason history (a record which, ironically, had been solely held by the Liberty since 1999), and proved to the nation what Minnesota faithful had known all summer long: There’s no quit in the Lynx.

“That’s what we’ve been talking about in all these interviews we’ve been giving,” Minnesota head coach Cheryl Reeve told media. “It defines our team in terms of being able to get through difficult times….you have to be mentally tough, and we were that team.” Lynx guard Courtney Williams, who hit perhaps the game’s biggest shot—a game-tying 3-pointer over New York’s Sabrina Ionescu—put it a different way. “The basketball gods were on our side tonight.”

The onus is now on the Liberty to tie the series in Game 2, lest they go to Minnesota in an 0-2 hole. As impressive as Minnesota’s Game 1 comeback was, the Liberty recognize that it was at least partly their own doing; New York head coach Sandy Brondello pointed to a lack of pace on offense (the Liberty committed two shot clock violations in the final two minutes of regulation in Game 1) and poor transition defense as reasons for her team’s blown lead, per ESPN’s Alexa Philippou.

At the same time, Brondello doesn’t want her team to dwell on the Game 1 collapse, and there’s certainly reason to hope for a more consistent Liberty performance in Game 2. New York held a massive advantage over Minnesota on the boards in Game 1, hauling down a whopping 20 offensive rebounds. That’s an area that, given the Lynx’s poor defensive rebounding during the course of the regular season (68.2 percent defensive rebounding rate; 11th in the WNBA), should remain in the Liberty’s favor.

The Minnesota Lynx defense pressured New York’s Sabrina Ionescu into a subpar shooting performance in Game 1.

Photo by Catalina Fragoso/NBAE via Getty Images

New York will need to do a better job of finishing all those extra possessions, though. It’s hard to look past the scoring inefficiency of Ionescu (19 points on 8-of-26 shooting in Game 1) and Breanna Stewart (18 points on 6-of-21) when analyzing the team’s late-game collapse, and it goes without saying at least one of them, if not both, must shoot the ball at a significantly better clip on Sunday if the Liberty are to even the series.

As for the Lynx, despite their incredible comeback in Game 1, they’d ideally like to avoid being in a situation that requires such heroics again. Look for Minnesota to try to carry over its defensive intensity from the end of the series opener into the beginning of Game 2; Napheesa Collier proved why she won Defensive Player of the Year honors in 2024, amassing three steals and six blocked shots, and the Lynx will expect her to be at her best once again on Sunday.