MINNEAPOLIS — For the second time in as many seasons, the Minnesota Lynx head into the WNBA playoffs as the league’s No. 1 overall seed. A record of 33-11, including a mark of 18-4 on the road, was good enough for the league’s top spot and ensured home-court advantage for the duration of the playoffs.
Winning 33 games and getting the one seed is a nice step in the right direction for Minnesota, but this season won’t go down as a success story unless the Lynx find a way to be the team that climbs to the top of the mountain.
“This is where you’ve got to be really, really intentional,” Lynx head coach and president of basketball operations Cheryl Reeve told reporters after practice on Saturday. “You’re singularly focused on one team. So you get to only worry about that and the nuances and how you really hone in on being intentional about your attacks.
“When you’re in the regular season, you’re kind of just playing to your identity. I think both teams are going to look at certain matchups that you like, going to be more intentional to get into those matchups or actions. That’s what both teams are doing right now.”
“[A] three-game series you don’t have a lot of time to figure it out, so you hope you get it right in your first game,” Reeve added. “From there it’s just adjustments to see what the other team is targeting.”
Lynx vs. Liberty
The ‘one team’ Reeve is referring to is, of course, the New York Liberty. Winners of 26 games in 2026, the Liberty are the winningest last-seeded team in league history, both in terms of total wins and winning percentage. They also took two out of three meetings against the Lynx this season, making this a less-than-typical No. 1 vs. No. 8 matchup.
Last year’s No. 8 seed, the Golden State Valkyries finished two games above .500 at 23-21. That snapped a 13-year streak of at least one team qualifying for the playoffs with a losing record.
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There’s plenty of basketball between the two teams from this season for one to sink their teeth into in regard to this series. While both teams will undoubtedly be focused on winning two games this week, the outside world is already sinking its teeth into the irresistible low-hanging fruit of viewing this as a rematch of the 2024 WNBA Finals. The iconic five-game showdown that ended with the Liberty, not the Lynx, as the ones hanging a banner when it was all said and done.
“It was one of the best series in WNBA history. The two best teams going at it, playing great basketball,” Napheesa Collier said Saturday when asked about recalling the last time these teams met in the postseason. “Obviously I wish we would have won the series, but it was a great showing of what the WNBA is with the talent, the excitement, so many game winners. It was a fun series.”
Collier didn’t hesitate to put the ‘24 Finals in the pantheon of the great series in league history, but stopped short of giving any gas to the idea of a rematch.
“We have a completely new team, so it doesn’t feel like a rematch of 2024,” she said. “This is a new season for us. This is a new path to a championship, so I think we’re just focused on whoever we’re going to play today and making sure that we’re coming out ready. Because it’s about how our team is preparing. I don’t feel like it’s a rematch. It’s a new season, a new team, and we’re coming out trying to be the best versions of ourselves.”
Liberty guard Sabrina Ionescu, whose game-winning 3-point shot in Game 3 was one of the defining moments of that Finals, did admit to the matchup feeling like a ‘rivalry,’ but also that this series is its own opportunity.
“I love it,” Ionescu said to reporters after New York’s regular season finale. “There’s obviously a rivalry with having played them in the Finals and having won. They’ve been the best team all year, and we haven’t, but now we get the opportunity to go out and upset a one seed, and that excites us. We know we’re not a traditional eight seed. A lot of things didn’t go our way. The regular season is what it is in the standings. But now we have an opportunity; it doesn’t matter what seed you are, you’re just playing.”
Collier, Dorka Juhász, Kayla McBride and Courtney Williams are the only players still on Minnesota’s roster who participated in the 2024 Finals. When asked if any conversations were taking place about what happened two years ago, Reeve didn’t mince words.
“Not at all,” she said. “Not at all. As [my son] Oliver would say, ‘That’s so 2024, mom.’”
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Olivia Miles’ playoff debut
The sure-fire choice for WNBA Rookie of the Year will be tasting professional playoff basketball for the first time.
“Definitely really excited,” Miles said Saturday. “I’m excited to just feel the energy and the crowd at Target Center. It’s always electric in there, but I can’t imagine what it’s going to be like tomorrow. I’m excited to feel the physicality of the game. Obviously, feel it out, see how the refs are calling stuff, see how I can get to my spots and help the team as well.”
Miles knows she hasn’t experienced anything quite like the challenge of navigating playoffs in the WNBA yet. As the intensity ramps up, and the opponents become familiar over the course of playing each other several times in a short time frame, Reeve wants her young point guard to know that playing with the same steady hand will continue to serve her well in the postseason.
“I mean, obviously she has no idea what this feels like,” Reeve said. “That’s the thing that she’s asking. You know, never too high, never too low is a really good space and so we’re going to be around her to do that. You don’t have to take it all on. Being competitive is fine. I think for her, combining her intelligence with her competitiveness is a really good space.”
As she has throughout her outstanding rookie season, Miles has impressed the veterans around her with her curious nature and drive to solve any problem in front of her.
“She’s so inquisitive,” McBride said after Minnesota’s regular season finale. “She’s just like a little sponge. She wants to know everything. That’s what I appreciate about her. I think the biggest message that I’ve given her is just feel the energy. She’s such an instinctual player. She’s obviously so cerebral and talented. But playoffs are different, so just keeping her energy contained in the right ways and also letting everything loose.
“Winning a championship is the hardest thing, so you have to find joy in how hard it is. I think that’s what she’s learned over these last 10 days watching us go through this adverse situation. I’m kind of glad that it happened that way. I don’t want her to [think] that everything is easy. When we get there on Sunday, it’s 0-0. I think she feels that more than ever.”
Miles has faced heavy pressure in matchups with the Liberty so far this season. Whether she’s 94 feet from the basket or driving with a head of steam for a layup, New York has tried to make things as uncomfortable for her as possible. In three contests against the Liberty, Miles was held to 16-of-50 from the field (.320), her lowest shooting percentage against any team.
“They want to disrupt me full court, whether that’s [to] get in my head or push me off balance, whatever it may be,” Miles said. “I also don’t mind it. If it allows one of my teammates to get an advantage, or get someone in foul trouble, it’s helpful. I’m kind of used to it at this point. I know it’s going to happen and I trust my teammates to be there for me.”
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Growing through adversity
A late-season snag wasn’t unique to the Lynx, but Minnesota still fell short of its own championship standard on too many occasions down the stretch. The right combination of learning from that experience without dwelling on it will be critical for the Lynx to go on a deep run.
“I am glad these things have happened to us, versus them happening next week,” Reeve said before Thursday’s regular season finale. “It’s given us a lot of good information as we prepare for what teams might try to do. It doesn’t feel very good necessarily, but every team that I can think of, whether it’s Lynx teams through all the years, or even this season, every team goes through adversity. Every single one of them.
“I think there’s unrealistic expectations of our team maybe here that we’ve built, and we’re happy to have those expectations, but we all know you should fully expect to have tougher times in the season. That’s why championships, when you win, that’s why people cry. Because it’s not a straight line to success, and it’s hard. It’s how you handle the tough times.”
The Lynx suffered one of their worst losses of the year in the regular season’s penultimate game in Indiana. After not trailing by 20 points all season long, the Lynx trailed by as many as 29 in the first half against the Fever, leading Reeve to bench the entire starting lineup and ride the reserves for the last half and change of the game. Minnesota’s bench unit cut the lead to seven, before ultimately running out of gas.
The lessons learned from that tough loss were on display two days later when the Lynx led by as many as 36 in a blowout win against the Fever.
“It felt good to play cohesively for the first time in a while,” McBride said after Thursday night’s game. “I was just really proud of how we bounced back. It’s not easy. Social media, like we see everything. Everything that you guys post, Twitter, blah blah, I turned it off. Everybody’s talking about how we’re 1-4 in the last games, we got benched, all this stuff; it’s like noise. It’s everybody, and it’s natural.
“But there’s nothing anybody can do or say when we’re between those four lines. I felt like we came out and we did that, and it was about us being between those four lines together. That’s when we’re at our best, so I was really just proud of how we showed up for one another today. That’s what it takes to be great.”
The rearview mirror is exactly where the Lynx hope performances like Tuesday night’s remain. Any road to a championship is guaranteed to have a few bumps
“The last game really taught me a lot about this team,” Miles said Saturday. “The ability to turn the page when you’re going through tough challenges and to not give up on yourself. Everyone may say, ‘Lynx this, Lynx that.’ It’s important to just stay with whoever’s in the trenches and has gone through it every day, and has gone through adversity.
“To see them come out and play like that and respond was really impressive. So I have no doubt this team, in a series, let’s say we face adversity, we’re able to overcome it over time.”
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