Huge shots by the Lynx were memorable, but they won Game 1 of the WNBA Finals with defense

NEW YORK – What many will remember most about the Lynx’s victory Thursday in Game 1 of the WNBA Finals will be the big shots.

Courtney Williams getting an and-1 on a second-chance three-pointer late in regulation, a basket that was the talk of the game after a 95-93 victory in overtime over the New York Liberty.

Napheesa Collier, the game tied late in overtime, calmly hitting a fall-away in the lane over the 6-6 Jonquel Jones for the game-winner.

Williams and Collier combining to go 9-for-13 and scoring 21 points as the Lynx outscored the Liberty 23-10 over the final 8-plus minutes.

In fact, it was the only game in WNBA playoff history — out of 184 — where a team trailed by 15 or more points with five minutes remaining in regulation and rallied to win.

But take a look at the defense.

It has been the Lynx’s backbone all season. Five players on a string. The Lynx have scrambled, rotated and had teammates’ backs, while securing the No. 2 seed, while winning two playoff series, while winning the WNBA Finals opener.

That was certainly the case in that final run, during which the Liberty shot 4-for-19 with six turnovers, two of which were shot clock violations, as Minnesota was using a 12-1 run over the final 3-plus minutes to force overtime.

None of this is new, but it never gets old.

“It’s just taking one possession at a time,” Collier said ahead of Sunday’s Game 2 at Barclays Center. “We’ve been in situations where we’ve been down before, and that’s when we really lean on our defense.”

And that was the message in timeouts down the stretch of one of most entertaining Finals games ever.

“That’s something we were talking about, getting three stops in a row, chipping at it a little bit at a time,” Collier said. “Not thinking about the point difference, but thinking about the possession that we need to get a stop and score.”

Dig a little deeper and you find that, within the Lynx’s defensive team concept, there was some impressive individual defensive work.

Start with Kayla McBride. Her 22 points made her one of three Lynx players (Collier 21, Williams 23) to score 20 points. She hit 6-of-11 shots, 4-of-7 threes and had four assists.

But her defense: Often matched up with New York guard Sabrina Ionescu, she forced Ionescu — a member of the U.S. Olympic team — to go 8-for-26 overall, to 3-for-9 shooting on threes and committing three turnovers.

Or Alanna Smith. As has been the case all season, the 6-4 Smith was matched up against a bigger player, Jones. And while Jones was the Liberty’s leading scorer with 24 points, Smith held her own — especially after the first quarter — and finished with nine rebounds, three blocks and a steal.

“She’s not going to wow you,” Lynx coach Cheryl Reeve said of Smith. “She’s not going to fly around, scoring the ball, making post moves. It’s not her.

“But what she does for our team is not underappreciated. Fighting through. Every night playing against the opposing team’s big, and she’s not big. And you look at the success that she has in doing that, it’s the reason we’re sitting here today.”

Smith scored nine points and had nine rebounds, including the offensive board that led to Williams’ four-point play late in regulation.

And Collier, who was 10-for-16 shooting with eight rebounds, had a night. The WNBA defensive player of the year was often matched up with Breanna Stewart, who shot just 6-for-21 while scoring 18 points. Collier’s six blocks tied her own team playoff record; who can forget her block late on Jones, which came even with Jones had locked arms with Collier?

The four Liberty starters other than Jones were a combined 22-for-61 (36.1%). The entire Liberty team other than Jones shot 25-for-76 (32.9%).

The Lynx stole a road game in the best-of-five series.

After the game, Reeve was clearly unhappy about the rebounding, about the Liberty’s 23 second-chance points. There is a lot to clean up, she said.

But the rock of Minnesota’s success is a pretty good place to start.

“You look up at the end, and you know, we held them below 40 percent, which is monumental,” Reeve said. “A lot of that was obviously late. We got big stops when we needed them. Repeatedly, whether the ball is going out of bounds or 50/50 balls.

“Referees, whatever happens, jump balls, all that stuff. We just had to be gritty at the end. We had to get stops to win and that’s what I’m proud of.”