Can Lynx deliver first and last blow against Sparks in Game 5 of WNBA Finals?

LOS AN­GE­LES – Short­ly af­ter the Lynx had forced a Game 5 in this back-and-forth WNBA Finals se­ries with a grit­ty 80-69 vic­to­ry over Los An­ge­les, in a strik­ing­ly re­served Minnesota lock­er room, Seimone Au­gus­tus called for a rewrite.

See, this se­ries has borne a strik­ing re­sem­blance to last year's Finals, be­tween the same teams. Step by step, a mir­ror image. L.A. in Game 1, Lynx in Game 2, L.A. in Game 3, Lynx in Game 4.

But, en­ough.

Lynx fans will re­mem­ber the pain of the last-mo­ment loss to the Sparks on the Target Center floor last year. So if the nar­ra­tive of this se­ries has mim­icked that — it's time to stop.

"We will have a rewrite for the fi­nal game," Au­gus­tus said. "I gotta put that out there, put that en­er­gy out there. But this is great. This is great for women's basket­ball. Ev­er­y­bod­y's going to be tun­ing in to see what hap­pens."

In a se­ries that has fa­vored the team de­liv­er­ing the first punch, the Lynx, sty­mied of­fen­sive­ly two days be­fore, came out swing­ing Sun­day. They outre­bound­ed the Sparks 48-28 and took 30 free throws to Los Angeles' 16.

"We have to box out, and we have to re­bound," Sparks star Can­dace Parker said. "It's no secret they killed us on the glass. We're not going to win many games giv­ing up 16 of­fen­sive re­bounds."

Since the start of the Finals a sea­son ago, these two teams have played nine games. Nei­ther team has won two in a row.

The Lynx need that to change.

"Both teams are going to want to be more ef­fi­cient on of­fense," Lynx coach Cheryl Reeve said. "And to stop the oth­er team from be­ing ef­fi­cient. It's going to come down to hus­tle plays. It will be the ex­tra screen, the ex­tra pass, and what play­er rises up and makes plays."

The teams have trad­ed games filled with those plays. The Sparks stole homecourt ad­van­tage in a Game 1 that be­gan with the Lynx look­ing flat. In Game 2, Min­ne­so­ta set the tone. It's been a give-and-take se­ries be­fit­ting the two teams that fin­ished the regu­lar sea­son miles clear of the rest of the league.

It would ap­pear this se­ries has reached a point be­yond the X's and O's stage.

"We're going to play hard," said for­ward Rebekkah Brun­son, whose en­er­gy led the way for Min­ne­so­ta on Sun­day. "Both teams are good. Re­al­ly, re­al­ly good. Well-matched. No­bod­y is going to give up. But we're just hap­py to take it back to Min­ny."

It should be com­pel­ling. Both teams have shown the a­bil­i­ty to re­bound from a tough loss. The Lynx know the Sparks will re­spond to Sun­day's game, when they were outdone in ef­fort in just a­bout every way.

Will the Lynx re­cip­ro­cate?

Wil­liams Arena should be full. It holds a­bout 14,500 fans, and the Lynx drew 19,000 or so for Game 5 at Target Center last year.

"Our fans have built a home en­vi­ron­ment that's tough for any­one," Au­gus­tus said. "And the Barn is dif­fer­ent. They sit right on top of you. It's going to be amaz­ing. It's going to be loud. Our fans will have fun."

It will be a chance for both fran­chis­es to win a fourth WNBA title. For Brun­son, it's a chance to be­come the only play­er in his­to­ry with five rings. For Lind­say Whalen, it's a chance to play a win­ner-takes-all game in her old col­lege a­re­na. It's like a mov­ie script.

"I don't know a­bout a mov­ie," Whalen said. "But it will be on ESPN on Wednes­day night. So it will be on TV. And we'll be ready to go."