It was the first WNBA finals game on Thursday night, and Napheesa Collier scored the final basket, a game-winning turn around jumper with only 8.8seconds to go in the overtime as Lynx triumphed over Liberty 95-93.
The post max punters for Minnesota where Courtney Williams playing 23 points, Kayla McBride 22 points and Collier 21 points. Collier brilliantly pretented in the lane before scoring the game-winning goal in the final seconds despite a draw with the score. Minnesota grabbed a win after missing a layup by Breanna Stewart as time expired, sending New York down for the final time before they could try to force overtime.
Sunday in New York for next game in this best-of-five series is set, and while it does not look as harsh as the previous game it will be surely more tense. Prior to the commencement of play, WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert revealed a revelation that would change the game forever: The Finals will now face a best-of-seven system starting in the next season, making the competition much harder.
The two teams had problems getting into the flow in the overtime. Finally, Minnesota opened fifty percent-point lead by winning forty-seven to forty-three then Minnesota accumulated eighty-eight to eighty-four seeing New York tried to shoot but failed in the initial total of six shots. With 1:18 left, Jones once again nailed a corner triple to stop the Liberty’s losing streak. But the equalizer came immediately from rookie Courtney Williams of Minnesota as she canned a 3-pointer to keep the Lynx ahead. With every time that one team exchanged baskets, the turnovers added to the level of match up’s turn up. There were still 32.9 seconds on the clock when Sabrina Ionescu made the biggest play for New York, stealing the ball in the Liberty backcourt before finishing with the layup and cutting the Atlanta lead to 93-91.
That shot could have tied the score, but within four seconds Jones had intercepted a pass at midcourt and dashed to the hoop to knot the count. Minnesota patiently weighed in, trying to run the shot clock out before Collier hit the go-ahead basket with seconds left.
The Liberty, who had been ahead by as much as 11 points, then proceeded to melt down as the Lynx scored twelve straight points by shooting. That three-point shot by Williams—she scored a total of 20 out of her game-high 27 points in the second half—which gave the Lynx a four-point lead and no time left on the clock to resume play froze the Liberty after the last 5.5 seconds of minutes.
New York retaliated for the action that was performed on them. Stewart was the final shooter with one second left only for him to shoo it and the ball went out of bounds and Ionescu inbounded the ball to Stewart in the paint. Just when it seemed that the time was up the blue light was on and a foul called. But, when inspection was made by officials it was seen that the foul was committed with only 0.8 seconds remained on the clock, Stewart was at the free throw line for two critical shots.
Her first one went through the net but the second one missed, bounced off the rim and that gave Minnesota the opportunity. It went into overtime after Williams failed to take the shot at the other end of the game.
Ionescu scored 19, Stewart scored 18, while Jones played mighty for New York with 24 points and 10 rebounds. After Liberty enacted the lead, scoring eighteen percentage points more than the half time score, Minnesota had to wake up. May had come back from the semifinal match as strong squad after defeating Connecticut Sun.
Minnesota comes into the final on a quest for her fifth straight title, while New York has never won a WNBA championship. As expected, after both these two giants performed splendidly in regular season, they provide their fans a fierce fight for championship titles.
Excited to get over the blasted defeat by the Las Vegas Aces in the previous season, the New York Liberty have successfully reached for WNBA Finals for the successive season. On the other hand, the Minnesota Lynx will be for the first time returning to this stage of the WNBA playoffs since 2017—since they claimed the title that same year to complete an unprecedented seven-year, four-peat reign.
Finally, while preparing for the game, both the Minnesota Timberwolves and the Liberty decided that records before the play-offs are not crucial though they suffered defeat in two matches against the Lynx – the regular season and the Commissioner’s Cup final. Both teams understand well that the game has probably never been this crucial.
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