MINNEAPOLIS — The first two WNBA Finals games were determined in the first five and last five minutes. New York holds the upper hand in the former, building double-digit leads in each. The split nature of the last five is why the series is tied 1-1.
Minnesota head coach Cheryl Reeve’s message to her team heading into Game 3 (8 p.m. ET, ESPN) is that it’s now a best-of-three, and they want the first game, which will be played on their home Target Center court.
“Execute the hell out of this stuff,” Reeve said at practice Tuesday. “Value it. Don’t wait. Don’t wait and let someone else strike first. That’s what we’re looking for.”
Reeve said the same things the Liberty and head coach Sandy Brondello felt after their Game 1 loss. The pace wasn’t proper. They were a little “home-run play-ey,” doing too much individually and not moving the ball around at their near-historic rate. The turnovers in the final minutes doomed them.
“Not to take anything away from New York — they put us in that position,” Reeve said.
Minnesota’s Game 1 victory came two-fold: late playmaking by guard Courtney Williams and a complete meltdown by New York in the final five minutes. Neither of those happened in Game 2. The Liberty’s defense buckled down late, similar to its fourth-quarter defense in the team’s only previous win against Minnesota this season on July 2. That the Lynx climbed back wasn’t surprising to Brondello, and it wouldn’t be surprising if Game 3 follows the same pattern, yet again.
“You kind of know that you’re not going to blow out a team by 30 at this level,” Brondello said. “So they’re going to make runs and all that. It’s just handling. We handled the runs better in the second game than we did the first. So, you know, lessons learned.”
The Liberty’s large first-quarter leads helped provide a cushion the Lynx couldn’t keep up with, an issue Williams contributed more to the Lynx’s poor defense and inability to “bring the fight to them.” The Lynx allowed opponents to score on average 19.1 points in first quarters during the regular season, but the Liberty scored 31 and 32, respectively, this series.
“[There’s] this pattern of just being in a hole and then fighting out of the hole, but using all our fight to get out of the hole,” Williams said. “Now imagine we don’t get in the hole and we still got some fight. [It’s a] completely different game. Our mentality is not getting into that hole early in the game.”
The last stages of the game are what the Lynx offense must overcome. Minnesota is averaging 85.7 points in the postseason, a stat deflated by 66 points in Game 2, when they scored two points in the final 5:36 of play. That won’t win playoff games. Reeve lit into that side of the ball after the loss and opined for the need for players beyond the stars to step up.
“For two games, they’ve [the Liberty have] done that,” Reeve said Sunday in New York. “And we’re having trouble getting that consistently, but we’ve got to have that.”
The Lynx run through MVP runner-up Napheesa Collier, whose 20.4 scoring average in the regular season ranked fifth and her average of 25.2 is the best of the postseason. She led the team in scoring in 19 of their 40 games and seven of their nine postseason games. The only other Lynx high scorer in the playoffs has been Williams, and both were Minnesota victories.
But in three regular-season games against New York, Collier led the Lynx in scoring once — an 84-67 win in May. She also didn’t lead in the Commissioner’s Cup game that Minnesota won. In six total contests between the two so far, including two Finals games, she’s led in points twice after scoring a team-high 16 in Game 2. The Lynx are 1-1 in those games. They’re 3-1 when similar or greater production comes from elsewhere, including double-digit numbers from the bench.
Reeve has consistently described her team as a “collective” rather than a “superteam,” and that’s how the Lynx will need to approach their offense to win two more games and a record fifth title for the franchise.
That usually is balanced production from Williams and guard Kayla McBride, plus a strong game from Bridget Carleton and nearly 20 points from the bench. The Lynx are 0-2 in the playoffs when McBride scores in single digits, as she did with eight points in Game 2. Reeve said Williams’ usage was too high and McBride’s “not enough.”
Carleton, who led the Lynx in scoring in two regular-season wins against New York, hasn’t played to her 44.4 3-point percentage most of the playoffs. She’s 7-of-32 (21.8%) in the last six games. And the bench posted a minuscule five points in the last game against New York after a helpful 15 in Game 1.
“They were really physical [in] Game 2, so I feel we need to get the ball in movement and match their physicality,” Collier said. “I just don’t think we came ready to do that on either end in Game 2.”
Winning Game 3 not only puts the Liberty on the brink, but it’s also imperative for the Lynx because the Liberty have yet to lose two in a row this season. Dropping Game 3 and having to win back-to-back, including a Game 5 at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, is a tall ask for the Lynx.
“Do you want to go back to New York? That’s it. That’s my motivation right there,” Williams said. “That’s what I’ve been saying to all my teammates. Do y’all want to go back to New York?”
