ELMONT, N.Y. — Minnesota Lynx head coach Cheryl Reeve had a clear message ahead of her team’s first-ever Commissioner’s Cup Finals appearance: In the locker room before the game on Tuesday, she told her team that a win would put the Lynx in the conversation as a genuine championship contender.
“Now we have to talk about us,” Reeve said later that night, donning his championship hat for the first time since 2017.
The Lynx entered the season overlooked and underrated among an increasingly large group of WNBA Finals favorites. New York and Las Vegas returned entire starters from the superteams that clashed in the 2023 Finals. Seattle and Phoenix made waves with All-Star free agent signings. Indiana, Chicago and Los Angeles weren’t expected to contend for a title but garnered attention with buzzworthy lottery picks.
That leaves Minnesota, the recent WNBA dynasty that has won four championships in seven years and is struggling to stay relevant. The Commissioner’s Cup was awarded to Minnesota after the Lynx won a 94-89 defensive showdown against New York. Of the six teams that have played in the Cup so far, nearly all have earned a high seed in the playoffs. The 2022 champion Las Vegas Aces won their first WNBA championship, and the 2023 Las Vegas vs. New York game is a preview of the Finals.
“It’s a testament to where we are this season,” Cup MVP Napheesa Collier said, “It’s been a lot of fun. We’re a great team. We fit together, our personalities mesh well, we have great chemistry. We can score 20 points on any given night.”
Collier and Bridget Carlton each surpassed the mark with 23 and 21 points, respectively, to lead the Lynx on Tuesday night. Collier accepted the trophy but said it should have gone to Carlton, who was close to her career best. Carlton made 6 of 8 3-pointers in a game that was a back-and-forth affair and helped stop New York from scoring.
“We answered every run on the road,” Reeve said, “and that says everything about our basketball team and how they feel about each other and how much they trust each other.”
All eyes were on the Liberty, with New York potentially becoming the first team in the four-year history of the title game to win back-to-back championships. Asked before the game about stopping New York’s dynamic duo of Sabrina Ionescu and Breanna Stewart, Reeve countered that she has stars in Kayla McBride and Collier, the league’s top 3-point shooter and an MVP candidate, respectively.
Ionescu and Stewart combined for 47 points on 50 percent shooting to beat McBride and Collier’s 33 points on 34 percent shooting and likely won the battle. Ionescu shot 75 percent in the first half, but neither she nor McBride (2 of 9) were particularly good on 3-pointers.
Offensively, it was the cast around them that determined the game. Lynx’s Cecilia Zandarasini came off the bench to score 15 points on 5-of-6 shooting, while Liberty center Jonquel Jones scored just three points from the free throw line late, her season-low and below her four points against Minnesota last month.
McBride said the game saw the team begin to settle offensively and complement the defensive effort they’ve had since training camp.
“If you look at the game at home against New York, that was one of our most efficient games. Everybody gave it their all,” McBride said during shooting practice. “The game was [with a] “Having five starters score in double figures is a testament to an efficient offensive team.”
The defense also held up well against New York. The Lynx led the league in 3-point defense (27.1%) and held New York to 41.4% 3-point shooting (second-best against the Lynx this season), but Minnesota’s defense kept the Liberty calm after a strong first half.
“We really make it hard for opposing teams,” Collier said. “Our aggressiveness, our willingness to do everything we can. We support each other defensively and I think it’s really tough for opposing teams to compete against that.”
Minnesota supplemented Liberty’s solid 3-point shooting by taking the ball away (12-7 steal advantage) and, more importantly, by scoring off turnovers (27-9). Four players had at least two steals, and they collectively sped up Liberty, forcing them deep into the shot clock multiple times.
“We didn’t really get anything that we wanted and they kept looking for one of their players, whoever it was. [to hit] “A 3-point shot in the corner, a 3-point shot late on the shot clock, something late on the shot clock,” Stewart said, “and that’s going to be very difficult for us, and obviously you’re not going to win a game with 21 turnovers.”
Minnesota has beaten New York twice, Seattle three times, Phoenix twice (2-1) and Las Vegas once. The Lynx are first in defensive rating (87.6), third in offensive rating (102.3) and have two of the league’s top 20 scorers. They hoisted their first trophy of the season, celebrated in a curtained-off UBS Arena hallway and then turned their attention to Thursday’s matinee game in Dallas, when the shortened season resumes.
“You always want to win a championship,” Collier said. “This is a championship that we’ve won, but at the end of the day, we’ve still got work to do. The season isn’t even half over, and we’ve got a lot of games to play, so we want to use this to fuel us. We don’t want to peak here.”
The Lynx got more than just a trophy, they got new evidence that they are ready to be talked about as a championship contender, and the Liberty will be hoping to build on that success as runners-up and looking to win their first WNBA championship.
“Honestly, this is a great learning experience,” Ionescu said. “It’s not like we won’t play this team again, and I think we can continue to learn what great things they do defensively and try to take advantage of that.”
Minnesota returns to Barclays Center, home of the New York Liberty, on Tuesday, and unlike the Commissioner’s Cup championship game, the game will count toward the standings.
