Liberty rout Lynx to tie WNBA finals

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The New York Liberty and Minnesota Lynx find themselves locked at one win apiece in their best of five Women’s National Basketball Association Championship series. The favored Liberty, 32-8 for the regular season, should consider themselves fortunate to be in their current position after two tough games in New York, a devastating overtime loss in game one, and a tension-filled, down-to-the-wire victory in game two.

The Lynx rallied from an 18-point deficit to send game one to overtime. Down three points with seconds left in regulation, Lynx guard Courtney Williams missed her initial three-pointer. She got a second chance following a rebound scramble and hit the three-pointer to tie the game while being fouled by Sabrina Ionescu. She made the resulting foul shot to give her team a one-point lead with 8.8 seconds remaining.

The Liberty got a significant break when their in-bounds pass bounced off the foot of forward Breanna Stewart. The replay produced clear evidence that the ball bounced off the All-Star. The problem here is a rule instituted this season, eliminating replay review in a situation like this, a ridiculous change that needs to be converted to its original rule. Why have replay reviews that the entire world can see and not have one for such a critical play?

Minnesota Lynx guard Courtney Williams PHOTO: AARON LAVINSKY

The Liberty got a second chance to win the game due to an advantageous call and exploited it. Breanna Stewart got fouled on the resulting in-bounds play and went to the line for two shots with .08 seconds. She made the first but missed the second, sending the game to overtime.

The Lynx dominated the first three minutes of overtime and survived the final seconds before emerging with a 95-93 triumph. Napheesa Collier, who made the game-shot, played her college basketball as a teammate of Stewart’s at the University of Connecticut. Her defense against the All Star was a critical factor in the entire game.

The Liberty stormed out to a double-digit lead in game two, only to see the Lynx cut the deficit to two in the fourth quarter. Critical baskets by Betnijah Laney-Hamilton, Stewart, and Ionescu pushed the home team to an 80-66 win. The series now shifts to Minnesota for games three and four.

The history of these two WNBA franchises is at opposite ends of the championship spectrum. The Liberty have never won an WNBA title and have seen a lot of heartbreak over the years. Six trips to the finals have produced no titles. Last year’s crushing defeat to the Las Vegas Aces in the finals added misery to their legacy of being good, but not good enough to win it all.

Over the past couple of years, the Liberty acquired All-Star players Stewart and Jonquel Jones and drafted Ionescu as the nucleus of a championship team. After beating the two-time defending champion Aces in four games, some New York fans felt that this could be the year the team broke their losing legacy and brought home a title. To achieve that, they must take the measure of a Lynx franchise with championship DNA.

NY Liberty forward, Betnijah Laney-Hamilton PHOTO: NY LIBERTY/WNBA

The Lynx have brought home the gold four times in its franchise history. Names like Maya Moore, Simone Agustus, Sylvia Fowles and Rebekkah Brunson formed the nucleus of those championship teams. Moore, one of the great players in college at UConn and the WNBA, retired at 34 to get married to a man she helped free from prison and moved on with her life. The 2024 Hall of Fame recipient, and Agustus left a legacy that this current Lynx team is trying to live up to. Led by Nepheesa Collier, Courtney Williams and Kayla Mcbride, this Lynx team, coached by Cheryl Reeve has already won the mid-season Commissioner’s Cup and is looking for the vaunted double, a WNBA in-season and Finals championship.

Side Note: Coach Reeve, who led the United States women’s basketball team to a gold medal in the 2024 Olympic Games, is out to pull off the vaunted triple honor: coaching teams to an Olympic Gold Medal, Commissioner’s Cup, and WNBA Championship in the same calendar year.

This WNBA Championship series has drawn substantial numbers to date, which is symbolic of the surge in the popularity of the professional women’s basketball game. With the influx of major advertising money and the star power of incoming stars Caitlin Clark, Angel Reese, Cameron Brink, Kamilla Cardoso and others, the overall health of the WNBA can only be described as vibrant.

Player salaries and better traveling conditions concerning air flights and hotel accommodations, have improved, but not to the level of NBA players. A realistic view of the WNBA situation is that it is a summer event with an exciting regular season schedule. Its star players are legitimate, and its audience continues to grow.

The late David Stern, the former NBA Commissioner, envisioned this scenario in 1996 when he took the step to create the WNBA. The W, as it is referred to today, struggled for many years before becoming the entity in its present form. The future of the W will depend on several factors, the most important being players’ salaries. The elite level players will make good money. They always do. The pay structure for All-Star players, mid-level performers and those below will have to be raised, but how much to be considered equitable?

We should all sit back and enjoy the beauty of the game we are witnessing. It is an exciting brand of basketball that everyone should enjoy.