The Minnesota Lynx spent 44 games building the best record in the league, then fell apart when it counted and went two-and-out, swept out of the first round by the eighth-seeded New York Liberty, who took Game 2 87-71 to become the first No. 8 seed to eliminate a No. 1 in WNBA history.
This one was decided before halftime. New York led by five after a quarter, then closed the second on a 9-of-11 run to go up 49-37 at the break, and Minnesota never got within seven the rest of the night. No third-quarter surge, no Target Center push from a team that won 33 games. The hole was dug early, and New York had an answer for everything after.
Jonquel Jones was the answer that mattered most, the same way she was when she won Finals MVP against this same Minnesota team in 2024. She went for 21 points and 13 rebounds, owning the glass and the paint, while Breanna Stewart added 21 and Sabrina Ionescu 18. New York didn’t need a historic night from anyone; it needed three All-Stars playing their game, and it got exactly that.
Minnesota got the opposite. Williams led the Lynx with 18. Kayla McBride added 14. And Napheesa Collier — the two-time MVP runner-up this whole roster was built around — finished with a quiet 14, the number that will follow this team all winter. Olivia Miles, the Rookie of the Year, shot 1-of-8 for five points in 17 minutes and picked up a flagrant for catching Stewart in the face on a drive. New York was up 52-39 when it happened, and the crowd chanted “M-V-P” while Stewart calmly shot the free throws.
No possession in that second quarter ever turned it back into a series.
None of this arrived without warning. The Lynx were the best team in basketball for four months, then limped into the FIBA World Cup break, dropping a first-ever loss to the expansion Golden State Valkyries on Aug. 24 that cost them the chance to lock up the No. 1 seed on the spot. They came out of the break looking worse, not better, and the top seed they had banked over the summer papered over a September that told you exactly how October would go.
So what it means is the plainest thing in the world: the season is over. This is the second straight fall the Lynx have been bounced early, and this one stings more because the seeding promised so much and the finish delivered so little. Cheryl Reeve won her fifth Coach of the Year. Miles won Rookie of the Year. Neither award hangs from a rafter, and neither one showed up in New York.
Here is the honest read. This team was built on Collier’s two-way brilliance and a defense that grinds you down over 40 minutes. In the two games that decided the year, Collier scored 14 and 14 and the defense surrendered 91 and 87. A No. 1 seed is only as good as the week it plays in October, and Minnesota never showed up for the week.
Thirty-three wins, and October erased every one.
