Liberty motivated to deliver fans long-awaited WNBA championship in Game 5
Liberty guard Sabrina Ionescu reacts in the final minute against the Minnesota Lynx during the second half of Game 4 of the WNBA Finals on Friday in Minneapolis. Credit: AP/Abbie Parr
The Liberty knew what was at stake.
They knew they were one win away from being celebrated like no New York team has been celebrated here in more than a decade.
The area hasn’t seen a ticker-tape parade for a local team since the Giants won the Super Bowl in 2012, but Mayor Eric Adams promised the Liberty will get their ride down the Canyon of Heroes if they earned a victory in Sunday night’s winner-take-all Game 5 against the Minnesota Lynx at Barclays Center.
“It would mean everything,” Liberty guard Sabrina Ionescu said before the game. “There’s just so many people who have New York running deep in their veins, wanting a championship. And knowing that we’re doing that to other people’s lives through the way we play and bring them happiness and joy, that’s what sport is about.”
The Liberty faithful have been waiting 28 long years to feel that kind of happiness and joy. The Liberty are the only original member of the WNBA that has never won a title, having lost in the finals five times.
This will be the eighth time in league history that the WNBA Finals have come down to a Game 5. The Liberty could have clinched the championship in four games on Friday, but the Lynx defense pushed Minnesota to an 82-80 win after holding Ionescu and Breanna Stewart to a combined 8-for-27 shooting.
Perhaps that had to be expected. Perhaps WNBA fans were owed a winner-take-all moment, given what kind of basketball season this has been and what kind of finals have been played.
In many ways, there couldn’t have been a more perfect finale to what has been a transformative season for women’s basketball than for the teams with the two best records to be playing a Game 5.
Consider what had taken place the past 12 months leading up to Sunday night. First Caitlin Clark pushed interest in the women’s college game to previously unimaginable heights and then carried those new fans into the WNBA, helping to both fill arenas and bolster television ratings.
Then, after the U.S. women's Olympic basketball team won its sixth straight gold medal, a record number of fans turned their attention back to the WNBA. After setting viewership records in the regular season, viewership for Game 3’s Liberty win over Minnesota peaked at two million viewers, making it the most-viewed WNBA Finals game of all-time.
The game has proved to be so popular that this will be the final five-game series in the finals. The league has announced that they'll be moving to a best-of-seven format next season.
This five-game series has been chock full of big moments. Game 1 featured an 18-point comeback, including Courtney Williams’ four-point play in the final seconds to give the Lynx an overtime win. While the Liberty bounced back with a blowout in Game 2, it took a miracle shot by Ionescu in Game 3 to put the Liberty up, 2-1. Game 4 was about as even as it gets with there being 14 lead changes and 13 ties.
Lynx coach Cheryl Reeve entered the game looking to coach her team to a fifth title, breaking a tie with Houston and Seattle for the most in WNBA history. Reeve knows something about playing in pressure situations, having played in six of the eight finals that have gone five games.
“I don’t really think about the other ones,” Reeve said. “I do feel very blessed in my career to have a chance to have been a part of so many. Haven’t won them all. In Detroit, we suffered a heartbreak at home. So, it runs the gamut. What I’m just thrilled about is this group gets to experience Game 5.”
Though the Liberty would have rather have closed it out in Minnesota, obtaining homecourt advantage throughout the playoffs was the driving force to them finishing with a league-best 16-4 record at home.
The team has been motivated all season by the fact they lost to Las Vegas in four games at last year’s finals. The last thing they wanted was to see another opponent being awarded a trophy on their home floor. This team was built to win championships, and to fall short again will be devastating to fans.
“Being on our home court, we’ve worked for this,” Liberty coach Sandy Brondello said before the game. “So we have to make the most of it now.”
Barbara Barker is an award-winning columnist and features writer in the sports department at Newsday. She has covered sports in New York for more than 20 years.