WNBA Finals: Lynx offense sputters in Game 2 defeat

The Lynx possess what’s, inarguable at this point, the best defense in the WNBA.

But a team as talented as the New York Liberty will inevitably find pockets of offensive success through the course of 40 minutes. The challenge, then, for the Lynx is to find a way to score alongside the Liberty.

Minnesota was unable to do so Sunday in New York.

The Lynx’s offense sputtered for much of the contest in a 80-66 defeat in Game 2 of the WNBA Finals. The series is tied 1-1 and the best-of-5 series will shift to Minnesota for Game 3 on Wednesday.

“Our offense was bad at a time when we really needed it. Our pace was slow. We were taking too long to get into things,” Lynx coach Cheryl Reeve said. “I don’t think we were terribly difficult to play against from that standpoint, and that’s obviously a difficult time to be doing that.”

Minnesota was just 6 of 20 (30%) from 3-point territory on Sunday, which wasn’t going to cut it on a day when the Liberty scored 49 points in the first half.

The Liberty had shot no better than 41% in any of their five previous meetings with the Lynx this season, but they hit 48% of their attempts on Sunday, including an 11 of 24 (45.8%) showing from beyond the arc. Breanna Stewart scored 21 points to go with eight rebounds, and Betnijah Laney-Hamilton buried four triples as one of New York’s four different starters to score 14-plus points.

To this point in the series, the Liberty are getting more out of their role players offensively than Minnesota — a stark difference for the Lynx from the first two playoff rounds.

Like in Game 1, the Liberty came out of the gates on fire, dropping 31 points in the first quarter, while going 13 for 18 from the field and 5 for 9 from deep. Minnesota was playing catch up from there and, unlike on Thursday, was unable to reel the Liberty in on this occasion. But the Lynx did come close.

A Napheesa Collier layup with 5:36 to play brought the Lynx to within two, making the score 66-64. Neither team scored until for another two minutes.

Jonquel Jones put New York up 68-64 before Courtney Williams hit a layup to again trim the deficit to two with 3:40 left. But that marked Minnesota’s final score of the game as the Liberty finished on a 12-0 run.

The Lynx were 0 for 5 from the field with three turnovers over the game’s final 3:30. That’s not going to get it done on this stage. It was the polar reverse of the poise Minnesota demonstrated down the stretch of its dramatic rally at the end of Game 1.

“This is a group that problem solves well together, they never think they’re out of it. Their belief in themselves and their belief in each other is top notch. And we know it’s a long game. They’re very experienced. We just knew we had to clean up, get some things cleaned up, and we did that,” Reeve said. “Put ourselves in position, right where we wanted to be, and just couldn’t get over the hump.”

Still, the Lynx can take solace in knowing they held the Liberty below 20 points in each of the final three quarters.

But the offense has to join the party.

Collier — who dealt with foul trouble in the second half — committed seven turnovers Sunday, while Bridget Carleton and Kayla McBride were each held below 10 points. The fact that Minnesota still gave itself a chance to steal the game in the fourth quarter is a reason for optimism. But the lack of urgency Minnesota has demonstrated in the first quarter of each contest of this series is cause for concern.

Reeve was much less upset about the late-game offense than she was the general tenacity of the team’s first quarter effort.

“I’m disappointed that we let (the deficit) get to 17. I’m more disappointed in that,” she said. “I’m more than disappointed, I’m (ticked) that it happened again.”

That cannot become a common occurrence if Minnesota aims to lift a trophy by series end.

“Obviously, you want to steal one on the road. We’re really disappointed in how we played today, but excited to go home and play in front of our crowd,” Collier said of going home for Wednesday’s tilt. “We have to respond and play better than we did in these two games. … You have to play with a level of desperation from the very beginning, so that’s what we’re going to need to do to come out with Game 3.”

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