Where were the New York Liberty stars? The Lynx kept them quiet and forced a WNBA Finals Game 5

MINNEAPOLIS — Through four games, the WNBA Finals have been decided by the slimmest of margins. A missed free throw sending the game into overtime and a blown layup on one end turning into a 3-pointer on the other were just a couple of the dramatic finishes. Three of the four contests have come down to one possession, and the winners often can’t point to anything they’re doing definitively better than the losers.

In a series with minimal separation, when there are no secrets between the two teams after eight meetings this year, New York had to look to its stars to make plays. The Liberty had heroic moments from their big three Wednesday, but with a chance to end the season and clinch their first title in franchise history, New York’s best came up short. With an 82-80 Minnesota victory, the series swings back to Brooklyn for a decisive Game 5 on Sunday.

From the start of Game 4 on Friday night, Breanna Stewart was off balance, missing her first eight field-goal attempts, which tied the longest drought of her career to begin a game. Her 3-point looks were in rhythm, but many of her attempts inside the arc were in a crowd when it would have behooved her to swing the ball to an open teammate. Instead, she forced a lot of shots in the paint that created bad floor balance in transition defense.

Considering how productive Stewart can be as a passer — witness her skip pass to Leonie Fiebich in the corner when she drew three defenders on a drive with less than three minutes to play — the decision to try to score at all costs was more surprising.

What resulted was Stewart’s worst shooting performance of the series, a 5-of-21 effort that was somehow less efficient than her 6-of-21 shooting in the finals opener. Minnesota star Napheesa Collier has taken the primary defensive assignment on Stewart throughout the finals and thought her effort in Game 4 was the same as in the prior contests, but the outcome was dramatically different. The Lynx withstood 11 points from Stewart compared to 30 and 21 in the two Liberty wins.

“I think that I was going a little bit too fast, I just needed to slow down,” Stewart said. “They are sending multiple people when I’m slipping on a screen, stuff like that. (I need) a little bit better awareness on my part.”

With Stewart struggling, the Liberty needed Sabrina Ionescu to pick up the mantle. Ionescu had some powerful drives to the basket and converted 5 of 10 shots inside the arc, but her separating factor is her ability to connect from distance. Minnesota’s defense, led by Kayla McBride on Ionescu, ran Ionescu off the line on most occasions, and when she did find a little bit of daylight from 3-point range, she couldn’t hit.

LYNX FORCE A GAME 5 IN THE WNBA FINALS 🔥

WINNER TAKES IT ALL SUNDAY ON ESPN 🏆 pic.twitter.com/RtQ6wjJeV0

— ESPN (@espn) October 19, 2024

“It’s the fourth time we are playing them,” McBride said. “We know each other so well and know each other’s tendencies. It’s just making everything hard. That’s the name of the game on both sides right now.”

Beyond their individual defenders, the Lynx benefited from having their defensive anchor in the middle available for 30 minutes. Alanna Smith ended Game 3 in a world of pain after hurting her back, in addition to tweaking her ankle in Game 1. She played less than half of the game Wednesday, with Minnesota losing the minutes she sat by 23. With Smith on the court, hedging high to trap Ionescu in ball screens and still protecting the rim, the other Lynx had back-line support to be as aggressive as possible on Stewart and Ionescu. The Liberty shot 19-of-39 in the paint, well below league average from that zone.

For much of the season, the Lynx have taken pride in pointing out that they weren’t constructed as a super-team (a moniker thrust upon New York after blockbuster moves before last season). Those teams rely on the production of their all-stars, but Minnesota has a full roster of contributors. “We’re successful because our collective outworks other people’s superstars,” Lynx guard Courtney Williams said.

New York’s bench has shortened the further it has advanced into the postseason. Courtney Vandersloot was a starter until the first game of the postseason and can’t crack double-digit minutes in this series. Kayla Thornton also played only seven minutes after averaging 20 in the regular season, and Kennedy Burke, who played useful minutes in the WNBA semifinals, has been excised from the rotation altogether.

Meanwhile, Minnesota unearthed Dorka Juhász in Game 4, and she managed to spell Smith for nine minutes. Juhász also brought some needed physicality to the game, forcing a tie-up with Stewart on the offensive glass. Cecilia Zandalisini also had her best game of the series with 6 points and several timely drives.

There isn’t much to distinguish between the Liberty and the Lynx at this point of the season. They know each other’s schemes left and right, they value similar principles on offense with their pace and movement, and they try to disrupt defensively. Most importantly, they’ve both won two games in this series, victories that they’ve had to eke out by the skin of their teeth in possibly the most balanced WNBA Finals in league history.

New York’s star power was supposed to be its trump card in matchups like these. In Game 5, Stewart and Ionescu will have one more chance to prove they can make it so.

This article originally appeared in The Athletic.

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