SI:AM | The Best Game of the WNBA Playoffs

Plus, the reasons behind Patrick Mahomes’s new contract.

Good morning, I’m Dan Gartland. I’m excited to be going to AEW Grand Slam tonight at Arthur Ashe Stadium.

In today’s SI:AM:

📝 Why the Chiefs reworked Mahomes’s deal

🥱 MLB’s most boring playoff contender

🎙️ ESPN’s curious announcer decision

Liberty take care of business

The WNBA playoffs are (mostly) going as expected. Three of the four first-round series were sweeps by the higher seed, while the final series (Sun vs. Lynx) will be decided tonight.

With all due respect to Connecticut and Minnesota, though, the teams everyone wants to talk about this postseason are the two superteams, the Aces and Liberty. Las Vegas, fresh off the winningest season in league history, cruised through its first-round series against the Sky. New York has also advanced to the semifinals after surviving an overtime thriller last night against the Mystics.

Game 2 in Brooklyn was outstanding. It was a back-and-forth affair that saw the Liberty take a 46–35 lead into halftime only for the Mystics to storm back and lead by as many as six in the final four minutes of the fourth quarter. The Liberty made a handful of critical mistakes in the final minute of regulation (two turnovers and a pair of missed free throws by Sabrina Ionescu) but managed to hold on and force overtime. The Liberty had the upper hand in the extra period, going 4-for-5 from the field while Breanna Stewart was 6-of-6 from the line, as New York came away with a 90–85 victory. (Watch the highlights here.)

The win secured the Liberty’s first trip to the WNBA semifinals since 2015. It had been a rough few years for New York, which had earned a bye to the second round of the playoffs in ’16 and ’17 after strong regular-season performances but lost both times in the league’s former single-elimination format. After a three-year playoff absence, the Liberty lost in the first round the past two seasons. But this is a different version of the team—literally. New York completely remade its roster this offseason, adding Stewart and Courtney Vandersloot in free agency and trading for Jonquel Jones. That trio, paired with former No. 1 pick Ionescu, formed the heart of the best team in franchise history.

The Liberty had a great regular season, going 32–8, shattering the franchise record for wins in a season (23–11 in 2015). But a superteam isn’t truly successful if it doesn’t win in the playoffs, and New York’s series victory over Washington brought us one step closer to a postseason showdown of the two best teams the league has ever seen. The Aces are every bit as good as the Liberty, thanks to a similarly stacked roster that includes A’ja Wilson, Kelsey Plum, Chelsea Gray and Jackie Young. Las Vegas went 34–6 this season, setting a new WNBA record for wins in a season. The Aces faced little resistance in their first-round series against the Sky, winning the two games by scores of 87–59 and 92–70. They’ll face the Wings in the next round.

Aces vs. Liberty is the Finals matchup everyone wants to see, and while New York’s win last night kept that possibility alive, it would be foolish to start looking ahead to the Finals. The Liberty will face the winner of the Sun vs. Lynx series that will be decided tonight. Game 3 is in Minnesota after the Lynx bounced back from a Game 1 blowout to take Game 2. If the Sun advance, they would be a tough opponent for the Liberty in the next round. Despite trading away Jones, Connecticut had an excellent season, going 27–13 behind a career-best year from Alyssa Thomas (15.5 points, 9.9 rebounds and 7.9 assists per game). Provided they can take care of business tonight, don’t sleep on the Sun’s potential to play spoiler.

The best of Sports Illustrated

Morgan Tencza/USA TODAY Sports

• Albert Breer explains why the Chiefs really had no choice but to rework Patrick Mahomes’s contract.
• The Giants might end up making the playoffs, but Tom Verducci finds their brand of baseball deeply uninteresting.
• Deshaun Watson isn’t playing or acting like a franchise quarterback, Michael Rosenberg writes.
• Jimmy Traina can’t understand why ESPN again isn’t sending its top college football announcers to Boulder.
• Matt Verderame ranked every 0–2 team in the NFL by how likely it is to make the playoffs.
• Clare Brennan profiled the Timeless Torches, the Liberty’s 40-and-over dance squad that’s just as much a superteam as the WNBA team it represents.
• You have to see the hilarious photo shoot Colts tight end Kylen Granson did after catching his first NFL touchdown.
• The XFL and USFL are reportedly set to merge.

The top five...

… things I saw last night:

5. Mets pitcher Joey Lucchesi’s throw to no one in particular.

4. Yankees catcher Kyle Higashioka’s framing a pitch that bounced eight feet wide of the plate.

3. Umpire Ron Kulpa’s attempt to calm down A’s manager Mark Kotsay.

2. Blue Jays pitcher Yusei Kikuchi’s ridiculous sleep schedule.

1. Lazio goalkeeper Ivan Provedel’s stoppage-time goal to salvage a draw in the Champions League against Atlético Madrid.

SIQ

The Giants and 49ers will renew one of the great NFL rivalries of yesteryear this week on Thursday Night Football. Can you name the Hall of Fame quarterback who played for both teams?

Yesterday’s SIQ: Which country snapped the United States national softball team’s 112-game winning streak in an 11-inning thriller at the Sydney Olympics on Sept. 19, 2000?

• Cuba
• Japan
• Australia
• Canada

Answer: Japan. The U.S. entered the tournament with a 110-game winning streak, dating back to the 1998 world championships. After beating Canada and Cuba, the U.S. faced Japan in its third game of the preliminary round and lost in 11 innings after stranding a whopping 20 runners on base. The Americans had the bases loaded in the seventh, eighth and ninth innings and failed to score a run each time as Japan came away with a 2–1 victory.

The loss was just the tip of the iceberg for the U.S., which also lost its next two games (to China and Australia) to record its first three-game losing streak in the 35-year history of the national team. After the third loss, the U.S. players gathered in the showers in their uniforms for what pitcher Lisa Fernandez called a “voodoo cleansing” and “scrubbed off the evil spirit that was on us.”

With the evil spirit vanquished, the U.S. righted the ship, advancing to the medal round and then got revenge against the three teams it had lost to in the prelims. The Americans beat Japan, 2–1, in the gold medal game to repeat as Olympic champions.