MINNEAPOLIS — The eighth-seeded Liberty set out on a challenge that no team has accomplished since the playoff format changed.
The job, as Jonquel Jones put it, was “to make history.”
No top seed has failed to make it out of the first round since the WNBA changed its playoff format in 2022.
But the Liberty are one win away from changing that after beating the Lynx 91-75 in Game 1 of the first-round series Sunday.
It wouldn’t be right to say the Liberty “stole” this game. The Lynx all but handed it away.
Never mind the fact that it was Olivia Miles’ first WNBA playoff game, a nerve-wracking debut for even the most level-headed players. But Kayla McBride wasn’t converting for deep. Napheesa Collier and Natasha Howard had four fouls apiece by the 8:33 mark of the third.
And yet, the Liberty still struggled to pull away, allowing the Lynx to hang around.
The Liberty led by only five points entering the fourth quarter.
Then, with a struggling Sabrina Ionescu on the bench, the Liberty started to crawl away and hush what had been a rowdy Target Center crowd.
Breanna Stewart’s 3 with 4:07 left took the life out of the building as fans headed for the exit.
Stewart, as she has all season, was incredible, finishing with 34 points, 12 rebounds, and six assists.
Leonie Fiebich chose a great game to erupt on offense. She scored 14 of her 16 points in the second half and went 4-for-5 from deep.
One of the biggest challenges the Liberty faced heading into this series was slowing Miles.
New York’s defense seemed to create a blueprint for doing so earlier this month in the Liberty’s 12-point win on Sept. 18, with Fiebich, Pauline Astier and Rebekah Gardners taking turns hounding her.
The Liberty followed a similar tactic Sunday, picking her up well beyond half-court. They closed off driving lanes to the basket, too, making Miles work for her 11 points and one assist.
The Lynx opened the game with six unanswered points. The Liberty responded with a flurry of 3s and disruptive defense, leading to a 15-0 run.
The Liberty led 25-18 at the end of the first quarter.
But things started to come undone in the second. The hot shooting cooled off. The Liberty went 1-for-9 from deep after cashing in on their first four 3s.
New York also committed seven turnovers in the second quarter, disrupting their flow from one end of the court to the next.
The Liberty defense, particularly on Miles, was sound for the most part. They hounded her, throwing Fiebich and Astier on her well beyond half-court.
New York also did a good job of taking away open driving lanes to the basket.
The Lynx started to find their rhythm in the second.
The final 30 seconds of the first half swung the score in favor of Minnesota. Courtney Williams drained an open 3. Moments later, Miles sank a step-back 3 to put the Lynx up 44-40 at the break.
The Lynx outscored the Liberty 26-15 in the second.
The Liberty punched the Lynx first in the third. They opened with an 11-2 run, led by Stewart who scored six points in the first 3:30.
McBride splashed her first 3 of the game with 1:43 left in the third. She drained another before the fourth.
But it was too little too late.
Before the game, Lynx coach Cheryl Reeve told her Liberty counterpart Chris DeMarco that the fact New York is “an eight seed is really cruel for the No. 1 seed.”
Was it psychological warfare or a real assessment of just how little margin of error there is in the playoffs?
Probably a little bit of both.
The parity in the league this season means that the gap between one and eight is slimmer than ever before.
The Liberty managed to steal Game 1 on the road. They did the same thing a year ago in Phoenix but laid an egg in Brooklyn before losing Game 3.
New York can’t afford to do that again if the team is serious about making history and avoiding another early playoff exit.
