Outside the 3-point line, Leonie Fievich paused for a moment. She looked around. With just over 90 seconds left, Lynx guard Courtney Williams tripped off the dribble, giving Liberty a six-point lead, and the ball rolled and kept rolling across the midcourt line until Fievic picked it up.
And given that Brianna Stewart cut to the basket and a late lead quickly melted just two days ago, even if Fievic didn't have to rush to take the shot, she would have taken it anyway. I hit it.
Liberty coach Sandy Brondello watched Stewart make the cut from his perch on the sideline.
That's when she noticed that Fibig was elated. Guard Courtney Vandersloot said it was a “huge” shot. “It’s gutsy,” she added. And when it went through the net, the Liberty had a true dagger for the first time in this series.
Up until that point, Game 2 of the WNBA Finals had played out similarly to Game 1 for the Liberty. They built a 17-point lead in the first half. They watched Liberty's season head to a crossroads as the Lynx made steady advances, slow and slow, and at some points rather rapidly, reaching two points in the fourth quarter.
But Fievic's shot was the final counterpunch in Sunday's 80-66 win in front of a record 18,046 at Barclays Center as the series moved to Minnesota, tying the Finals at 1. It became.
Liberty escaped using a blueprint that worked all season and helped them get to this point in the first place.
They held Lynx star Napheesa Collier, who is on pace to become the league's all-time leading scorer in the postseason, to just 16 points. A balanced offense led by Sabrina Ionescu in the first quarter and led by Brianna Stewart (21 points) and Bethonia Rainey Hamilton (20 points) for the rest of the game provided plenty of cushion and plenty of separation. Ta.
“If you're not playing the right way and doing the right things, things can go bad quickly,” Vandersloot said. position. “
A second loss to Minnesota wouldn't have been good. The Lynx have already been the only team to beat Liberty multiple times this season, and are hoping to overcome the emotional hangover caused by Stewart's collapse in Thursday's game-winning game when he missed a free throw in the final minutes of regulation after the game against Liberty. It was already imposed on Liberty. He opened up a double-digit lead.
But Liberty shot 72 percent and quickly built a 10-point lead with Ionescu scoring 12 points in the first quarter.
Just like in Game 1, they forced the Lynx into difficult shots. They led by as many as 17 points and led by 10 at halftime, similar to Thursday's 18-point advantage.
“It's unfortunate that we allowed 17 points,” Lynx head coach Cheryl Reeve said. “I'm more disappointed. I'm angry.”
But in the end, the Lynx came out strong again in the second half, even though Collier went to the bench late in the third quarter with four fouls. She returned in the fourth and hit a come-from-behind jumper with just over six minutes left to make it a four-point lead. Courtney Williams finally scored with 3:40 left to take a 68-66 lead.
And from her spot in the corner, in what became her signature shot, Laney Hamilton had a window. It was short, but it was enough to get something after Ionescu drove into the paint for a no-look pass. And when the shot went through the net, Vandersloot thought to himself right there on the bench.
“As if [in Game 1] It slowed down to a pace that was a little awkward for us,” Stewart said of Liberty’s offense late in the game. “We want to play fast. We want to move the ball. We want to go downhill. Obviously we want to score. So we play fast no matter what. We're going to keep going. We're going to get some good shots. And we're going to make that defense work.”
Liberty did not collapse again and maintained its lead.
They hit the shot that ended the game. This time, Liberty didn't need the last two free throws. This time, the team avoided the franchise's best regular season and the 2-0 hole that reversed everything the superteam had built over the last year — starting with a convincing Game 1 from the Aces. That's when I couldn't recover.
And on an afternoon when a Lynx win would have erased much of Liberty's margin of error, they confirmed that its mark was still there, at least through Wednesday. There is still life left in their season.
