How Liberty Turned Historic Loss Into an Epic Win

The New York Liberty put forth a brilliant atonement effort after a historic collapse.

Brandon Todd, NY Liberty

The concrete jungle where dreams are made of produced a nightmare but it could wind up spawning the ultimate euphoria for the New York Liberty.

After sitting on the wrong end of an instant classic in Game 1 of the 2024 WNBA Finals against the Minnesota Lynx, the Liberty responded with a strong two-way effort that produced an 80-66 equalizer in Brooklyn on Sunday.

"I think the moment (Game 1) ended Thursday night, I was looking forward to Sunday, just to be able to kind of change things, change the narrative a little bit, and know that I'm going to come out and be the same that I was and be, obviously, better," forward Breanna Stewart said in the aftermath.

Brandon Todd, NY Liberty

Stewart led the way with 21 points and a WNBA Finals single-game record seven steals while Betnijah Laney-Hamilton had her best scoring effort in over two months with 20. New York held Minnesota scoreless over the final 3:40, embarking on a 12-0 run in that span. It was a stark contrast to the ending of the opener's regulation, which saw Minnesota erase a 15-point lead in just over minutes en route to an overtime triumph that left Atlantic Avenue speechless.

"What we continued to keep saying to one another was like stay together, keep playing," Stewart said of the final minute. "Every rebound matters and even if our offense gets a little bit stagnant and funky, we are not going to let that dictate what we do defensively."

Until those final 220 seconds ticked off Barclays Center's scoreboard, Game 2 followed a similar script to its predecessor: New York leaped out to an early, lasting lead and withstood several Minnesota rallies that came as close as two. This time, though, the Liberty never let the Lynx snatch it away, leading wire-to-wire en route to a tied series.

Game 1, the Liberty explained, offered a macabre, if not effective, lesson.

"It was just going back and watching the film, then watching the mistakes, and, you know, being brutally honest about what we need and what we don't need and that some of the traits that we have as a team when we go up ... are not good traits and things that we do outside of ourselves that are uncharacteristic." forward Jonquel Jones said. "I think sometimes we do get a little bit, I wouldn't say, comfortable, but we get outside of our foundation when we go up, or even sometimes when we go down and so it was just brutally honest. We watched the film, we understood it, and we knew that if we wanted to be successful against that Minnesota team, that it was going to take all of us really locking in and playing the right way."

"I think we responded well. I think we kind of learned from Game 1 and applied it tonight," guard Courtney Vandersloot added. "When they cut the lead to two, things change. That's kind of where, you know, the momentum shifted and we crumbled like game one. It didn't happen this game, and then we were able to go on the run. We made big plays down the stretch, big shots, big stops and that was growth."

Overcoming adversity and limiting damage on the schedules and ledger has been a theme for the Liberty this season: the team has not lost consecutive games since May (including the first of four defeats to the Lynx) and has earned a WNBA-best 17-5 record away from home this season.

Brandon Todd, NY Liberty

That's particularly huge considering that the only two guaranteed games on the remaining docket will be staged at Target Center, beginning with part three on Wednesday night (8 p.m. ET, ESPN). Faith and chemistry, the seafoam savants implied, was the key to keeping the advantage this time around.

"Throughout this entire process, my team has my back every step of the way and I was just excited to have another opportunity to go to battle with them," Stewart said. "We have a lot of fun in everything that we do, and you know, it's not always like (Game 1)."

"Our coaches, did a really good job preparing our film and everything, making sure that we were prepared for this moment," added Laney-Hamilton. "We took the time to just work on the things that they were doing really well and how we could counter that, but then also just sticking to what we know that we do well and not deviating from that, but continuing to grind it out."

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