Liberty can't hold 15-point fourth-quarter lead, drop Game 1 of WNBA Finals to Lynx in overtime

This is what the Liberty wanted, another shot at the title after getting knocked out in the WNBA Finals a year ago.

“We’re better than we were last year,” Breanna Stewart said after Wednesday’s practice. “We’ve learned from it, and we’ve done all the things that we wanted to do this season.”

Except for this one last thing — win a ring.

Besides the experience of going through last year’s run, the top-seeded Liberty had another thing going for them against second-seeded Minnesota that they didn’t have last year against Las Vegas — the home-court advantage in the best-of-five showdown.

The Liberty, however, didn’t take advantage in Game 1 on Thursday night in front of a rocking sellout crowd of 17,732 at Barclays Center. They took a terrible loss, blowing a 15-point lead with just under five minutes left and falling in overtime, 95-93, on Napheesa Collier’s jumper with 8.8 seconds left.

“We had our opportunities to win and we didn’t finish it,” Liberty coach Sandy Brondello said. “We’re disappointed . . . We have to look about how can we be better.”

How many WNBA teams had climbed out of at least a 15-point hole in the final five minutes of regulation and won a playoff game? The answer would be none. Teams in that dire spot were 0-183.

“The basketball gods were on our side tonight,” Courtney Williams said after leading the Lynx with 23 points.

Jonquel Jones led the Liberty with 24 points and 10 rebounds. Sabrina Ionescu shot 8-for-26 and scored 19 points. Stewart had 18 points but shot 6-for-21 and missed a free throw for the win in regulation. Leonie Fiebich hit five three-pointers for a WNBA postseason rookie record and scored 17 points.

But the Liberty shot only 37.8% from the floor.

“We had a tough shooting night,” Brondello said. “We all did.”

It was 84-84 heading for the extra session.

Fast-forward to the final minute. Williams hit from four feet away to give the Lynx a 93-89 lead with 48.5 seconds to go.

Ionescu hit a floater to get it down to two and Jones made a steal and a layup to tie it at 93 with 28.5 seconds remaining.

But Collier nailed a jumper from near the foul line for two of her 21 points and the lead. After a Liberty timeout and a Minnesota foul with 2.6 seconds left, Ionescu inbounded to Stewart, who drove and missed as time expired.

“Collectively, there’s a lot of things that we can look at it and say, ‘This is one of the reasons why we lost,’ ” Stewart said.

Clinging to a four-point edge early in the fourth quarter, the Liberty took off on a 13-2 run. When Betnijah Laney-Hamilton drilled a three-pointer with 5:20 to go, it was 81-66.

The Lynx responded with an 18-2 run for the lead.

The Lynx were down 83-80 when Williams missed a three-pointer, but Alana Smith grabbed the rebound for Minnesota. Williams took another three, made it and was fouled by Ionescu. The four-point play gave the Lynx an 84-83 lead with 5.5 seconds left

After Brondello called a timeout, Minnesota committed a foul, and the Liberty inbounded it. It was knocked out of bounds, resulting in a jump ball when it couldn’t be determined whom it went off, but the Lynx then got called for a jump ball violation.

Stewart got her shot blocked by Collier, but it went out of bounds — Liberty ball with one second left.

Ionescu inbounded from the baseline to Stewart underneath. She went up and was fouled by Collier with eight-tenths of a second left. Stewart made the first to tie it but missed the second.

“It definitely sucks to miss,” Stewart said.

On to OT. “It felt like we got a second chance,” Collier said.

And to think the Liberty led by 16 in the first quarter at 30-14 and by 18 in the second quarter at 39-21. The Lynx sliced it to 44-36 at halftime. “They went to another level,” Brondello said.

The Lynx beat the Liberty for the fourth time in five tries this season.

“I think [the comeback] defines our team in terms of getting through difficult times,” Minnesota coach Cheryl Reeve said. “You have to be mentally tough, resilient . . . And we were that team.”

Changes coming. Commissioner Cathy Engelbert announced before the game that the regular season will expand from 40 to 44 games next year and that the WNBA Finals will expand from a best-of-five to a best-of-seven.