New York Liberty win WNBA championship: Score, highlights from win over Minnesota Lynx
By USA TODAY,
10 hours ago
The New York Liberty can finally call themselves WNBA champions.
After coming up on the losing end of five WNBA Finals, the Liberty captured their first championship, beating the Minnesota Lynx 67-62 in overtime of the decisive Game 5 Sunday night at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York. The Lynx had won a hard-fought Game 4 Friday in Minneapolis to force a winner-take-all game in the best-of-5 finals.
Jonquel Jones led New York with 17 points and six rebounds, and Breanna Stewart 13 points and 15 rebounds. Napheesa paced Minnesota with 22 points and seven rebounds, while Kayla McBride added 21 points, five rebounds and five assists.
It’s been a long road for the Liberty, one of the original teams when the WNBA debuted in 1997. New York reached the league’s first final that season, losing to the Houston Comets, and were dispatched by the Comets again in 1999 and 2000 before losing to the Los Angeles Sparks in 2002. It then took the Liberty 21 years to make it back to the Finals, but they couldn’t overcome the Las Vegas Aces last year.
But now, New York has finally conquered the mountain and can celebrate a long-awaited WNBA championship in the Big Apple.
"Oh my god! This is incredible," Stewart said in a post-game interview with ESPN. "I knew I was going to make it for this city. This is something special right here.
"It means everything," Stewart continued. "I wanted to come here, and I wanted to be the person. We fought through because we wanted to bring it home for this city and this crowd."
▶ Scroll below the gallery for a full recap of Game 5.
Center Jonquel Jones won the individual award following a 17-point performance in Game 5. Jones shot 5 of 10 from the field while collecting six rebounds and one assist in 42 minutes of play.
In an already tightly contested WNBA Finals, it's no surprise that decisive Game 5 between the New York Liberty and Minnesota Lynx is headed to overtime.
Liberty star Breanna Stewart made two free throws with 3.8 seconds remaining to tie the game 60-60 after the Lynx challenged the foul call on Alanna Smith, which the officials upheld. Minnesota's Kayla McBride launched a shot at the buzzer which hit the rim before New York secured the rebound.
Stewart had missed two free throws with 38 seconds left in the game.
Per ESPN, this is the first WNBA Finals with multiple overtime games, and the first OT winner-take-all game in Finals.
New York Liberty guard Sabrina Ionescu (20) looks to drive past Minnesota Lynx guard Courtney Williams (10) during Game 5 of the WNBA Finals on Oct. 20, 2024. Wendell Cruz, Imagn Images
Minnesota Lynx star Napheesa Collier made a driving layup with 1:35 remaing the winner-take-all Game 5 against the New York Liberty to even the score at 58-58.
Ionescu hit her first bucket of the game – a 3-pointer with 3:10 left in the game to give New York a 56-52 lead. Ionescu is now 1-of-15 from the field with three points
The forward for Minnesota has been sacrificing her body all game, banging in the paint with Jonquel Jones and with just over seven minutes to play, Jones was whistled for an offensive foul that sent Smith to the ground. She was in tears instantly, and stayed on the ground for several minutes clutching her lower back while Lynx trainers attended to her.
Smith managed to walk off the floor on her own power. She briefly went back to the locker room but returned to the bench with just under six minutes to play. No one knows if she’ll go back in or not. -Lindsay Schnell
Nyara Sabally and the Liberty have taken control of the game and enter the final period with momentum. Sabally had 11 points in the third quarter. Sabrina Ionescu is still shooting 0-for-10 from the field but has managed to score two points from attempts at the free-throw line.
One thing is for sure: the Minnesota Lynx cannot win a championship without Alanna Smith, who is playing on a bad back.
And after taking another hard fall, Smith looks like she’s in serious pain.
Smith went to the ground fighting for a rebound with New York’s Jonquel Jones, and slammed hard to the ground, immediately reaching for her lower back. She waved to the bench right away, asking for a sub and biting her lip in clear pain. She’s moving very gingerly as the Lynx head to the locker room. -Lindsay Schnell
Napheesa Collier and Minnesota have been able to take advantage of the early lead they've produced in the opening minutes of the game. Collier scored a game-high 14 points in the first half for the Lynx.
Kayla McBride has shot 4 of 5 from the field with nine points, three rebounds and three assists in the opening half
Sabrina Ionescu remains scoreless after going 0 for 8 from the field for the Liberty. Breanna Stewart produced her first points of the game in the second quarter. She has five points and 10 rebounds at halftime.
New York Liberty coach Sandy Brondello knows what it’s like to coach – and play – in big games.
The Australia native coached the Phoenix Mercury to the WNBA championship in 2014 and was named Coach of the Year that season before guiding the Mercury back to the Finals in 2021. Brondello took over the Liberty before the 2022 season, and one year later, coached New York to its first WNBA Finals appearance in 21 years. Now, she has New York back in the Finals for the sixth time in franchise history.
Brondello began her WNBA career as a player in 1998 with the now-defunct Detroit Shock and was named an All-Star one year later. She also played for the Seattle Storm and the defunct Miami Sol.
But, the WNBA isn’t the place where Brondello has made her mark in the basketball world. She won two Olympic silver medals and one bronze playing for the Australian national team at the 2004, 2000 and 1996 Summer Games, respectively. She added another medal as a coach, helping the Opals win the bronze medal at the recent 2024 Paris Olympics.
Napheesa Collier leads all players with nine eight points and three rebounds in the first quarter for the Lynx. Alanna Smith had five points and three rebounds.
Breanna Stewart and Sabrina Ionescu were scoreless through the first quarter of play. Jonquel Jones led the Liberty with four points.
Napheesa Collier and the Lynx are off to a fast start in the first quarter. Collier scored six of the team's first eight points and built and early 8-2 lead with 5:57 left in the first quarter.
When is Game 5 of the WNBA Finals?
Game 5 of the WNBA championship series between the Liberty and Lynx is Sunday at 8 p.m. ET at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.
How to watch Game 5 of the WNBA Finals
Game 5 will be broadcast on ESPN with Ryan Ruocco (play-by-play), Rebecca Lobo (analyst) and Holly Rowe (sideline reporter) on the call.
Will there be a live stream of Game 5 of the WNBA Finals?
The game can be live-streamed on ESPN+ or the ESPN app, in addition to Fubo , which is offering a free trial.
The New York Liberty bring their 32-8 season into Minnesota to take on the four-time champion Lynx. A title this season would mark the Liberty's first championship.
The 2024 WNBA Finals series will be broadcast across ABC or ESPN, depending on the game. Streaming options for the series will be on Fubo , Sling and the WNBA League Pass.
Napheesa Collier's 2-year-old daughter, Mila, is a fixture at Lynx games. Lindsay Schnell, USA TODAY Sports
NEW YORK — The Finals storyline no one knew they needed: Napheesa Collier’s 2-year-old’s favorite player in the WNBA might actually be New York guard Sabrina Ionescu.
Shortly after the Lynx won Game 4 in Minneapolis and forced a winner-take-all Game 5 in Brooklyn, a video started circulating social media of an ecstatic Mila hugging Ionescu and her husband, Hroniss Grasu.
Turns out Ionescu and Mila became fast friends in Paris during the Olympics, hanging out at the USA Basketball hotel.
“We were attached at the hip,” Ionescu told USA TODAY Sports, her smile stretched ear to ear. “We got breakfast together every morning. (After Game 4) I was walking to the bus — it was the first time I’d seen her since Paris — and I hear this little kid screaming my name and I just lit up. It was a reunion on both sides, I’d been waiting to see her.”
Ionescu was popular with all the USA Basketball kids during the Olympics, earning the votes of Team USA when it came to “player you would hire to be your nanny.” Mila was her No. 1 fan, frequently asking people “Where’s my Sab?” when she couldn’t find Ionescu.
Collier said Mila tends to scream “Sabrina!” anytime she sees Ionescu on TV. But Collier said there’s no question who Mila — frequently seen around Minneapolis’ Target Center in a mini No. 24 jersey — is rooting for in this Finals series.
“She’s a friend to all, but she’s rooting for us,” Collier said, laughing. “It’s Mama over everybody.”
No one has played more minutes this series than Minnesota forward Napheesa Collier, a sixth-year veteran who has already set a single-postseason record for scoring with 263 points and counting.
Collier has played 158 of a possible 165 minutes through four games (Game 1 went to overtime) and when told of those numbers, she laughed and said, “I”m not surprised,” adding that she doesn’t know how anyone else could have played more than her.
So what will it feel like next year when the Finals goes to seven games, mirroring every other major pro league?
“I know it’s great for the sport and everything but, shit,” Collier said. “That’s gonna be a battle.”
Her coach agrees.
“I’m a big fans of watching NBA Finals and playoffs, and having been part of hard five-game series I’ve always thought, ‘Oh my God, seven has got to be crazy,’” said Lynx coach Cheryl Reeve. “Because of the swings. What you go through, physically and mentally, through the course of a seven-game series is a lot. I suspect playing people 40 minutes in a seven-game series would be a bad idea.”
ESPN PR announced that the New York Liberty's 80-77 victory over the Minnesota Lynx in Game 3 was the most-viewed WNBA Finals game watched on cable with 1.4 million viewers. The viewership peaked at 2 million viewers and saw a +112% increase compared to Game 3 of the 2023 finals on ABC. The league is experiencing record viewership .
"Forty-eight hours after taking a very hard fall in Game 3 , Smith played through a lot of lower back pain Friday and finished with 12 points, seven rebounds, a block and a pair of steals and assists. Her defensive contribution won’t show up in the stat sheet, but she was again tough in the paint, especially when she had to body up Jonquel Jones." - Nancy Armour
The most famous basketball fan in America is back at Barclay’s for Game 5 – sporting a game-worn, signed Sabrina Ionescu jersey, no less – and is feeling optimistic about his city finally getting a title.
“This is a great atmosphere. This is the sixth time they’ve been to Finals, lost five, so this is the night. This is the night,” Lee said during an appearance on WNBA Countdown.
Lee is best known as a New York Knicks super fan, sitting courtside and trash talking opponents. But he said he loves the game in general, and is happy to see more people recognizing that the WNBA is “legit.” Co-host Carolyn Peck reminded Lee that the two of them were at the Atlanta Olympics together, the year before the W began, and asked how he’s seen the game change from then until now.
“Growth,” he said. “People understand, this game, it’s legit. It’s not just the YWCA. They’re playing. They’re athletes.”
Lee occasionally went to Liberty games when they were playing at Madison Square Garden. But his fandom really ramped up after New York took Sabrina Ionescu with the No. 1 pick in 2020. Ionescu said Lee left her a message saying how excited he was for her to get to the city and experience the love NYC has for hoops.
Lee and Ionescu reconnected at the 2024 NBA All-Star game, where Ionescu competed in a 3-point competition against Steph Curry. Ionescu said she told Lee it was time for him to get to a game, and he agreed. He's been a sideline fixture throughout the postseason, usually wearing her jersey.
“She’s going to do her thang,” Lee predicted. “T-H-A-N-G. Thang.” - Nancy Armour
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