Down but not discouraged: Fans cheer for the Lynx at St. Louis Park gym

As the Lynx battled the New York Liberty in their second game in the best-of-five series, a group of fans paced around the Fitspace gym in St. Louis Park, their heart rates elevated along with thousands of other Lynx fans across Minnesota.

They hoped their team could pull out of an early deficit for a second come-from-behind victory. But, the watch party ended on a disappointing note with the Lynx falling 80-66. Still, Lynx fanatics, perched on treadmills and stair climbers, were upbeat throughout the game.

“I want this for them so bad,” said Nancy Johnson of Minneapolis. As a longtime season ticket holder, she has gotten to know some Lynx players. She used to sit courtside with her mother, Marion, who died two years ago.

On Sunday, Johnson wore a T-shirt of her mother pictured cheering at a Lynx game. She said she felt close to her mom watching games.

“It’s cool to feel so alive with my mom right now,” Johnson said as she waved a rally towel in the air.

During a commercial break, Johnson and fellow fan Nancy Campbell of Chanhassen took turns spinning a basketball on their fingers as Adam Winters of Wayzata egged them on.

“My heart is pounding, and it’s only the beginning of the game,” Campbell said.

Campbell and other longtime fans hope to see another championship for the team. She said she was thrilled to see more people paying attention to the WNBA this season, after Caitlin Clark mania and the Olympics brought more fans to the women’s game.

Winters has been helping the Lynx get ready for this series as a member of the team’s practice squad. Ahead of this series, he was tasked with playing Liberty center Jonquel Jones and spent hours studying her moves to play like her.

On Sunday, Winters proudly showed off a photo of himself with Lynx star forward Napheesa Collier, holding her Olympic gold medal. Now, he said, he hopes to help the Lynx win another national championship.

“Go Phee! Numbers!” Winters shouted as Collier sprinted to the Lynx basket toward the end of the first quarter.

Down by 10 points at halftime, Winters’ wife, Steph Winters, who owns the Fitspace gym, said she wasn’t too worried.

“You know New York had to be angry after Friday,” she said, when the Lynx came back to win in overtime in the first game of the series.

Steph Winters said she saw people at the gym who don’t normally watch women’s basketball being pulled into the action of that first game. After feeling the fan frenzy when she attended Game 1 in New York, Steph Winters decided to host an intimate watch party for Game 2. She’s glad more people are seeing how much fun WNBA games can be.

After the loss Sunday, she said she still felt good about the upcoming games Wednesday and Friday in Minneapolis and the chances of the Lynx winning the championship for a fifth time.

“We have two at home,” Winters said. “And we’re only two wins away from another ‘ship.”