2024 WNBA Finals Preview: New York Liberty vs. Minnesota Lynx
By Matt Hanifan,
6 hours ago
(Credit: Wendell Cruz-Imagn Images)
2024 WNBA Finals Preview: New York Liberty vs. Minnesota Lynx
The stage is finally set! After two thrilling WNBA semifinal rounds, the top-seeded New York Liberty will face off against the No. 2-seeded Minnesota Lynx in the best-of-5 series beginning Thursday at 8:00 p.m. inside Barclays Center! What should you expect from both teams? Let’s dive into it!
After falling short to the Las Vegas Aces last season, the Liberty are back in the WNBA Finals for the second consecutive year–this time after downing the Aces in the WNBA Semis in four games! The Liberty were the best team during the regular season, going 32-8 for the second straight year with the league’s top offense and third-best defense.
The Liberty, led by Breanna Stewart and Sabrina Ionescu , have been the most dominant team in the postseason through six games against the Atlanta Dream and Aces, too. A big reason to that has been the emergence of Ionescu, who’s been the team’s top scorer this postseason after struggling toward the tail-end of the regular season.
Despite her struggles in Game 3 against Las Vegas, she’s averaged 20.7 points, 5.2 rebounds, 5.2 assists and 1.5 steals on 48.9 percent and 46.5 percent from 3-point range on 7.2 triple tries per game; over her final 12 games of the regular season, she shot just 28.0 percent from deep (8.9 3PA) while knocking down just 33.2 percent from distance in a down long-range shooting season.
It may not mean much in the grand scheme of things, but the Liberty were 1-3 against Minnesota this season, including a five-point loss in the Commissioner’s Cup championship game in late August.
The Lynx had a tougher test in the semis against the Connecticut Sun, but they dominated Game 5 to advance to their first WNBA Finals since they won in 2017, their fourth title in eight years.
Minnesota has the chance to pass the Houston Comets (who are no longer an organization) and the Seattle Storm for the most WNBA Titles ever with five, should they top the No. 1-seeded Liberty. It won’t be easy, but Collier continues to play at an MVP level after becoming the first WNBA player in history to record at least 25 points and 10 rebounds in three straight playoff games.
The Lynx were also the only other WNBA team to finish in the top-4 in offense and defense, coming in at No. 4 and 2, respectively. They were the best 3-point shooting team in the sport during the regular season, despite shooting them as much as New York, and have nailed them at a 37.2 percent clip through seven postseason games.
Williams, McBride, Hiedeman and Smith have all been huge to Minnesota’s growth after it went 19-21 last season. After being the league’s best to end the season, can they cap it off with a title?
Biggest question:
Can the Lynx limit New York’s rebounding?
Rebounding wins championships. I’ll continue to say it until I’m blue in the face. The Liberty were the best rebounding team in the WNBA this season, while Minnesota was the third-worst, including the third-worst on the defensive glass.
Oddly enough, the Liberty out-rebounded Minnesota 43-25 in the Commissioner’s Cup championship, despite losing. That doesn’t happen very often–in fact, WNBA teams who have a plus-18 rebounding advantage in a game are 83-8 (.912) over the last 10 seasons and 197-19 (.912) since the turn of the century. It was a complete outlier– everything else has to go your way if it’s that lopsided on the glass.
Both teams out-rebounded their foe twice over their four games. Minnesota has to limit New York’s activity on the glass if they want to have any chance at upsetting the top-overall seed.
Prediction: Liberty in 5
This is going to be an incredible series–buckle up!
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