New York Liberty heads to Minnesota to face Lynx in WNBA Finals after avoiding another collapse

Breanna Stewart had a relatively long wait for redemption.

There were two days in between Thursday’s Game 1 of the WNBA Finals, in which Stewart and the New York Liberty collapsed Thursday in a 95-93 overtime loss to the Lynx, to Sunday’s resilient Game 2 victory.

The Liberty were the first team in WNBA playoff history that led by 15 points with five minutes left in regulation time and still lost on Thursday. Stewart, a two-time WNBA MVP, missed a free throw at fourth quarter’s end that would have won the game for New York, then missed a layup at the overtime buzzer that would have tied the score.

Then came an extra off-day to contemplate what was lost, and remind what remained at stake in Game 2 of the best-of-five series.

But the Liberty, despite losing most of another large lead, prevailed Sunday 80-66 at Barclays Center by scoring the final 12 points of the game.

And now it’s the Lynx’s turn to wait until Wednesday’s Game 3 at Target Center.

Stewart went 6-for-21 and scored 18 points on Thursday, but uncharacteristically made those two mistakes when it mattered.

“The moment the game ended, I was looking forward to Sunday, just to be able to kind of change things, change the narrative a little and know I’m going to come out and obviously be better,” Stewart said after Game 2.

The former University of Connecticut star is a two-time WNBA champion and two-time Finals MVP with Seattle. She’s also a three-time Olympic gold medalist who signed with New York as a free agent in February 2023 with the clear goal of delivering the Liberty their first WNBA title.

She said her teammates lifted her up after those Game 1 miscues.

“Throughout this entire process, my team has my back every step of the way,” Stewart said. “I was just excited to have another opportunity to go to battle because we have a lot of fun in everything that we do. And you know, it’s not always like that.”

It wasn’t like that in Stewart’s bounce-back Game 2 when she had 21 points, eight rebounds, five assists and a WNBA Finals-record seven steals. Three of those steals came in the fourth quarter, when the Liberty ran the table after Lynx guard Courtney Williams’ driving layup brought her team within 68-66 with 3 minutes, 40 seconds remaining.

The Liberty led by as many as 17 points in the second quarter before the Lynx got within two.

“She’s resilient,” Lynx coach Cheryl Reeve said of Stewart, whom she coached at the Paris Olympics in August.

“She played exactly like we thought she would. … Her impact defensively was something that we felt. You know, what did she have, seven steals? So you know, she’s been doing that in these playoffs.”

Reeve said she didn’t think Stewart played Game 2 for redemption, just for the win.

“You have to ask Stewie, but I don’t think that’s what was on her mind,” Reeve said. “What was on their collective minds is it was a must-win game for them and they came out and played like it was and they took the game.”

The Lynx now return home with home-court advantage tugged back on their side after pulling out Game 1 someway, somehow. And it’s now basically a best-of-three series, with Game 4 on Friday at Target Center … and, if necessary, Game 5 on Sunday in New York.

For now, the teams had Monday and will have Tuesday to prepare for their next most important game of the season.

The Lynx tied the Liberty for best home record in the regular season (16-4) while New York had the WNBA’s best road record (16-4 as well).

“Obviously you want to steal one on the road,” said Lynx star Napheesa Collier, who was a UConn freshman when Stewart was a senior on the 2015-16 team that went 38-0 for its fourth consecutive national championship. “We’re really disappointed in how we played [Sunday], but excited to go home and play in front of our crowd.

“We have to respond. We have to come out playing better than we did in these two games.”