NY's Mets and Yankees gear up for championship series — and Liberty face a big test

Our fall of playoff fun and tension continues in the New York City area. The Mets and Yankees took care of business this week and are gearing up for their league championship series. And in the WNBA finals, the New York Liberty face their first big challenge of the postseason.

Sports reporter Priya Desai joined Weekend Edition's David Furst to size up what's ahead. A lightly edited transcript of their conversation is below.

Furst: Let's start with the Liberty. They're going to try to bounce back Sunday in Brooklyn from a tough overtime loss in game 1.

Desai: That game, David, ranks among the all-time greatest WNBA playoff games.

Oh, just a foul shot away. They could have done it in regulation!

It was a tough loss for the Liberty, but an absolute improbable comeback by the Minnesota Lynx. The Liberty had a 15-point lead with just a little over five minutes left in the game. And the chances, David, of the Lynx winning the game at that point was less than 1%.

Wow.

It seems As if the Liberty took their foot off the gas towards the end, and it cost them, as you mentioned, Libs All-Star Brianna Stewart missed a free throw to win the game. They were then forced into overtime. And if you remember a couple of weeks ago, I told you that the Lynx are the team that no one was really focusing on heading into the playoffs.

Yes, I do recall. So you know what you're talking about.

I love being right. Meanwhile, you know, the Lynx were quietly winning games all season and they have the second-best defense in the league. Lynx star player Nafisa Collier was defensive player of the year and her performance in overtime helped solidify that win ,and the Liberty were simply outcoached towards the end of the game.

Okay, so two great teams. What's it going to take for the Liberty to tie things up in game 2?

Well, the saying goes, it's not a series until a team wins on the road, and the Lynx won big on the road. So game 2 is a must win for the Liberty before the series heads out to Minnesota.

To their credit, the Liberty started off strong. They outshot, outshot and out rebounded the Lynx. John Quayle Jones had a double double. They came into the playoffs as the No. 1 seed. Like this is their season, right? But never count out an underdog. And that's what the links have been labeled as, I think rather unfairly. And if you are new to the WNBA, the links are a championship- winning franchise. And their coach, Cheryl Reeve, is a legend. She already has four titles with the links. So that's why I mentioned earlier that coming into the second half of game 1, the Liberty may have been outcoached, and they mentally, more than physically need to come prepared for the next game.

Well, perhaps there'll be a wake up call. We'll have to see how things go in game 2.

Now, let's talk about October baseball. The excitement continues: The Mets and Yankees are both in their respective league championship series, and while these two teams have gotten equally as far, there are different vibes going on in each fan base, right?

Oh, yeah. Another underdog story, but this time with the Mets, who truly are underdogs — and no one have could have predicted this a month ago, and it's been really fun. Maybe it's stressful at times to watch. I thought no shot in this series against Philadelphia, who had the second-best record in the league — and then the Mets, they do it in just four games and a grand slam in game 4 from Francisco Lindor?

Incredible.

You love to see it — if you're a Mets fan. They now head out to L.A. to face the Dodgers and I feel as though I'm copying pasting my conversation with you when they were going up against the Phillies. The Dodgers have a dominant pitching staff. They have the best record in the league. And, well, they have the best player in the game, Shohei Ohtani — but the Mets magic has brought them all the way to this point, and as they say, it's anyone's game in playoff baseball.

Mets are the underdogs and they certainly had a tough beginning to the season, but their record in second half of the season — incredible.

Yeah, and I think that they really are taking that and running with it. They must be tired though, you know?

Well, they're getting their first rest right now, so we'll see, we'll see.

But then they've got to fly to, fly to LA.., and as we know, that's a long flight.

That's a long flight. That starts tomorrow night in Los Angeles.

Now over to the Bronx. The Yankees are still waiting to see who they will face on Monday. It's either going to be the Detroit Tigers or the Cleveland Guardians. We'll find out this [Saturday] afternoon. But the story of how the Yankees got here is different.

(Update: The Guardians 7-3 triumph over the Tigers Saturday has them set to face the Yankees in the ALCS)

It's been interesting to watch the Yankees advance in the playoffs because there hasn't been that same sort of charge. I think, you know, I heard a couple of Yankees fans say they're a little jealous that they don't really have that same energy, but the Yankees as an organization are generally more buttoned up.

However, there are questions surrounding Aaron Judge, who's really struggled this postseason. Juan Soto is a pending free agent. This postseason feels a little heavy, but you know what would help that? A World Series win.

Sure, sure. That helps lots of things!

While we have you, in the NFL, the Jets play the Buffalo Bills Monday night with a new coach on the sidelines.

Yeah, the Jets pulled a Jets move and fired head coach Robert Saleh, and now have promoted defensive coordinator Jeff Ulbrich. This was a team that was talking Super Bowl in the preseason, so is this what it takes for them to get close to the Super Bowl? I mean, it's an absolute mess.

And to top it all off, Aaron Rodgers has an ankle injury. What's his status?

Yeah, it's a it's a lower-ankle injury suffered in the last game. It looks like he will probably play, but you want Your QB, who has a new offensive coordinator and a new head coach to be practicing, right?

Yes. Well, we'll have to see how that all unfolds.

Meanwhile, the Giants play Sunday night at the Meadowlands, taking on the Cincinnati Bengals. Sports reporter Priya Desai. Thanks again. Thank you.