Connecticut Sun and Minnesota Lynx prepare for Game 5 WNBA semifinals showdown

UNCASVILLE, Conn. — After the Connecticut Sun’s Game 3 semifinal loss to the Minnesota Lynx, Sun coach Stephanie White said her staff didn’t do a good enough job of getting players prepared. She said the Sun were outplayed, out-executed and, most of all, out-coached.

On Saturday, the lone day between Game 3 and Sunday’s Game 4, White and her assistants spent time dwelling on what they could change. Different lineup combinations were thrown out and debated. It wasn’t until around midnight, about 15 hours before the Sunday afternoon tip, that they settled on what to do. The solution: slide Ty Harris back into the starting lineup and move Marina Mabrey back to the sixth-player role.

Harris missed the conclusion of Connecticut’s first-round sweep over the Indiana Fever with an ankle injury. She has been limited in the semifinals. Back in the starting lineup Sunday night, she provided the Sun with a jolt, leading Connecticut to a 92-82 Game 4 victory with a team-high and career playoff-high 20 points to even the series 2-2.

As a result, the Sun and Lynx are heading to a fifth and final contest. Tuesday night’s Game 5 will decide who will play the New York Liberty in the 2024 WNBA Finals, which begin on Thursday.

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It’s fitting that these two franchises would need a fifth game to determine who moves on. Only one point separates Minnesota and Connecticut across their seven games thus far (three in the regular season and four in the playoffs). The Sun and Lynx boasted the No. 1 and No. 2 defenses, respectively, in the regular season. And their net ratings differ by just 0.1 points per 100 possessions.

Was this series ever going to end before a winner-take-all affair?

Through four games, the Lynx and Sun have traded stellar offensive showings. On Friday, the Lynx thrived and shot 57.4 percent from the field. On Sunday, the Sun’s offense came alive and shot 53.7 percent from the field and 53.3 percent from 3.

Put another way: “Our defense was sub-par,” Lynx coach Cheryl Reeve said. “And obviously that’s how they felt after the last game. This is how we felt this game. Makes for a great Game 5.”

It sure does.

But don’t expect many shockers.

“At this point, we know each other inside and out. It’s about players making plays,” White said. “It’s about the extra efforts. The hustle plays. It’s about not being denied and finding something deep inside of you that just allows you to come out on top.”

Of course, adjustments will be made. Exhibit A for the Lynx will be to re-evaluate their defense.

“We just didn’t present ourselves in the way that you need to to really compete and go toe-to-toe with a team that you knew would be really desperate,” Reeve said.

Added Napheesa Collier, who scored 29 points and 13 rebounds: “We have to rely on our defense, and it’s not been good the last two games.”

But the Sun know that the Lynx will await them with a heightened sense of urgency. Minnesota will look to clamp down on Harris, slow Sun star Alyssa Thomas in transition (she added 18 points, 11 assists and eight rebounds on Sunday), and frustrate DeWanna Bonner in the halfcourt (Bonner finished with 18 points on 8-of-12 shooting).

It’s time for Reeve, WNBA’s four-time Coach of the Year, to make tweaks to try and slow Connecticut’s roll.

In another fitting detail, the Sun also won’t be surprised by whatever the venue brings. They won in Target Center once this series, once in the regular season, and perhaps most importantly, once in a deciding Game 3 of last year’s playoffs.

“I know how tough we are. I know how resilient we are. We’ve been in positions like this and we’ve fought out of them,” Sun All-Star center Brionna Jones said.

That’s why Game 5 has the makings of an instant classic.

These semifinals may not have drawn the same fanfare as the 2023 finals rematch between the New York Liberty and Las Vegas Aces (New York defeated Las Vegas in four games). Fewer media outlets have covered it and the respective TV markets are smaller.

But the margins between Connecticut and Minnesota have been smaller all along. The stakes for both remain significant: Minnesota is looking to reach its first finals since 2017. The Sun have advanced to six consecutive semifinals but are still eyeing a first title.

After Game 5, both coaches voiced similar messages, independent of the result.

“We just didn’t present ourselves in the way that you need to to really compete and go toe-to-toe with a team that you knew would be really desperate,” Reeve said.

“Tonight’s effort is not going to be good enough in a Game 5,” White said.

That commonality was to be expected, too.

Both teams have until Tuesday to prepare for a fifth fight, one that was seemingly always going to take place.

This article originally appeared in The Athletic.

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