NEW YORK — Talk about a tale of two teams with very different histories.
The New York Liberty are looking for the first championship in franchise history. To bury a persistent legacy of losing in the finals they'll have to beat the Minnesota Lynx, who have claimed four WNBA Championships.
The Liberty advanced to the WNBA Finals for the second straight year after knocking off two-time defending Las Vegas Aces in the semifinals. They've made the league championship series five times in the history of the franchise and lost each one.
It's been awhile for the Lynx, who haven't been to the finals since 2017 when they won the last of their four championships claimed over a seven-year span. Minnesota needed five games to advance to the 2024 Finals, beating Connecticut at home Tuesday night in the decisive game. It was a slice of sweet revenge, as Connecticut eliminated Minnesota here in the decisive Game 3 of the first round last season.
Since that 2017 championship, the Lynx were just 1-4 in winner-take-all games in the playoffs before last night's big win.
Game 1 of the best-of-5 Finals is Thursday night, giving the Lynx little time to recover and prepare for the Liberty.
“Talk about the schedule, who cares. Nobody’s going to feel bad for us,” Minnesota coach Cheryl Reeve said. “Got to go hooping right away and we’ll do that.”
These two teams have already faced off for a title of sorts this season, when Minnesota won the Commissioner's Cup championship back in June. By doing so, Lynx players and coaches were awarded a pot of $500,000 to split.
New York is hungry for a championship after falling just short against Las Vegas last season. The Liberty went to the finals in three of the league’s first four years and lost each time to the Houston Comets. Then they lost two years later to the Los Angeles Sparks.
“We haven’t done anything yet,” said Breanna Stewart, who had 19 points, 14 rebounds, five assists and four blocks in the clinching win over Vegas. “This was a tough series, an emotional series, for a number of different reasons (there’s) just the feeling of not satisfied.”
“We went to the Finals last year,” Stewart added, “and we didn’t do nothing.”
The Liberty have been playing with that emotional scar all season and used it to lead them to the WNBA's best record, which secured home-court advantage throughout the playoffs.
Despite opening on the road in the Big Apple, the Lynx won't be scared of New York, having won two of three regular season meetings and the aforementioned Commissioner's Cup Championship.
“I think the regular season doesn’t mean anything, they are an amazing team,” said Minnesota star and WNBA Defensive Player of the Year Napheesa Collier. “It’s going to be a great series, great basketball. Two teams with great players competing.”
Along with her defensive honors, Collier was runner-up for the WNBA MVP, a scoring, rebounding and passing machine.
“She’s improved every season. She’s just been incredible. Every game, it’s more than scoring how she helps our team," coach Cheryl Reeve said. “When she plays like the MVP, we're tough to beat.”
“She’s just the combination of everything you want in a player, but I think the thing that makes her so special outside of the obvious skill set is she doesn’t get rushed,” added Sun coach Stephanie White about Collier. “She stays so poised, no matter what, and you can tell the rest of her team feeds off of that.”
The Liberty has its own star power with Stewart, a two-time WNBA MVP who averaged more than 20 points and 8 rebounds over the 2024 season. Like Minnesota's Collier, Stewart starred for UConn.
Three more wins and Minnesota will be the first WNBA team to claim five championships, breaking a tie with the Houston Comets and the Seattle Storm.
The first two games will be in New York with Minnesota hosting the next two. There's a potential conflict for Game 4 on Friday, Oct. 18, with the Minnesota Timberwolves hosting the Denver Nuggets in an exhibition game the same evening.
The Lynx and Timberwolves use Target Center as their home court.