No one is ever going to suggest the WNBA is scripted.
While other leagues are a petri dish for conspiracy theories — the NFL is rigging things for the Kansas City Chiefs! LeBron is calling the shots in the NBA! — this year’s Finals are proof the W doesn’t have anyone directing the action. Caitlin Clark and A’ja Wilson are home on their couches. The showcase of the super teams, the Las Vegas Aces and New York Liberty, occurred in the semifinals.
Instead of wrecking the plot, however, the battle between the Minnesota Lynx and New York Liberty is putting the depth of the league on display and showing there is entertainment to be found pretty much everywhere you look.
The Lynx stole Game 1 with an improbable comeback, Courtney Williams and Napheesa Collier turning what was looking like a yawner into an instant classic. Breanna Stewart was a one-woman wrecking crew in Game 2, smothering another Lynx rally and evening the best-of-five series in front of a record crowd.
“The winner,” Liberty coach Sandy Brondello said after Game 2 on Sunday, “is women’s basketball. The WNBA.”
This has been a transformative season for the W. After steady growth the last few seasons, Clark’s arrival supercharged interest in the league. Ratings on the ESPN platforms for the regular season were up 170%, and the 27 games – so far – with a million or more viewers is almost double the previous best. Attendance was up 48%, and the 154 sellouts represented a 242% increase from last year. Sponsors are clamoring for a piece of the action.
It wasn’t just Clark, however. Wilson had one of the most dominant seasons ever in basketball, becoming the W’s first 1,000-point player and setting the single-season rebounding record on her way to winning her third MVP award.
But what has stood out most is the strength of the entire league.
When the Liberty put together a super team last season, signing Stewart, Jonquel Jones and Courtney Vandersloot as a response to the juggernaut that was Wilson and the Aces, most figured the rest of the league would have trouble keeping pace. That the Aces and Liberty wound up in last year’s Finals only furthered that notion.
This season, and these Finals, turned that idea on its head.
Much was made this year about the physicality of the league, but that’s been the W’s calling card since it began. Because women’s basketball is not played above the rim, it puts a premium on fundamentals. Defense, in particular.
Having players who score is great. Having players who can stop them is even better.
Almost nobody, maybe not even the Lynx themselves, would have predicted them to be here when the season began. But they had the W’s second-best defense, and Collier upset Wilson for Defensive Player of the Year honors. That Minnesota comeback in Game 1?
Williams and Collier’s offensive brilliance was only possible because of the Lynx defense. Trailing by 15 points, Minnesota held the Liberty to just three points over the final 5:20 in regulation. During that stretch, Collier had two blocks and a steal, Natisha Hiedeman had another steal and the Lynx harassed the Liberty into a shot-clock violation.
It was Exhibit A of what Las Vegas coach Becky Hammon meant when she said after the semifinals that her Aces were a good team with great talent while the Lynx were a great team with good talent. The game is at such a high level now that any team can be a threat if it’s built the right way.
And any team can upset the expected narratives.
“There’s more than one way to do this,” Cheryl Reeve, who is both coach and president of basketball operations for the Lynx, said after the semifinals. “A super team we are not, but we’re a darn good basketball team.”
Now Minnesota, a team most expected to finish middle of the pack before the season began, is headed back home with a chance to win its first title since 2017.
Can’t write it any better than that.
Follow USA TODAY Sports columnist Nancy Armour on social media @nrarmour.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: WNBA goes off script, result is wildly entertaining
